Pegasus 800 weather helm

[TomW]

Was out yesterday and by no means windy. When sailing close hauled my Pegasus 26 footer comes round in to the wind too easily every time theres a puff/gust. I have the genoa tell tails horizontal and main in sufficiently not to back wind. No amount of bearing off will stop her coming up in to the wind. What am I doing wrong?

 

[sailorman]

Was out yesterday and by no means windy. When sailing close hauled my Pegasus 26 footer comes round in to the wind too easily every time theres a puff/gust. I have the genoa tell tails horizontal and main in sufficiently not to back wind. No amount of bearing off will stop her coming up in to the wind. What am I doing wrong?

we had a 800 for 10 yrs.
assume she if the fin version
the windward tell tale should be lifting when "On the Wind" you might have been steering below the course & over sheeted. the main might be too high up the track as well

 

[Seajet]

I suspect the 'main in close' is your problem; a lot of boats require slackening off the mainsheet and keeping an eye on it 'luffing', ie stalling and blowing back at the leading edge, by the mast.

A tip if you think you may need to bear away quickly, is to have the mainsheet already slackened off, then grab the whole 4 or so lines by hand, pulling it when you need drive; it's surprisingly easy, then you can let go ( it should be jammed on the cleat to avoid hitting the shrouds ) bearing away onto a broad reach.

Bear in mind the boat pivots approximately around the keel - centre of lateral resistance - and is driven / also pivotted by the 'centre of effort' via the sails, which in the case of the mainsail is a long way aft off the pivot point / keel; this C of E is also a long way out to the side when sheeted right out, broad reaching.

 

[mjcoon]

... No amount of bearing off will stop her coming up in to the wind. What am I doing wrong?

Does that mean that the rudder is ineffectual (as in a broach)? And is the force applied excessive too? It is a Good Thing to trim sails to minimise rudder displacement and force because they will slow the boat down and increase leeway. Excessive heel can contribute too. Maybe watching telltales comes second to that...

Mike.

 

[DJE]

You need to control the angle of heel in the gusts. Try increasing genoa and main halyard tensions to get the flow forward in the sails. Maybe move the genoa sheet car back a bit to let the top twist off a little, let the mainsheet traveller down the track in the gusts, point a bit higher in the gusts, and if necessary put a reef in.

 

[jamesjermain]

Is this something that's just started to happen? Or have you always had a lot of weather helm. If the former, it's not unusual at this time year when hulls have weeded up and hull friction is very high. Much more power is needed to drive the boat through the water and all sorts of balances are upset.
If the boat has always been like this you may need to consider changes to the rigging or sails but that's a different and very big topic.