Is there anyone who has successfully eliminated the weather helm in a Catalina 28 tall rig when the 150 genoa is all the out?
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A couple of Weather helm hints
At what wind speeds do you begin to get pronounced weather helm? I owned a tall rig C28 for several years on San Francisco Bay and we were constantly fighting weather helm and heeling. Drop your traveller all the way. You are getting most of your drive from the genny and from the back of the main so let the main's leading edge develop a luff curl. When the winds were in the mid teens we would tighten all the main controls - vang, outhaul, halyard, cunningham. Our purpose was to flatten the sail as much as possible. Shortly there after we'd have the first reef in. It may look like you are sailing with training wheels, but you will actually go a lot faster. The other thing you might check out is your mast rake with a plumb bob. If your rake is in excess of 5" at the gooseneck (check your manual) then you have too much rake which is causing your problem.
At what wind speeds do you begin to get pronounced weather helm? I owned a tall rig C28 for several years on San Francisco Bay and we were constantly fighting weather helm and heeling. Drop your traveller all the way. You are getting most of your drive from the genny and from the back of the main so let the main's leading edge develop a luff curl. When the winds were in the mid teens we would tighten all the main controls - vang, outhaul, halyard, cunningham. Our purpose was to flatten the sail as much as possible. Shortly there after we'd have the first reef in. It may look like you are sailing with training wheels, but you will actually go a lot faster. The other thing you might check out is your mast rake with a plumb bob. If your rake is in excess of 5" at the gooseneck (check your manual) then you have too much rake which is causing your problem.
Weather helm
Stu, had same problem after installing furling on my 27 std. rig. Finally got rid of most of it by taking up on forward stay to change mast rake forward. Set main traveler off center to dump more air and finally reefed the jib from 150 down . You may need to do one or all three of the above but this should help. Ray
Stu, had same problem after installing furling on my 27 std. rig. Finally got rid of most of it by taking up on forward stay to change mast rake forward. Set main traveler off center to dump more air and finally reefed the jib from 150 down . You may need to do one or all three of the above but this should help. Ray
Weather helm is caused for the most part by your main sail.Main traveler needs to be set more to the leeward if you are still fighting it reef.If it is still a little wild reef again.The shy grin from others disregard you will find you will mark better time reefed then fighting excessive weather helm.The driving sail is your jib and you will be able to play more of it out and have good control.
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