B
Brad
Went sailing today on my 260 with some friends and the boat would not hold course. We didnt have any signifigant gusts(that I could tell, and they are hard to miss) but the wind seemed to be shifting but more or less north/north/west and pretty strong for a 260, eventually reefed. It would vary in velocity but I wouldnt really call the changes a full blown gust, in any event it continually rounded up. I would round up then fall off and continue my tack but sure enough I would be constantly steering more to leeward untill i had no more rudder travel left and then she would round up and we start the whole process over again. Things you should know! The outter stay on the starboard side is loose as a rusult of my own brilliance in raising the mast. Also when looked down to see the rudder it "looked" as if it was being bent up to windward, like it was water pressure trieing to bend it up. Might be light refraction might be actually bending up, who knows? So anyone know what i was doing wrong today? I have sailed in almost identical conditions with out rounding up or reefing for that matter. Was it the rigging being loose or is something wrong with the rudder? One more thing the top of the rudder(when in sailing position) is all split apart and you can see under the paint and stuff.Thanks in advance,Brad