The pict is NOT...

Posted By: Mark N, Nimble Arctic, Jax FL
Date: 6/13/07 6:35a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Rudder Weather Helm (Michael)

showing the rudder fully deployed. While on the trailer, it is too close to the ground to fully extend. When fully deployed, the leading edge of the rudderboard is vertical. Without physically getting on your boat, it is pretty hard to diagnose the weather helm problem. Assuming that both sails are in decent shape and that they were reasonably trimmed, the problem most likely is with the rig. WRT the mast, there are two things to look at; rake and bend. Rake is how the mast angles forward or aft from vertical. Generically speaking, an aft rake creates weather helm and a forward rake creates lee helm. Mast bend is normal on a fractional rigged boat and is created by the backstay pulling back on the top of the mast while the forestay is pulling forward on the mast below the top. Most racing boats actually use an adjustable backstay to control bend while racing. In light air or when going downwind, they loosen the back stay to take the bend out of the mast. This gives the main more depth (power) along the luff. When going to windward, they tighten the backstay to flatten the luff. On a boat like your Nimble where you do not have an adjustable backstay, you will want to tension the backstay to get bend that on average is best for the conditions that you sail in. Putting more bend on your mast may help with your weather helm problem. For the more common boats, you can find detailed instructions on how to tune the rig. I have not found any such instructions for the Nimble (If anybody else has, I'd love to see them). I recommend that you lossen the backstay and set the forestay turnbuckle so that it is about 2/3 tightened. Next tighten the backstay until you see some bend then go out sailing and see how it feels. If it is an average day and you still have some weather helm, try tightening it a bit more and see what that does. It will be a trial and error process but you should eventually get there.