I have been club racing my 40.5 for the past 5 years with some success. I have added the following, kevlar main and head sails, adj fairleads, 16-1 backstay adj, mech vang, spectra halyards/sheets, kvh, added more purchase to traveler, added 6-1 harken mainsheet system then took the free end to the starboard winch to double end it, folding prop. I have raked the main back substaintially. But with all of this I find it hard to sail the boat to the 120 it carries in our fleet (phrf). I owned a 37.5 prior and had great sucess, I expected to lose some performance but the degree to which we lost ability to point has suprised me. Any suggestions out there? ps. Any info on the boat or experiences would be appreciated, thanks Bob SVFOURTY LOVE
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too much rake
I owned a 40.5 for seven years. I suggest the you rake the mast forward to remove the weather helm and allow the boat to stand up. My 40.5 healed too much going to weather causing too much slippage and virtually no lift from the keel. Forward rake less weather helm. Be carefull of too much Main halyard tension in medium air and not enough backstay tension to flatten the sail. Be sure the rig is tuned so that you are not only bending the top of the rig, Lowers and intermediates too tight. The mast must bend uniformly to flatten the sail properly. It took me two years to understand my 40.5. When I finally understood the rig and got her on her feet, she sailed very well to her rating and won many races. Reef early, travel down and only sail the last third of the main in medium to heavy air going to weather. Let it al out beem too broad reaching, she will surf well. Hope some of this helps. She's a great boat.
I owned a 40.5 for seven years. I suggest the you rake the mast forward to remove the weather helm and allow the boat to stand up. My 40.5 healed too much going to weather causing too much slippage and virtually no lift from the keel. Forward rake less weather helm. Be carefull of too much Main halyard tension in medium air and not enough backstay tension to flatten the sail. Be sure the rig is tuned so that you are not only bending the top of the rig, Lowers and intermediates too tight. The mast must bend uniformly to flatten the sail properly. It took me two years to understand my 40.5. When I finally understood the rig and got her on her feet, she sailed very well to her rating and won many races. Reef early, travel down and only sail the last third of the main in medium to heavy air going to weather. Let it al out beem too broad reaching, she will surf well. Hope some of this helps. She's a great boat.
How's your Bottom?
I know that is a personal question, but...
I have had similar problems sailing my 33.5 to its PHRF of 146. Last year we removed the old rough paint and applied new performance epoxy, improved the fairness of the keel and rudder and it helped. Do you race spinnaker or non-spinnaker? If non-spin, are you using a whisker pole for downwind speed? Over the years we have upgraded the sails (North 3DL)and hardware much as you described and that helped, too; but, another thing we did last off season (in addition to the bottom) was go to J-World for an advanced racing course. They really focus on the importance of boat (and sail) handling skills. They also help to improve strategic thinking for starts, upwind and downwind legs. Many of our friends pointed to our new sails and slick bottom to explain our imporvement this season; I'm not so sure it wasn't the what they taught (and made us practice and practice) at J-World. One more thing...How many people in your crew? In our last race we added another crew member (we're up to five). Having another knowledgable crew member on board made our boat go faster. (The weight on the rail didn't hurt either.) My two cents probably isn't worth that. Never give up, a boat length at the windward mark, a boat length at the leaward mark...pretty soon, they'll be dropping your number so others can compete. These Hunters are FAST! Good Luck, RB
I know that is a personal question, but...
