Date: 6/11/2008
Name: Bob Abelin
email: b_abelin@yahoo.com
subject:
Rake Rake Rake


I choose to believe that what Stephen is describing is impossible. So let us never speak of it again. LOL. NO, its not actually impossible, but it is a bit odd, but this is the SJ21, so I'm used to seeing some odd things. Stephen is correct about the description of weather helm though. If you're sailing along with good power and let the tiller go it should pull away from you and the boat should round up. Having your tiller slightly to the lee to go straight is a bit strange though. But then again I haven't ever really checked this on my boat and there are a few reasons why it could actually be true. First off, all sailboats tend to slip sideways through the water slightly when sailing upwind. Even though it feels like you're going in a straight line, you aren't. This is known as 'leeway'. It wouldn't be too surprising that you would actually have to keep the tiller slightly to the lee to compensate for the fact that the boat really isn't going through the water is a straight line. However, I've never really noted this on any other boat so there may be something SJ specific going on here. Another possibility is that the keel could be rotating slightly in the box. We were messing around before a race last year in zero wind and by brother decided to go swim around the other boats. He dove down on four different SJs and grabbed the keels and shook them. To everyones surprise, the keels actually do move quite a bit and could even rotate slightly. Some boats were looser than others. It's possible that your rudder angle is compensating for a rotating keel. Possibly. We have races this weekend so I'll do some investigating and see if what Stephen is observing is normal or not. This really shouldn't have anything to do with sail trim assuming you really do have weatherhelm.

As for Bill's question. Be sure that the main isn't depowered too much. You may need to drop the traveler, pull on the sheet, and/or tighten the vang to get more power in the leach of the main. Also, be sure to bring the jib cars way back and don't trim the jib in too tight. This too can add to leehelm. And just to mess with everyone even more, if your jib is old and blown out, this can cause leehelm, and if your jib and main weren't designed to work together, you could get leehelm, and if mow your lawn and find a car, you might be a redneck.


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