Hi Glenn,
Great to be able to access your knowlwdge.
I race my 2004 H33 in club events and more often than not beat other production yachts Bavaria, Benetau etc in the 30- 35 foot range except when there is a lot of upwind work particularly with heavy swell or current on the nose. The small headsail just does not develop enough power to either point as high as the competition and/or overcome wave and current conditions. We have to rely on a good reach where we can always tear past them but sometimes the lead is too big! Unfortunately with the H33 rig you cannot fit say a 130 -150 % headsail because it would foul the mast shrouds when trimmed hard for upwind work. As the standard headsail is cut very high, my question is, could the upwind performance be improved by "filling the gap" and fitting a lower cut headsail (more of a decksweeper) and if so, could you sheet it in efficiently, on the same track. I concur with your comment in another post about the effectiveness of reefing the main on this rig (at 20 knots true wind it flies with one reef) Thus my thoughts were if you could get more power with a larger area of headsail then you could counter this by reefing a little earlier and not lose performace.
Any other comments on racing with this rig would be appreciated. NB our new laminated main with even more roach has improved things but not enough!
Second question. The rudder has alway been fairly slack in its bearings but after 4 years it is getting worse and occasionally you can feel a bit of shudder at the wheel. What are the bearing tolerances?
Great to be able to access your knowlwdge.
I race my 2004 H33 in club events and more often than not beat other production yachts Bavaria, Benetau etc in the 30- 35 foot range except when there is a lot of upwind work particularly with heavy swell or current on the nose. The small headsail just does not develop enough power to either point as high as the competition and/or overcome wave and current conditions. We have to rely on a good reach where we can always tear past them but sometimes the lead is too big! Unfortunately with the H33 rig you cannot fit say a 130 -150 % headsail because it would foul the mast shrouds when trimmed hard for upwind work. As the standard headsail is cut very high, my question is, could the upwind performance be improved by "filling the gap" and fitting a lower cut headsail (more of a decksweeper) and if so, could you sheet it in efficiently, on the same track. I concur with your comment in another post about the effectiveness of reefing the main on this rig (at 20 knots true wind it flies with one reef) Thus my thoughts were if you could get more power with a larger area of headsail then you could counter this by reefing a little earlier and not lose performace.
Any other comments on racing with this rig would be appreciated. NB our new laminated main with even more roach has improved things but not enough!
Second question. The rudder has alway been fairly slack in its bearings but after 4 years it is getting worse and occasionally you can feel a bit of shudder at the wheel. What are the bearing tolerances?
