Mast rake

[Kevin]

Hi there, I'm writing concerning my mast angle, I have an Oday 192 and Iam unable to point her as high into the wind as I'd like to. If I re-adjust my mast a little more forward would it help?

 

[Justin - O'day Owner's Web]

Pointing

Kevin,Raking the mast forward reduces weather helm and may even induce lee helm, which in turn can make your boat unpredictable as it heels. Before I messed with forward rake I would want to make sure the headstay tension is sufficient to create an efficient foil.When you are pointing, how much does the headstay sag? Ideally, for upwind work, you want no sag at all. This is not practical, so you come as close as you can.Justin - O'day Owner's Web

 

[Kevin]

Justin, Thanks for the reply, I now can get a visual concept of what's happening forward from your explanation. I have roller furling and there is quite a bit of sag even though the tension is drawn up taught with a winch. It seems there is a trade off with the convienence of roller furling as opposed to hanking on to the headstay and pointing higher. Kevin.

 

[Don Evans]

Look for Other Reasons Too!

Keven, before you wrote again, I was going to ask if you had an RF. How are the conditions of your sails? If there bombed out thats going to affect pointing. Do you have the main vanged? Is there a traveller on that boom? Can you adjust sheeting angles on that Jib? A jib recut for an RF is not as efficient to weather, generally, as an original hanked foresail. I would recommend any good general book on sailing characteristics, and sail boat set-up, such as Colgate's Basic Sailing.Don

 

[Kevin]

Don, thankyou for the reply and advice. The vang is slack to weather, also a good point, the jib sheets have no adjustment, the sails are still good and not stretched with alot of crinkle. I will look into a traveler for the jib, to change sheet angle may help considerably. Kevin.

 

[L J Efird]

O'Day 192 foresails

The previous owner (10 years) of my 192 lost his mast in a storm and replaced the furling jib with a 130 genoa and 110 jib without furling. The original 192 had two fixed blocks for the furling jib (no tracks) and he added two fixed blocks for the genoa. After sailing the boat for three months, adding genoa tracks and probably separate jib tracks seems appropriate for this boat. I have seen diagrams and pictures of 192s with jib tracks instead of fixed blocks, but none with genoa rigs. The O'Day 222s are considered the "big sister" and offer some alternative diagrams and pictures of how to rig foresails. The surprising thing about the 192s is that some have winches for adjusting the foresail sheets (at least in one picture in a brochure) but my boat did not. Originally it had a mast winch (again lost in the demasting and not replaced). When adding tracks, I need at least to add winches for the genoa and hopefully can configure them to use with the jib as well. Pointing into the wind with the 192 seems to be a performance issue and I am not sure it will head as high as other boats I have sailed, even if further adjustments are made. But since I am relatively new to this boat, I am still learning its characteristics. It is good to know that other 192 owners are out there and also learning about this boat.