Ok I should know but I don't so asking for advice

[jamie N]

I've just seen a picture of a Husky, and the 1st thing that struck were the keels, very long and shallow on the hull, which is going to take an awful lot of turning effort to get her to tack, as her natural disposition is to only go straight ahead.
The rudder seems to be tiny as well, very much more in the line of a MoBo rather than a sailing yacht.

 

[Sea Hustler]

I hope I have replied to everyone that posted their very useful comments and suggestions. If Im honest, I expected to get absolutely slaughtered with asking what must be such a naive question but everyone has been most helpful.

While many have suggested different possible solutions, I get the overall impression that a good deal of what I am struggling with is as much about the boat as it is about me. Plainly she is as useless at sailing as I am but as she has been doing it since 1968 and I, only for a few weeks (including two days on Lake Bala 54 years ago) I blame her for everything. I know I have a lot to learn but with the willing support of Mrs 1st Mate ( I had to put that bit in so that she felt included and would allow me to continue my adventure) Im sure all will be plain sailing from now on.

Thanks everyone for all your help, no doubt I will be back very soon with another plea for help.

 

[Sea Hustler]

I've just seen a picture of a Husky, and the 1st thing that struck were the keels, very long and shallow on the hull, which is going to take an awful lot of turning effort to get her to tack, as her natural disposition is to only go straight ahead.
The rudder seems to be tiny as well, very much more in the line of a MoBo rather than a sailing yacht.
View attachment 178199

She only draws 2'6" so those keels are pretty useless other than to stop her falling over when I let her dry out. In truth, she turns really well, the rudder isn't that small (i've seen this boat and her rudder is quite a bit smaller than mine) and under power she is actually really responsive, turning on a dime as they say. My problems start when I add the blowy stuff in with the very high freeboard. As you can see she makes as much leeway as she does headway and with a strong crosswind, there is little pointy stuff as opposed to sideways stuff going on. Which is fine in open water,not so good when you gently back out of a finger berth to immediately be blown sideways by a stiff breeze until you end up coming alongside another pontoon right beside a group of yard workers who smile as you helplessly drift alongside before helpfully turning you until your bows point out towards the marina entrance and you can put her in gear and make out it was all part of the passage plan all along.
Thanks

 

[Supertramp]

She only draws 2'6" so those keels are pretty useless other than to stop her falling over when I let her dry out. In truth, she turns really well, the rudder isn't that small (i've seen this boat and her rudder is quite a bit smaller than mine) and under power she is actually really responsive, turning on a dime as they say. My problems start when I add the blowy stuff in with the very high freeboard. As you can see she makes as much leeway as she does headway and with a strong crosswind, there is little pointy stuff as opposed to sideways stuff going on. Which is fine in open water,not so good when you gently back out of a finger berth to immediately be blown sideways by a stiff breeze until you end up coming alongside another pontoon right beside a group of yard workers who smile as you helplessly drift alongside before helpfully turning you until your bows point out towards the marina entrance and you can put her in gear and make out it was all part of the passage plan all along.
Thanks

I remember Husky 24's when they first appeared - they appear capable of lasting well over half a century! My advice is to concentrate on close reaching and all points off the wind. Close hauled or tacking will go better with the engine on or in support. Shallow draft twin keel yachts really don't compare well to others when tacking. I imagine a very comfortable boat sailing on a reach or run though.

Practice will help in marinas - plenty of books and posts on that for ideas. Midships cleat is your freind.

 

[Tranona]

This sailboatdata.com/sailboat/husky-24-ms/ will help you understand the potential performance. The key figures are SA/Displ at just under 12 (decimal point in wrong place!) and Displ/LWL. The former is typical of 50/50 and your sail area is likely to be lower if you have in mast. Unlikely the boat will ever reach its 6 knots under sail without adding extra sail area.

Displacement is just under 3 tons so is grossly overpowered hence the scary performance. particularly in reverse. The design is a Fairy Fisherman with 2' chopped off the stern to create a transom. Originally a WW2 lifeboat design by Uffa Fox reworked after the war by Burnard for Fairey Marine.

A boat for pottering under motor with the sails for nice days with a F3/4 on the beam. Highly regarded for that purpose. Enjoy it and experiment to see how well you can get it to sail, but aware that it really is not a sailing boat.

 

[ProDave]

Getting out of a marina berth can be tricky in any boat until you have learned it's quirks. Ours has an offset OB in a well, so won't steer at all until it has some way on, and to add to the "interest" the prop pushes the stern to port even before you get moving. That was tricky last year when we really would have liked to turn to starboard coming out of our berth. A happy accident and this year we have moved to another berth where we want to turn to port as we reverse out of the berth and life is so much easier.

Best thing for learning that was go out on a dead calm morning just outside the harbour and practice manoeuvring forwards and backwards under engine and learn what the boat does naturally and learn how to turn that into what you would like it to do.

The best boat I had for going astern was a little Leisure 17 with transom hung OB on the centreline and skeg hung rudder. It just went where you pointed the rudder astern and if you wanted to turn really tight, turn the OB as well.

