On Fri, 19 May 2006 18:38:12 +0000, Roger Long wrote:

"Matt O'Toole" wrote

Gee, my old Islander 24 would do that most of the time in moderate
winds. In
fact often it would do it without the helm locked.

A lot of boats balance well enough for this. In fact the best
candidates
for vane steering are the boats that almost don't need it.

Most of the fin keel boats I've sailed had spade rudders and you
couldn't let go of them for a second; especially if they had tillers.

This certainly isn't always true, though it's more common than not.
And many full keeled boats balance terribly too.

To be a little more precise about my boat (which has a modified rudder
and may not be typical of all E 32's):

Going fast under main alone, as in right after rolling up the headsail
or turning off the engine, self steering close hauled is effortless. As
long as the boat isn't yawing when you do it, just turning the helm
brake starts her jogging along to windward.

Going slowly, at the speed the boat can reach under main alone from a
standing start or after losing speed in a tack, the five minutes or so
of tweaking I tried before giving up wouldn't get her to settle down.
More experimentation, wearing around instead of tacking, etc. may still
do it so I shouldn't say she doesn't self steer.

At the higher speed it's easy, at the lower speed it's hard and maybe
impossible.

This is key, or one of the keys. The more speed you have, the more lift
the foils have, and the less they're overwhelmed by the sails.

Matt O.