I have had similar problems sailing my 33.5 to its PHRF of 146. Last year we removed the old rough paint and applied new performance epoxy, improved the fairness of the keel and rudder and it helped. Do you race spinnaker or non-spinnaker? If non-spin, are you using a whisker pole for downwind speed? Over the years we have upgraded the sails (North 3DL)and hardware much as you described and that helped, too; but, another thing we did last off season (in addition to the bottom) was go to J-World for an advanced racing course. They really focus on the importance of boat (and sail) handling skills. They also help to improve strategic thinking for starts, upwind and downwind legs. Many of our friends pointed to our new sails and slick bottom to explain our imporvement this season; I'm not so sure it wasn't the what they taught (and made us practice and practice) at J-World. One more thing...How many people in your crew? In our last race we added another crew member (we're up to five). Having another knowledgable crew member on board made our boat go faster. (The weight on the rail didn't hurt either.) My two cents probably isn't worth that. Never give up, a boat length at the windward mark, a boat length at the leaward mark...pretty soon, they'll be dropping your number so others can compete. These Hunters are FAST! Good Luck, RBTry PHRF 133
Come to Galveston Bay and race your Hunter 40.5 with a PHRF of 133. That should improve your race results (but not your sailing performance). Just for comparison, the Galveston Bay handicapper has my Hunter 37.5 rated at PHRF 126. Bob, what was the PHRF on your 37.5?
Come to Galveston Bay and race your Hunter 40.5 with a PHRF of 133. That should improve your race results (but not your sailing performance). Just for comparison, the Galveston Bay handicapper has my Hunter 37.5 rated at PHRF 126. Bob, what was the PHRF on your 37.5?
Keel is an Important Factor
Our 1988 Legend 35 has a bulb-wing keel with a draft of 4'-6" while the 40.5 bulb-wing keel has a draft of 4'-10", an increase of only 4-inches. The 40.5 is a larger boat than the 35 so the deepest point of the hull is probably just about 4-inches lower than on the 35. What this means is that the vertical height of the keel on the 40.5 is nearly the same as on the 35 and therefore less efficient if all other factors are in proportion. We have sailed a few races in Pudget Sound with a PHRF of 123 with Max-prop, spinnaker, backstay adjuster, and Pettit Trinidad bottom paint. The 150 is a triradial Norlam and a couple years ago we bought new North Dacron cruising sails. All other items are basically OEM. More sheet stoppers and larger primaries have been added but nothing that is "go-fast" or that will increase speed. The main halyard is 9/16 vice the OEM 1/2 inch line but pretty much the low-tech stuff. We participated in one very light air PHRF race in '91 and placed 4th in our class behind a couple top 25 boats, a C&C 34 (was rated #1 in Puget Sound) and a Hobbie 33 (good light air boat) - not bad. We probably would have placed 3rd except that the race committee didn't call our finish until we were well over the line because we didn't have sail numbers and they thought we were crashing their party. Three seconds would have put us in third. A comment by one of the race committee members with regard to our rating was "they didn't do you no favors". Our placing had more to do with tactics than sailing ability. Because of what I thought was a poor number we gave up racing. In '99 we participated in the club bear can series and placed 4th out of about a dozen boats. In on of the races, a drifter, the transmission wasn't placed into reverse to feather the prop until the last leg and it made a real difference. With the equivalent of a fixed prop the boat doesn't point very well and has too much side slip for competitive racing. It was very apparent when sailing close with competitors which we know how they track that a small amount of drag has a big influence on tracking ability. The racing results with other boats with Petit Trinidad type paint revealed we finished really close, often only seconds out of the next place and usually not more than 2 or 3 minutes out of first. I usually sailed with only one crew (no flying sails), sometimes with none and once with three - saves weight and with a dodger there isn't room to move anyhow. What was nice is that everybody commented how well the boat performed. What I deduce from this is that the 40.5 keel will have a similar effect, that is, not enough cross section area for the size of boat. The 35 is 12,600 lbs while the 40.5 is somewhere around 20,000 lbs. It's my gut feel that if the 40.5 keel was deeper the boat would not side-slip as much and would track better. The comments by Ron Barrows with regard to smooth bottom paint and faired bottom are right on. Boats with slick and faired bottoms go much faster. A J-36 which is tricked out literally will walk away from us. The really competitive boat will have all the gear you have plus a slick and faired bottom, and have it dived on for cleaning before each race. Take everything off the boat such as mattresses, food, dishes, use minimum ground tackle (six feet 1/4-inch chain and 100 feet of 1/2-inch rode if fine!), Honda battery for engine starting, no refrigeration, etc., etc. and you'll definitely improve your standings. One guy that I sailed against has a porta potti (no fixed head or holding tank) and the boat rule is the person who uses it has to empty it. These are the kind of people who consistently finish near the top. One doesn't expect a boat with four golfcarts, a group 28 start battery, Avon 3.15 roll-up dingy, 8hp outboard, spare parts for everything, tools, extra storm ground tackle, etc., to do that well.
