Greetings all,
I think I may have had my best sailing day today (Labor day) that I can remember. The wind was just between gentle and moderage breeze on the Beaufort scale (8-10 knts) but steady, which has been pretty much uncommon so far this year. Because of school starts and other activities, our weekend guests bailed early, and i had a good part of the day unexpectedly unclaimed so I got to go out and play for 3-4 hours!
Our lake is still small, but the breeze from the north was great for running to the south end of the lake, and then tacking back into the wind. I know I've read this before, and I understand the principals of it, but it constantly surprises me I get my best speeds when close hauled. Or maybe it just seems that way because I'm feeing the appaent wind, but I'm certain I got up on plane a couple times today just off the wind. I'd watch my windex and as I move from a close reach to close hauled, I'd feel the boat start heal sharply and then the speed really kick up.
But that brings me to my question(s) of the day. I don't know anything about tuning the mast rake other than what I've read here, and for the most part I've been happy with the handling of my boat. But today when running close hauled, as more wind came on, the boat wants to round up hard. I had to keep a lot of pressure on the tiller to keep off the wind. In the past, I've been comfortable using the rounding up as a safety net in case I'm not so fast on the mainsheet, rounding up depowers and gets things back to a safer condition. As I'm getting much more comfortable using the mainsheet as a throttle (love the ratchet block) I'm wondering if I should make some adjustments to ease the weather helm a litte.
1- Again I know I've read this, but what do I want to change, to decrease weather helm, or don't I want to do that? Is strong weather helm a good thing? I've got that adjustable foot thing (jdoorly special #32) that would allow me to move the mast foot forward/back in 1/4" or so increments, or do you just change the mast bend with the shroud adjustments?
2- When a boat rounds up... What happens if I do nothing? I wasn't comfortable trying it today, but in theory, if the boat wants to turn into the wind, what happens once it gets there? I assume the sails would stall, the boat would start to push back and eventually turn out of the weather, the sails would catch in a non-specific, unplanned manner and maybe head towards a knock-down depending on the wind? Or is that too dramatic?
And I suppose 2a- If one does find oneself nose into a stronger wind and stalled, what is the good/better/best recovery if it's not just fall off and wait to see if something to happens or doesn't...
Not sure, but again, I wasn't comfortable trying it to see. I'd rather ask... I'm sure somebody here has experienced that before so I don't have to...
Thanks - Scott