A balanced boat is safer to sail

Drop Zone

A balanced boat is more pleasant and safer to sail, writes Ralph Chant.

Silver sailors (the nautical equivalent of grey nomads) often choose small cruising yachts, sometimes trailer-sailers, as their first yacht. Some have little sailing experience and are often put off by highly technical explanations of how to sail. What is offered here is plain language coverage of some easily applied basics for tuning a small cruiser.

Sailing a small yacht with ease and comfort is very much about “balance”. A yacht is well balanced if you let your tiller go and your boat keeps its course or requires only the lightest touch to maintain course. Out of balance comes in two categories. If you let the tiller go and the boat turns its bow away from the wind’s direction, the boat is not in balance and has “lee helm”. If you let the tiller go and the boat turns its bow towards the wind’s direction, the boat is not in balance and has “weather helm”.

It is very difficult to strike a perfect balance on a small yacht. The best circumstance is to trim your boat so that it has a small amount of weather helm. This will ensure, if the tiller is let loose for any reason, your boat will turn its bow to the wind and slow down. Sailing with too much lee or weather helm will make your boat difficult to control, will place undue stress on your steering system and will unnecessarily tire the helmsman.

Some of the things that affect balance include mast position, mast rake, sail area, sail trim and centreboard (keel) position.

Mast position

If your bow is continually trying to turn away from the wind (lee helm), move the mast aft. If your bow is continually trying to turn into the wind (weather helm), move the mast forward. Newer trailer-sailers often have an adjustable mast foot to facilitate this adjustment. If your mast is fixed and cannot be moved, you can try raking the mast.

Mast rake

Changing the angle of the mast achieves similar but smaller outcomes to moving the mast. To reduce lee helm (bow turning away) rake the mast aft, i.e. tilt it backwards. To reduce too much weather helm (bow turning to windward) tilt the mast forward. To rake the mast back, lengthen the forestay, shorten the backstay and check the tension on the shrouds (side stays both inner and outer if you have them). Do the opposite to tilt it forward.

Sail area and sail trim

To reduce weather helm, use a smaller main or place a reef into your existing main and change up to a larger headsail. Additional steps to ease weather helm are flattening the mainsail and easing the mainsheet.

Centreboard position

To further ease weather helm (swing keel only) lift the keel slightly. This effectively moves the keel back.

Other trim indicators are the telltales on your sails. The telltales on both sides of your sail should lie flat and steady against the sail. If the telltales are lying more steadily on one side of the sail than on the other, move the sail in the direction of the most agitated telltales. Do this until the telltales on both side of the sail are equally flat and steady.

It is important you keep significant changes for a period of time. This will allow you to evaluate it in a variety of conditions. Try these adjustments one at a time. If a particular change does not work, return to the start position and try another adjustment. Remember, slight weather helm reduces strain on both boat and helmsman.