Weather Helm

[Martin Henry]

While (singlehanded) sailing on a closed reach in 15 knots to 18 knots, about half of the 150 gennie rolled out handling weather helm was like catching a greased pig heeling 15 to 20 trying to catch her. I would pump the main to spill wind and put her back on her feet and do the whole thing again all afternoon. I headed up trimed and sailed closed for awhile then beared away eased the main and ran wrestling her all the way. Finally, I just rolled the gennie in and sailed with just the main. I have a new shelf footed Catalina main and at times feel it's over powered for the boat. In 10 to 15 knots with the gennie all the way out she screams at 5.8 to 6.0 knots on reaches. Do I need to reef and play with the amount of gennie rolled out? Or just hold tight and pray I catch her? Let me know your thoughts ~madness14593

 

[Trevor]

Reef that main!

Hey Martin!Sounds like a hoot n' a holler out there with your 150% genny and full main. I'd by all means reef that main down right away and see if that settles the boat down. It's easier to shake a reef later than put one in early. Travel down and enjoy the ride!Trevor

 

[tomD]

balancing act

My C-22 comes alive at 15 knots and is ready for a reef in the main about then. I spill the main on the puffs and enjoy the ride. They are slightly oversailed. But I am running a 110 jib, not a 150 genoa. The boat is rigged so it balances at about 15 knots with full main and about 100 ft2 of jib. Next step if reaching is a reef in the main, it will not cost you much speed and will behave better. If you rollerreef your jib any more than to 100% you won't be going to very high to wind.

 

[Dave]

I sailed once with just the main to see what it would be like. The weather helm was so bad I thought the tiller handle was going to break off. I'll won't do that again. The boat handled like crap. When it picks up to the point where heeling is excessive, I reef the main. As for the head sail, if I don't want to change it, I just move the traveler back to spill the wind up high. Otherwise I'll put up a smaller sail.Dave

 

[Joe]

you have a traveller on your headsail?

or are you talking about jib leads?

 

[Dave]

Re: you have a traveller on your headsail

The entire system including the blocks and the tracks they move on are called "fairleads" or "jib fairlead blocks" if your talking about just the moveable piece that the jib sheet goes through. "Jib lead" works though. A lot of people call them different things. I've done a lot of beachcat sailing and just ahout anything that moves in a track on a beachcat is called a traveller. It's a term that's probably not appropriate in the mono-hull world. Old habits die hard. <grin>