Sailing a sloop with main alone...
DSK wrote:
But if OTOH you locked the helm, like you have to do on your own boat?
Roger Long wrote:
Never tried it but it's had to imagine the Pearson 26 which I sailed a
lot would do it. I'm thinking back 20 years though.
If anyone knows of a spade rudder boat (except maybe for a long,
skinny, atypical, type) steering itself to windward, I'd be curious to
hear. Some skeg ahead of the rudder seems to help a lot.
I know of many... am pretty sure to have done it on a Pearson 26, one of
which I made a delivery trip many years ago.
All you need to do is get the helm set just enough to weather that the
boat will sail straight ahead when heeled a bit, bear away when the wind
slacks up or heads, and rounds up slightly when heeled too far. I've
done it on many fin keelers including quite a few with no skeg. The best
way IMHO is to use a piece of very strong shock cord across the cockpit
& clove-hitched to the tiller, so that you can make a fine adjustment by
slipping the hitch a few twists to one side or the other... and you can
also grab the helm and steer by hand if you have some urgent reason to
do so quickly.
You're right that an underwater shape with more longitudinal stability
helps a lot. But it's not necessary to get the boat to "sail itself" to
windward or close reaching. On a beam reach or off the wind, no dice!
Fresh Breezes- Doug King
Longitudinal stability?
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