Mast Rake

So how much does mast rake affect the cats ability to go upwind? If I rake the mast on my getaway as far back as I can I develops so much weather helm you need two arms to keep it going straight, and yes both rudders are down and locked. So I am trying to find a balance between rake and helm pull, if rake doesn't affect windward ability very much then I will try to rake the mast ahead to get a better rudder feel. But on the other hand if the rake goes a long way to helping the boat point better then I will try to rake the rudders forward somewhat. The new style rudders on the getaway have no adjustment, but I did put a few small washers under the top gudgeon screws to get some rake.

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.

I can speak to the H16 only, but raking the rudders to help compensate for a raked mast helped my weather helm, definitely. How this is accomplished on gateway rudders I'm not sure.

On my 16 w/o adjustable rudder castings I just re-drilled the upper rudder hole and it was that simple. After that the weather helm was much reduced, and all I had to do to fine tune it was come up one hole on the shroud chain plates and down one hole on the forestay chain plate. Ahhhhhhh, perfect....

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

I'd not rake the mast so far back to ease the weather helm.

I've been moving the H16 shrouds back and forth between the 3rd and 4th hole in the adjusters. The 3rd (more rake) hole sometimes gives annoying weather helm, but at the 4th hole, I couldn't sail upwind at 20 mph or even turn into it. Could only reach and run until I found a place to hide or got blown over. This seemed very dangerous. Doubtless I'm doing something else wrong, but I'd rather get blown into irons than into a reach when the rig is overpowered.