35mm
Well-Known Member
Interesting thread as I got an ebay bargain in August in the form of a 20' Norman Pearn. She too has a forward raked mast and in my case that causes seriously bad lee helm as would be expected if the CE is too far forward. I haven't got round to adjusting the mast rake yet, but when I do I think it will fix a few issues, not least of all the atrocious lee helm.
I'm interested to see that yours is raked forward and you are suffering from weather helm and not the anticipated lee helm! IMHO a mast should not be raked forward and not just for aesthetic reasons. It simply isn't supposed to be like that, so the important question in both our cases is why has a previous owner raked the mast forward in the first place? What problem were they trying to fix??!! In my case I haven't quite worked that one out yet, but I suspect it ended up that way when they fitted the furling genoa. In your case I would imagine they did it to try and fix the weather helm issue. However, they most probably introduced the weather helm issue when they did something else, such as replaced sails. I would say that first of all you need to adjust the mast rake back to what it should be, and then look into what is causing the weather helm, and I suspect a sail maker will be able to answer that one.
I'm interested to see that yours is raked forward and you are suffering from weather helm and not the anticipated lee helm! IMHO a mast should not be raked forward and not just for aesthetic reasons. It simply isn't supposed to be like that, so the important question in both our cases is why has a previous owner raked the mast forward in the first place? What problem were they trying to fix??!! In my case I haven't quite worked that one out yet, but I suspect it ended up that way when they fitted the furling genoa. In your case I would imagine they did it to try and fix the weather helm issue. However, they most probably introduced the weather helm issue when they did something else, such as replaced sails. I would say that first of all you need to adjust the mast rake back to what it should be, and then look into what is causing the weather helm, and I suspect a sail maker will be able to answer that one.