Our 1988 Legend 35 has a bulb-wing keel with a draft of 4'-6" while the 40.5 bulb-wing keel has a draft of 4'-10", an increase of only 4-inches. The 40.5 is a larger boat than the 35 so the deepest point of the hull is probably just about 4-inches lower than on the 35. What this means is that the vertical height of the keel on the 40.5 is nearly the same as on the 35 and therefore less efficient if all other factors are in proportion. We have sailed a few races in Pudget Sound with a PHRF of 123 with Max-prop, spinnaker, backstay adjuster, and Pettit Trinidad bottom paint. The 150 is a triradial Norlam and a couple years ago we bought new North Dacron cruising sails. All other items are basically OEM. More sheet stoppers and larger primaries have been added but nothing that is "go-fast" or that will increase speed. The main halyard is 9/16 vice the OEM 1/2 inch line but pretty much the low-tech stuff. We participated in one very light air PHRF race in '91 and placed 4th in our class behind a couple top 25 boats, a C&C 34 (was rated #1 in Puget Sound) and a Hobbie 33 (good light air boat) - not bad. We probably would have placed 3rd except that the race committee didn't call our finish until we were well over the line because we didn't have sail numbers and they thought we were crashing their party. Three seconds would have put us in third. A comment by one of the race committee members with regard to our rating was "they didn't do you no favors". Our placing had more to do with tactics than sailing ability. Because of what I thought was a poor number we gave up racing. In '99 we participated in the club bear can series and placed 4th out of about a dozen boats. In on of the races, a drifter, the transmission wasn't placed into reverse to feather the prop until the last leg and it made a real difference. With the equivalent of a fixed prop the boat doesn't point very well and has too much side slip for competitive racing. It was very apparent when sailing close with competitors which we know how they track that a small amount of drag has a big influence on tracking ability. The racing results with other boats with Petit Trinidad type paint revealed we finished really close, often only seconds out of the next place and usually not more than 2 or 3 minutes out of first. I usually sailed with only one crew (no flying sails), sometimes with none and once with three - saves weight and with a dodger there isn't room to move anyhow. What was nice is that everybody commented how well the boat performed. What I deduce from this is that the 40.5 keel will have a similar effect, that is, not enough cross section area for the size of boat. The 35 is 12,600 lbs while the 40.5 is somewhere around 20,000 lbs. It's my gut feel that if the 40.5 keel was deeper the boat would not side-slip as much and would track better. The comments by Ron Barrows with regard to smooth bottom paint and faired bottom are right on. Boats with slick and faired bottoms go much faster. A J-36 which is tricked out literally will walk away from us. The really competitive boat will have all the gear you have plus a slick and faired bottom, and have it dived on for cleaning before each race. Take everything off the boat such as mattresses, food, dishes, use minimum ground tackle (six feet 1/4-inch chain and 100 feet of 1/2-inch rode if fine!), Honda battery for engine starting, no refrigeration, etc., etc. and you'll definitely improve your standings. One guy that I sailed against has a porta potti (no fixed head or holding tank) and the boat rule is the person who uses it has to empty it. These are the kind of people who consistently finish near the top. One doesn't expect a boat with four golfcarts, a group 28 start battery, Avon 3.15 roll-up dingy, 8hp outboard, spare parts for everything, tools, extra storm ground tackle, etc., to do that well.
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