 

[Refueler]

Your H24 acts same as my SR25 in astern engine ... I have to be careful not to give too much throttle - that tiller can hurt when it slams over and pins you to the cockpit side !!

Astern for my SR25 is very short blips of astern .. just to get her moving ... as she gathers way - very low throttle in longer blips till I get some sort of rudder control - but its never fully 100% control ..
Ahead - she's a babe - can point her where you want.

25ft .. 4 ton ... 3ft Bilge keels .... Perkins 4-107 at 43HP ..... 9kts full throttle ...

Don't listen to the nay-sayers about Motor Sailers .... we may not win any races - but we get to the Pub on time !!

 

[johnalison]

Your H24 acts same as my SR25 in astern engine ... I have to be careful not to give too much throttle - that tiller can hurt when it slams over and pins you to the cockpit side !!

Astern for my SR25 is very short blips of astern .. just to get her moving ... as she gathers way - very low throttle in longer blips till I get some sort of rudder control - but its never fully 100% control ..
Ahead - she's a babe - can point her where you want.

25ft .. 4 ton ... 3ft Bilge keels .... Perkins 4-107 at 43HP ..... 9kts full throttle ...

Don't listen to the nay-sayers about Motor Sailers .... we may not win any races - but we get to the Pub on time !!

I was given good advice when I bought a Sadler 29 - never to engage astern until you were standing astride the tiller. My 34 with saildrive is very good astern, but no boat will steer until it has way on in this direction, with the exception of those like one I saw with a steerable saildrive. Prop walk is a fact of life and you just have to learn to live with it. It becomes non-existent when the engine is put into neutral, making a hard thrust to get moving and then into neutral a common manoeuvre.

 

[westernman]

Getting out of a marina berth can be tricky in any boat until you have learned it's quirks. Ours has an offset OB in a well, so won't steer at all until it has some way on, and to add to the "interest" the prop pushes the stern to port even before you get moving. That was tricky last year when we really would have liked to turn to starboard coming out of our berth. A happy accident and this year we have moved to another berth where we want to turn to port as we reverse out of the berth and life is so much easier.

Best thing for learning that was go out on a dead calm morning just outside the harbour and practice manoeuvring forwards and backwards under engine and learn what the boat does naturally and learn how to turn that into what you would like it to do.

The best boat I had for going astern was a little Leisure 17 with transom hung OB on the centreline and skeg hung rudder. It just went where you pointed the rudder astern and if you wanted to turn really tight, turn the OB as well.

It can be tricky even after you have learnt its quirks.
But getting out of a berth is nowhere near as scary or challenging as going into one.

Particularly one you don't know at night.

 

[Sea Hustler]

This sailboatdata.com/sailboat/husky-24-ms/ will help you understand the potential performance. The key figures are SA/Displ at just under 12 (decimal point in wrong place!) and Displ/LWL. The former is typical of 50/50 and your sail area is likely to be lower if you have in mast. Unlikely the boat will ever reach its 6 knots under sail without adding extra sail area.

Displacement is just under 3 tons so is grossly overpowered hence the scary performance. particularly in reverse. The design is a Fairy Fisherman with 2' chopped off the stern to create a transom. Originally a WW2 lifeboat design by Uffa Fox reworked after the war by Burnard for Fairey Marine.

A boat for pottering under motor with the sails for nice days with a F3/4 on the beam. Highly regarded for that purpose. Enjoy it and experiment to see how well you can get it to sail, but aware that it really is not a sailing boat.

Thanks, I had all that data although some of it was gobbledegook to me so appreciate you making sense of the bits I didn't understand.

 

[Sea Hustler]

I remember Husky 24's when they first appeared - they appear capable of lasting well over half a century! My advice is to concentrate on close reaching and all points off the wind. Close hauled or tacking will go better with the engine on or in support. Shallow draft twin keel yachts really don't compare well to others when tacking. I imagine a very comfortable boat sailing on a reach or run though.

Practice will help in marinas - plenty of books and posts on that for ideas. Midships cleat is your freind.

Luckily the owners before my immediate predecessor really looked after her and spent some money on her. She did have an autopilot but the last owners must have sold that, a depth gauge has been fitted but it's a bit haywire at present giving off totally random numbers that if true would mean I am actually sailing over the Himalayas rather than the Solent. I have yet to check the transponder to see if it has any fluid in it still as she was on the hard for two years and may have dried out. Her hull was given a full epoxy treatment all except the rudder which has signs of mild osmosis which I can fix. the engine was rebuilt in 2000, the hardwood rubbing strake was completely replaced in 2014 and is in perfect condition, standing rigging is SS new in 2015 (I know appearances can be deceptive) and both sails are brand new curtesy of a careless owner who lost the old ones and had to replace them on their insurance, so all in all she is in pretty fair nick for an old lady. She does have a couple of issues, Rev counter does not work but I can feel when she is happy or not, water temp runs at about 90 degrees and oil pressure sit at a steady 38 psi so Im quite happy with the donkey. All in all, she was a good buy and despite her shortcomings, she's a keeper and I will just have to learn how to handle her. It seems most people that have offered advice all say I should utilise the donkey more particulallry in situations when sailing close to the wind or tacking so I will give that a try and see how it goes.
Thanks.

