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**TrentePieds** · 18-09-2020, 09:50

Wow - that was quick :-)!!

Right -ho. Follow me now!

248 - 223 = 25 cm.

Ergo the after side of the mast is 25 cm forrard of the after side of the after b'head.

The span across the two bulkheads is 63 cm. 63/2 = 31½.

Ergo the mast, allowing for its own fore'n'aft dimension, stands exactly halfway across that span. That the tabernacle is plug-ugly does NOT alter that :-)!

That position is exactly where Kim Holman designed the mast to stand, and you needn't worry about its fore'n'aft positioning and therefore not about where the CCE falls. Absent something amiss underwater, your boat should balance WITH THE RIGHT SAIL COMBINATION.

So I think you are pressing the boat too hard to be able to diagnose your imbalance. “Rail down” can be thrilling, but is – for a cruiser – counterproductive. My personal rule of thumb is that when your heel has got to 15º, it's time to reduce sail. So let's consider the sail plan given in SailboatData which appears to me to be a fairly truthful representation of Holman's intent. Your boat may differ, of course, but we can modify my arguments later, once we've agreed on the fundamental rightness of it. :-)

You have a main of about 160SqFt. It appears (via eyeballing) that the first and only reef provided will remove about 35% of that. Reefing (leaving the headsail as it is, regardless of just what it is) will move the CCE FORWARD, i.e. tend to induce LEE helm, which is what you have too much of already – at least on one tack.

You have a fore-triangle also of about 160 Sqft, and a choice of 3 different sails to hoist there. Let's call them #1, #2 and #3 from the biggest to the smallest. #1 is a genoa whose area appears to be about 130% of the fore-triangle's area. This sail is for light airs, say up to 10 knots. Wearing this sail with a full main will give you about 15ºs of heel in 10 knots of wind. Perfect!

But at 15º it time to reduce sail. Reducing sail is NOT synonymous with “reefing” sail!. In a boat like yours you'd come down to the #2 jib, which has an area, so it looks, of about just about 100% of FT. This will attenuate the “slot effect” that occurs between the main and the jib making the “suction” on the lee side of the main (which is what gives you your forward drive) a little less than it was when you wore the genny, and the boat will therefore lose a few degrees of heel without any appreciable loss of speed. The CCE will not be appreciably affected, so if you were in balance before the sail change, you still will be after the change.

By the time the wind pipes up to 15 knots, you'll again be heeling 15º or even a little more, so it's time to reduce sail still further. That means coming down to the #3 jib, commonly called the “storm jib”. In this sail plan that sail appears to be 35% or 40% of the FT area. Aerodynamic interaction twixt that sail and the main will now be negligible, and the boat will, for all intents and purposes, be sailing on the main alone. The INDIVIDUAL CE of the storm jib will have moved forward, tending to induce lee helm BUT because the sail is small this tendency is attenuated because this sail captures less of the power in the wind. In consequence, when wearing this sail the CCE will remain within the tolerance range, and the boat should still be balanced. The storm jib now functions primarily as a trimming device, and by manipulating the sheets you can induce either weather helm of lee helm. Meanwhile the boat is propelled forward by the main and heeling the magic 15ºs.

Remember that as the wind pipes up the power in it increases according to the third power of the increase in velocity. So a wind of 20 knots has 2 x 2 x 2 = 8 times more power in it, than has a wind of 10 knots. That is why you seem to have to reduce sail more frequently the stronger the wind gets.

So now, sailing along on the full main and the storm jib, you may find that you need to reduce sail even further. If you strike the storm jib you will induce quite a case of weather helm because the INDIVIDUAL CE of the main, which is all you have left, is likely to fall at the after end of the tolerance range of the “lead” or even aft of it. At this time, by reefing the main, you do two things: 1) you reduce heel and 2) you reduce the weather helm. I'm faily certain that in 20 knots with NO headsail and a reefed main, your boat should balance, but, of course, she won't be very close winded at all. Maybe you'll be able to convince 'er to sail a point above the beam reach, but I doubt that she'll be more close winded than that. But by now, you'll want to go home anyway :-)!

One more thing: Heeling excessively can be quite dangerous, not so much in boats like yours, but certainly in modern hull forms with more beam than you can shake a stick at and with little deadrise, because when heeled excessively they ride up on their bilge, pull their rudders outta the water and “gripe” (turn uncontrollably to weather) with fearsome suddenness.

So: Eschew Excessive Heel !!

In one of your posts you speak of sailing in "Beaufort 3". Lovely to see a young lady expressing herself in a manner so antique :-)! The boundary twixt Beaufort 3 and Beaufort 4 is 10 knots, n'est-ce pas? Top of B4 is 15 Knots and top of B5 is 20 Knots. So think about what I said before: In B3, wear the genny. In B4 wear the 100%-er, and in B5 reef the 100%-er down to 70%. Your little boat will like it :-)! Once you are into B6 you should probably bring your little boat home to its hidey hole under main alone or even reefed main alone.

If you don't have an actual boughten clinometer, make your own. From the centre of the companionway hatch sling a plumb line. Any bit of string with a big nut from a big bolt tied to it's bottom end will do. From your Fourth Form trigonometry classes dredge up the tangent to 15º, given the length of the plumb line, and mark the length of that tangent out from the centre on both sides of the sill of the companionway. To do that sort of temporary marking I use painter's green (low tack) masking tape.

Now when you go sailing you will learn quickly enuff what the boat feels like at "normal" limit of heel.

No more time this day, but tomorrow I'll tell you what I see in your video.

Best,

TP

Greensleeves29 · 18-09-2020, 12:22

I am not sure who has lost who but I think there is some confusion here TP. I have never experienced lee helm. And I have sailed enough in varied conditions to fairly sure that my issue is nothing to do with having too much sail.

The experience that I described yesterday (which is similar to other experiences with my boat), when I was on a starboard tack with the reefed main and 100% jib, the boat felt fantastic, tiller light and needing only a few degrees movement to counter gusts. Was the boat not well balanced at this point? And consequently by turning onto the port tack in the same conditions, and finding the boat has completely changed character, I have discovered that the problem has nothing to do with sail configuration? It would be ridiculous to feel the need to reduce sail on the port tack, only to put it back on starboard.

It think that we may have reached a limit as to what can be diagnosed over the internet. I have convinced myself over the last coupe of days that there must be an issue with the hull or rudder. There is a sailing club nearby with a place to dry boats out against piles which I plan on making use of to check things over.

Greensleeves29 · 11-10-2020, 09:49

I thought update this thread so that anyone else having problems who comes across it can find out what fixed the issue for me.

I had the rigging adjusted by a rigger and it completely changed the boat's character. All of the problems are gone and she sails very well on all points of sail. I am happy that it wasn't anything more serious, but annoyed with myself for not getting someone to look at it earlier. The rigger spent around 45mins adjusting rigging, he mentioned that the mast was leaning to one side and had a lateral bend in the middle, also the forward lower stays were too loose. He put a slight rake in the mast and a small amount of pre-bend. He pointed out that the mast track isn't straight which is perhaps why I could not see any problems when I looked up the mast.

I did a little trip over the last few days, anchoring each night, I was able sail in a range of wind speeds and points of sail, much of what I have previously read makes sense now and the boat responds to sail trim adjustments like it should.

Thanks for the help everyone.