Over the last 17 years just about about every sail trim topic of interest to most beginners to intermediate sailors has been discussed. It's becoming more difficult to come up with topics that will interest the sail trim forum lister's. I trawl the various forum sights looking for topics -- if I was looking for maintenance subjects I'd have a ton of them. Another source I use is conversation I have with sailors.
Weather helm & lee helm came up the other day in a phone conversation. The following is the way I described it to the beginner Hunter sailor from Florida, who is experiencing mild weather helm. A understanding of CE (center of effort) and CLR (center of lateral resistance) would have made the discussion easier but if I started off with that I'd have lost the beginner sailor inside of a minute so I approached the topic from a non scientific standpoint, which I prefer anyway. Additionally, the terms lee helm & weather helm were established when tillers were in vogue rather than wheels. Weather helm is when you have to PULL the tiller to weather or the windward side of the boat in order to sail in a straight line. Lee helm is is when you PUSH the tiller "to lee" in order to sail in a straight line. The turning action is opposite with a wheel.
So weather helm means that the boat left alone would want to turn into the wind and lee helm means the boat wants to turn downwind. Without getting into a discussion on how to correct weather helm/lee helm by moving the CE & CLR, which might be another good topic, I explained why some weather helm is a good thing from a safety standpoint and why a perfectly balanced boat, which he was looking to establish, is not completely ideal.
If one of your beginner sailing friends asked you why weather helm is a safety factor and why a perfectly balanced boat is not completely ideal what would you tell them?
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Weather helm & lee helm came up the other day in a phone conversation. The following is the way I described it to the beginner Hunter sailor from Florida, who is experiencing mild weather helm. A understanding of CE (center of effort) and CLR (center of lateral resistance) would have made the discussion easier but if I started off with that I'd have lost the beginner sailor inside of a minute so I approached the topic from a non scientific standpoint, which I prefer anyway. Additionally, the terms lee helm & weather helm were established when tillers were in vogue rather than wheels. Weather helm is when you have to PULL the tiller to weather or the windward side of the boat in order to sail in a straight line. Lee helm is is when you PUSH the tiller "to lee" in order to sail in a straight line. The turning action is opposite with a wheel.
So weather helm means that the boat left alone would want to turn into the wind and lee helm means the boat wants to turn downwind. Without getting into a discussion on how to correct weather helm/lee helm by moving the CE & CLR, which might be another good topic, I explained why some weather helm is a good thing from a safety standpoint and why a perfectly balanced boat, which he was looking to establish, is not completely ideal.
If one of your beginner sailing friends asked you why weather helm is a safety factor and why a perfectly balanced boat is not completely ideal what would you tell them?
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