Helmsmanship often has a lot to do with it. Weather helm is very heel
related. Watch closely and you'll see that rudder angle increases with
heel angle. At some point, the helmsman, rudder, or autopilot are
overpowered. Holding grimly to a course or keeping a Windex pinned on
the vane in the gusts as the boat heels way down will greatly
exaggerate the weather helm. Gusts are usually from a slightly
different direction and not recognizing this can also make the helm
feel like it's fighting back harder.

In strong winds find the maximum comfortable angle and one where the
boat feels like it is moving well and fix the angle of the mast
against the horizon in your mind. Then, whenever that angle is
exceeded, let the boat come up. It's somewhat rate based so, if you
are heeling quickly towards that angle, you can start easing up a bit
before your reach it. Sail for the constant heel angle and you won't
be fighting the helm so much. The higher pointing will compensate for
the boat being less powered. Often, the boat will even sail faster
without the rudder dragging and the hull more upright.

Keeping speed up makes a big difference in helm angle. If you let the
boat get slow so you are constantly working to speed up again, the
helm forces will be heavier. I watched the weather helm on our boat
steadily increase towards the end of the summer as the bottom fouled.
Same dynamics. Mental effort devoted to keeping the boat going at
maximum speed will reduce the physical effort of working against the
weather helm.

Most boats going to windward will slow down to a higher speed than
they will speed up to. (You may have to read that a couple of times.)
Ease off a bit to let the boat get really moving and then start slowly
pinching up. If you do it right, the boat will settle at the higher
of the two potential speeds with lower helm force.

The airflow over the sail will remain optimum for a short period at a
higher angle than can be maintained for long. If you keep heading
higher very slowly and gingerly, you can get an additional bit of
course made good to windward with the sails pulling optimally. It
usually will only be part of a minute but those periods of heading
higher can really add up. In a short time, something will trigger the
flow to collapse and some of the drive will go out of the rig. This
will usually be felt rather than seen. In smooth water, you may see a
little hitch of the mast towards upright. If you quickly head off,
you can re-establish the flow before the boat slows down and then
start heading up gingerly again. The clues when you are doing this
successfully are very subtle. Jib tell tales are almost too crude.
The proper course to windward is a slightly scalloped one that takes
advantage of these dynamics.

Some rudder angle is good. It pushes you to windward. Learning to
sail dynamically and with finesse while beating will reduce the
perceived as well as actual weather helm on almost any vessel. It
takes concentration and understanding but will yield as good results
as a lot of the sail recutting and rig tuning people do. It's a lot
cheaper as well.

--

Roger Long



"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:53:03 -0500, Larry wrote:

New sails and lots of tuning hasn't fixed her
very experienced captain's awful weather helm I'm usually fighting
to
keep her pointed up.

======================

This may be old news but here are some possible cures for weather
helm:

Flatter sails - more outhaul, backstay, cunningham and halyard
tension, a bit of mast bend if do able, jib leads further aft. Get
a
flattening reef installed in the mainsail.

Reduce sail area and heeling.

Move weight out of the stern to further forward.

Decrease mast rake if any.