Weatherhelm question?

I am trying to figure out why I have more weatherhelm while on a port tack. At times I lay the tiller stick on the rear corner of the tramp briefly to grab some more main sheet and or to cleat it. When on starboard tack I can do this and the boat will just begin to turn upwind but on port the boat will turns upwind very quickly. So quick that I barely have enough time to grab the tiller stick before I teabag myself. Obviously something is way out of adjustment but I do not know what. Any ideas?

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07 H16
Sail No. 110387

Put the boat on the trailer with the rudders locked down - see if the rudders are raked at the same angle. If the rudders are sloppy fore and aft, have a couple of friends pull gently aft on the rudder tips to take the slop out (simulates the drag when sailing).

Sounds like the starboard rudder needs to be raked further forward.

Thanks Matt. I went down to the beach where my boat is and put it up on a couple milk crates, locked the rudders down. I measured down each hull and made a mark, then measured from the tip of each rudder to the mark and both were the same. If you dont mind could I ask if your rudders are raked equally? I suppose it is not uncommon to have two different rudder rake measurements to get equal helm for both tacks as no two boats sail exactly the same?

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07 H16
Sail No. 110387

To be honest, I don't know if my rudders have different rakes. The boat is almost new, and the rudders are raked as far forward as they will go without redrilling. (I even removed the neoprene pad on the lower casting to get them a little further forward.)

My boat has no significant helm on either tack upwind, although it's got more weather helm than I like downwind.

Now I'm going to have to check . . .

I'd still try raking the starboard rudder forward to see if that works for yours, but that gets me thinking, "why the asymetry?"

Measuring rudder rake can be tricky due to the curved surfaces you are working with, I always start with a basic triangle; measure from your rudder pin across the hull to the side stay where it bolts through the hull on both sides to ensure that they are equal (they usually are) then with the boat roughly level measure up from the bottom tip of the rudder blade 6 inches and draw a level line across the rudder with a sharpie pen (this reduces error in trying to measure from a curved tip). Now measure the long side of your triangle from the aft side of the sharpie line to the side stay and it should be even on each side (it usually is). As Matt said you should also check it with a friend pulling lightly on the rudder as you measure it. If you get different measurements with some one pulling on it then you need to tighten the rake adjustment bolts on the top of the rudder castings. I suspect that one of the bolts has not been snugged up and the rudder is lagging on that side. And also as Matt suggested remove the neoprene cushions between the rudder and the casting before you snug up the bolts. I also remove the plastic rudder rake adjustment screws that are located near the rudder pins, I have found them to be useless and if they project into the older EPO rudders they just punch a hole into them. I hope this helps. Post a reply, Thank you

I suspect that your weather helm

Hey Randy,I have tightened up my rake adjustment bolts with the rudders pushed as far under the stern as possible.I still get some aft movement on my ruder tip when pressure is applied(not much about I'am guessing 1/8th of an inch) is this normal or is it possible to remove all that slop?

The slop comes from two things
- the lockdown plate/rudder cam interface (if the castings move relative to each other). This slop can be easily removed by adjusting the plate in the upper casting.

- the pin / lower casting / gudgeon (if you can move the entire rudder assembly w/o the castings moving relative to each other) That's a lot harder to get rid of. Stainless steel pins and plastic bushings in the gudgeons / castings is the standard way to do that.

However, I wouldn't be worried about an 1/8" movement in the rudder tip.