 

[Sea Hustler]

It can be tricky even after you have learnt its quirks.
But getting out of a berth is nowhere near as scary or challenging as going into one.

Particularly one you don't know at night.

Strangely I find going in quite easy, because I go in forwards, its the reversing out I don't like co then I have to contend with her mad behaviour in reverse. Its actually like dealing with a small child who just stands there saying "shan't, you can't make me".
I don't sail at night, too many fishing nets and unmarked pots for my liking. besides although have a Mrs 1st mate, in reality, Im really single handed and night passages would be too many hours at the helm to be safe.

 

[Sea Hustler]

I was given good advice when I bought a Sadler 29 - never to engage astern until you were standing astride the tiller. My 34 with saildrive is very good astern, but no boat will steer until it has way on in this direction, with the exception of those like one I saw with a steerable saildrive. Prop walk is a fact of life and you just have to learn to live with it. It becomes non-existent when the engine is put into neutral, making a hard thrust to get moving and then into neutral a common manoeuvre.

I don't mind the prop walk if only she would do it consistently the same. its a pure lottery which way she will go and it's the unpredictability that makes it scary

 

[Sea Hustler]

Getting out of a marina berth can be tricky in any boat until you have learned it's quirks. Ours has an offset OB in a well, so won't steer at all until it has some way on, and to add to the "interest" the prop pushes the stern to port even before you get moving. That was tricky last year when we really would have liked to turn to starboard coming out of our berth. A happy accident and this year we have moved to another berth where we want to turn to port as we reverse out of the berth and life is so much easier.

Best thing for learning that was go out on a dead calm morning just outside the harbour and practice manoeuvring forwards and backwards under engine and learn what the boat does naturally and learn how to turn that into what you would like it to do.

The best boat I had for going astern was a little Leisure 17 with transom hung OB on the centreline and skeg hung rudder. It just went where you pointed the rudder astern and if you wanted to turn really tight, turn the OB as well.

Yeah,Im waiting for that really calm morning to do as you suggest in a nice wide space with nothing costing close to a million or two anywhere near me.

 

[William_H]

Sorry not much patience to read all the replies. However as said backing the jib is the trick. I use this when departing swing mooring. ie wait till the boat swings into the wind. Then pull in the jib tight away from the direction you want to go. The wind hitting the inclined plane of the sail provides a sideways force top turn the bow. (boat stationary in the water). When tacking I always encourage the crew to hold the jib tight until bow has passed head to wind. (PS "broadside would mean off to the side not the nose). So this is what every one is talking about "backing the jib)
However rudder angle is important. Typically you would never turn the rudder more than 30 degrees. Hard over would be too far. (only useful if you have full water speed) if the boat stops in the water or slows down a lot then centre the rudder. Then observe if the boat starts to go backwards in the water you need opposite rudder. (tricks essential in a small catamaran with no jib to back.)
Other factors that will make tacking difficult is towing a dinghy. Perhaps leave it tied to the mooring as I do. But most important to me is the condition of the bottom regarding fouling. She won't go well and not tacking if bottom is an octopuses garden.
Anyway important thing is to enjoy the learning. re spouse and seasickness. The simple answer is to get her to helm the boat. It will be vital to get her on side with sailing. ol'will

 

[Refueler]

Think overall ... we have :

Engine on to assist.

Reversing out of spots ? sounds like set up trials of rope use - find the best way to use a rope to restrain or pivot the boat ... the setting up of a rope to help control / turn the boat can make a lot of difference. My 25ft'r sits in my private channel with just under 30ft width ... I have to turn her at times and then its rope work.

Previously when she was in UK - I had to use a line to control her as she moved astern ... sometimes one from stern 1/4 and another from bow ..
If weather was relatively calm - then walking the boat back by hand ...

 

[oldmanofthehills]

Its a heavy yacht not a dinghy and with too small and badly designed rudder.

So be patient and dont move jib sheets antil she goes through the wind(back the jib)

See if you can fit bigger rudder which directs the boat before the rudder has turned so much that the rudder stalls

She probably would tack better in strong winds but in light airs and if its not going right - turn on engine

 

[ProDave]

and both sails are brand new curtesy of a careless owner who lost the old ones and had to replace them on their insurance,

That sounds like a "creative" way to finance new sails. I would love to have seen the insurance claim.

 

[steve yates]

I had a tubby wee boat with old saggy sails that would often refuse to tack. Took 3 attempts sometimes.

If wind is on your starboard quarter, turn gradually onto a close reach, wait till you have some speed up, then ease her i to a turn heading for a close reach on other tack. Do not touch the genoa sheet as she goes through the wind, let the genny get caught and backed, this helps the bow get pushed through the wind. Only once you have made the turn through the wind do you want to release the genny sheet and haul in on the other one.

A new set of sails completely transformed my wee boats tacking performance, now she pirouettes round. Well, almost, but the improvement is enormous.

 

[steve yates]

Just realised there were three pages, and others have already said same thing, and that she already has new sails.
Anyway, enjoy her, she’ll be breat for meandering around and exploring from pub to pub