new 222 oday owner
- Thread starter redmackc
- Start date
The centerboard is not ballasted, other than weighted enough to overcome buoyancy.
One can make the case that when you are overpowered, having the board all the way down can create too much lift and contribute to heeling. Raising the board some can mitigate this, but at the expense of increased leeway. (Particularly when closehauled.)
One can make the case that when you are overpowered, having the board all the way down can create too much lift and contribute to heeling. Raising the board some can mitigate this, but at the expense of increased leeway. (Particularly when closehauled.)
Thanks Brian and another probable dumb question. It is said this 22 has 800lbs ballast. Where would that be if not in the centerboard? thanks again
Thank u and that is what I thought. So if it all the way up or all the way down it will still serve to keep boat stable when heeling although not sail to point as well then?
Red, your boat has a ballasted stub keel. This holds the boat up to the heeling forces of the sails.
The centerboard is used to provide more lateral resistance, and is a lifting foil shape, to prevent leeway (sideways drift) and to allow the boat to point better. The closer to the wind you sail, the more centerboard you need. As you fall off, you can raise the centerboard. On a close reach, my 192 still likes the CB down. As you get to beam reach and further to dead downwind, you won't need any CB at all. This whole time, the ballasted stub keel is doing the work of keeping the boat on her feet.
With your last question "So if it all the way up or all the way down it will still serve to keep boat stable..." I assume you mean the centerboard all the way up or down? In your boat, the ballasted stub keel is ALWAYS keeping the boat upright. The centerboard NEVER keeps the boat upright, or resists heeling, as it has no appreciable ballast.
There are different kinds of keels and ballast. Fin keels are always mounted, and are ballasted. Lifting keels are ballasted, and slide up in a trunk with a tackle system. Swing keels look like a centerboard, but are (mostly) made of cast iron, and are ballasted, and should be kept down to keep the boat upright. Daggerboards slide up and down, and are not ballasted at all. These can be found on Lasers and Sunfish. Centerboards are typically not ballasted, but pivot up and down, and are common on racing dinghies that don't have dagger boards.
The centerboard is used to provide more lateral resistance, and is a lifting foil shape, to prevent leeway (sideways drift) and to allow the boat to point better. The closer to the wind you sail, the more centerboard you need. As you fall off, you can raise the centerboard. On a close reach, my 192 still likes the CB down. As you get to beam reach and further to dead downwind, you won't need any CB at all. This whole time, the ballasted stub keel is doing the work of keeping the boat on her feet.
With your last question "So if it all the way up or all the way down it will still serve to keep boat stable..." I assume you mean the centerboard all the way up or down? In your boat, the ballasted stub keel is ALWAYS keeping the boat upright. The centerboard NEVER keeps the boat upright, or resists heeling, as it has no appreciable ballast.
There are different kinds of keels and ballast. Fin keels are always mounted, and are ballasted. Lifting keels are ballasted, and slide up in a trunk with a tackle system. Swing keels look like a centerboard, but are (mostly) made of cast iron, and are ballasted, and should be kept down to keep the boat upright. Daggerboards slide up and down, and are not ballasted at all. These can be found on Lasers and Sunfish. Centerboards are typically not ballasted, but pivot up and down, and are common on racing dinghies that don't have dagger boards.
Ive also noticed that by using small up or down adjustments you can increase or decrease weather or lee helm. Get your sails balanced and then play with height of the board.
For me this is the kind of stuff that makes light air sailing fun and interesting.
For me this is the kind of stuff that makes light air sailing fun and interesting.
Yes, MM is quite right on this. Because a centerboard pivots at the front, when you lift the board, and it describes it's arc, it does physically move the center of resistance (COR) back relative to the center of effort (COE) of the sails. Moving the COR aft of the COE reduces weather helm, or induces lee helm. Also, as you lift the board, it reduces the surface are providing lift and reducing leeway. This also reduces heeling moment. I have seen dramatic effects of lifting the board a bit on overpowered Lasers, such that the skipper no longer has to hike for his life.
Now, with regard to COR and COE, part of rig tuning is setting your mast rake. Moving the mast aftwards increases weather helm. Essentially, you have moved the COE further back on the COR. Moving the mast forward to reduce weather helm, eg. moving the COE forward on the COR, is the same effect as discussed above, lifting the pivoting centerboard, moving the COR aft of the COE.
All of this COE position relative to COR is how windsurfers actually steer. There's no rudder on a windsurfer! Lean the sail aft to head up, lean the sail forward to fall off.
Now, with a daggerboard, as in a Laser or Sunfish, or even a Hake Seaward
, one does not get the same effect from lifting the board. The COR stays in relatively the same position when lifting the board, so it doesn't have as much effect on weather helm or lee helm. However, in my example above with the Laser, when the boat is overpowered, even with outhaul pulled on hard, mast bend induced with strong vang (or adjustable backstay on a bigger boat,) and Cunningham pulled on to keep the draft position forward, and you're still consistently overpowered, then lifting the daggerboard reduces the surface area, and thus reduces the lift to windward, and reduces the heeling moment. Of course, this also allows the boat to make more leeway, which would be undesirable when trying to make CMG to a windward mark. Most dinghies such as a Laser sail faster flat than when heeled, so in a race scenario, if one were overpowered and unable to hike the boat flat, it may very well be faster to lift the board a bit, accept some leeway, but be able to make the mark by sailing faster flat. This is especially true if you are dumping mainsheet to assist hiking the boat flat, because reducing daggerboard allows you to sheet optimally and still hike the boat flat. Of course, on a bigger boat like the 222 (or my 192) if you are consistently overpowered, you have reasonably good condition sails that are not baggy and blown out, and you have all sail controls on to reduce power, and you're still consistently washing your toe rail or getting water splashed up the coaming, I would suggest the best course of action is to tuck in a reef… This past weekend I sailed nicely, but would get a gust every so often that would lay me over but good. It just wasn't frequent enough to warrant tucking in a reef. If it was flipped around, and I'd be sailing with the rail down, with occasional lulls to stand her back up again, then I would for sure have hove to and tucked in the reef. I remember once last fall there were 2 guys in a 222 with full canvas barely in control, and I was relaxed and enjoying excellent boat speed with a reefed main. They caught me, of course, with a longer waterline and more boat speed, but it took them a while because they kept rounding up and bleeding main trim. They went by and hollered over "Why do you look so relaxed? We're out of control here!" and I hollered back "'Cos I have a reef tucked in!"