Weather helm on one tack

webcraft

webcraft

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Our Morgan Giles 30 has weird weather helm on port tack, even on a beam reach in 12 knots of wind. It takes her a while to respond even with tiller under chin, then she will overcorrect.

On starboard she sails fine, some weather helm but no more than predicted and quite manageable.

Quite worrying as I don't think the autohelm or windvane will cope on this tack.

- W
 
Agree, check rudder for damage/play, but also check mast for straightness and rigging equally tensioned both sides.
 
Also agree with other posters. First question, is this a new problem? It indicates asymmetry somewhere. Could be hull or foils or could be mast, rigging or even sails set-up. I imagine that it requires quite a thorough check for symmetry of pretty much everything until the cause reveals itself. Good luck.
 
The rudder is slightly assymetric after a repair, but it is massive and the difference is slight. The guy who did the repair is very good and says such a slight difference can't, in all his experience, be responsible.

I did wonder though.

- W
 
My previous boat was a Jaguar 27 which one day when ashore I noticed the keel was not vertical - about 5 degrees out and she definitely sailed better on stbd tack than port - I sold it soon afterwards.
 
It happened to me a few years ago. The boat is generally well balanced but late one season it pulled to port, even at a couple of knots. I was surprised to find that it was solely due to more weed on one side of the rudder, and it has not recurred. I would be a bit suspicious about the repair though. It clearly takes only a very small asymmetry to have an effect.
 
webcraft said:
Our Morgan Giles 30 has weird weather helm on port tack, even on a beam reach in 12 knots of wind. It takes her a while to respond even with tiller under chin, then she will overcorrect.

On starboard she sails fine, some weather helm but no more than predicted and quite manageable.

Quite worrying as I don't think the autohelm or windvane will cope on this tack.

- W
Click to expand...
Is your mast vertical or correctly set in both directions - fore and aft as well as port and starboard?

Had similar problem, set the mast right and it went away
 
Was the repair on the starboard side of the rudder? It could be acting like a 'trim tab' itself deflecting the rudder to port so creating a magnified effect.
 
webcraft said:
Our Morgan Giles 30 has weird weather helm on port tack, even on a beam reach in 12 knots of wind. It takes her a while to respond even with tiller under chin, then she will overcorrect.

On starboard she sails fine, some weather helm but no more than predicted and quite manageable.

Quite worrying as I don't think the autohelm or windvane will cope on this tack.

- W
Click to expand...
Did you find a fault?

I see that you are heading S again, so assume that you are happy.

Bon Voyage

Ash
 
Kylora said:
Did you find a fault?

I see that you are heading S again, so assume that you are happy.

Bon Voyage

Ash
Click to expand...

Webby is currently circumnavigating the UK mainland anticlockwise after missing Ireland. (-;
 
webcraft said:
The rudder is slightly assymetric after a repair, but it is massive and the difference is slight. The guy who did the repair is very good and says such a slight difference can't, in all his experience, be responsible.

I did wonder though.

- W
Click to expand...
There was an article somewhere about a steel plate rudder being faired to give a better grip on the water, it worked so perhaps some assymetric can cause an issue?
 
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