steerage problem

[halfmoon]

All sailboats are supposed to have weather helm. On some points of sail it is possible to adjust main and jib to achieve a neutral helm. This condition typically is short lived. If the wind increases the boat will head to weather. If the wind decreases the boat will fall off. In a strong gust both cats and monohulls will turn to weather and may overcome the effect of the rudder(s). This can be disconcerting, but it is normal.
We obey the laws of physics whether we want to or not. You should have weather helm. The question is, do you have excessive weather helm.
I would enlist the aid of another 32 owner, or an experienced multihull sailor. Get a second opinion before you operate!
Regards
Alex

[Page 83]

I have Harvey's bowsprit and screacher, and still have a little weather helm with the main pulling well. I'm going to see if folding the bimini makes a difference, but I do not want a lea helm, or even a neutral one. The big sail makes a difference in light air (read all summer on the Chesapeake) but seems to interfere with good flow around the genoa when furled.

[amytom]

Sandy,

Could you please post pics of your bowsprit / screacher set-up. I am mostly interested in it for light wind use, I can almost always balance out weather helm by de-powering the main at the loss of a knot or two but I would like to maintain speed if possible. How feasible (costly / difficult) is the screacher set-up?

TIA


Tom

[Page 83]

I will try to get some pictures up later. I should start a new thread for it.

[toddting]

Here is a strange outcome- explanation to my original post on steerage problem.
About a month ago, i finally got the funds together to re-store my 32 Altair "ting" after suffering a
lightning strike last summer, which wiped out most electronics and contributed to ongoing engine
problems on my 15 hp Honda outboards. ting had not been moved in all this time, and was more than ready
for her rebuilt engines to be installed, a hull painting, and a bottom job. As i scraped the bottom before moving to the
boat yard i noticed that the starboard rudder was missing! i swam to the port side and found that rudder missing as well..
Many odd thoughts crossed my mind, but what i decided was that on my anchorage (mooring ball), on a low-low tide,
and a storm from the just- right direction, the rudders could be jabbing and twisting into the sand-silty bottom behind my boat.
Long story shortened, I rebuilt the rudders, and installed them as part of my restoration project, and the result is as near
perfect steering as she's ever had.. In fact both rudders may have been bent which could explain the steerage problem to either
side.. A warning though.. The rudders, which took me 2 days to locate with dive tanks were nowhere near the sandbar, and had
fairly rusted through on the shaft at the gap where rudder meets hull..

[Page 83]

It's possible that the rudder shafts were the exit point of the lighning strike! That would account for a change in the metal that would lead to such extensive corrosion. I never found an exit point when hull 32030 was struck, but I didn't examine the rudder shafts. Doh.

[eepstein]

I think you are all on something with the jib/Genoa size difference. I ran all last year on my PDQ36 with a 100% jib and the boat tried to head up into the wind when wind was beam or close reach. I was able to control it a little by adding a sheet from the jib down to the toe rail, but it only helped a bit. With the new 143% Genoa this year, the problem is gone and the helm is well balanced as long as I am not sheeting in the Genoa too tightly. The original Genoa kept its balanced too as I recall.

Oh, and my PDQ 36 was noticeably slower with the jib than with the Genoa.

[toddting]

Lightning exiting thru rudder shaft, as decent a guess as any, but she "steered funny"
before the strike.. I installed two largish zinc discs close to the gaps on the rudders, they are aging
nicely.

[Page 83]

I wish you had pictures of the breaks in the rudder shafts so all us Junior G-Men could exercise our metalurgical expertise.