Jami wrote:
I have to admit, that building a short-chord wingsail with the (possible) help of your experiences now is a tempting option.
I cannot believe that the Galion 22 has an unduly unbalanced hull form. Yes, the modern delta-shaped hulls, with their fine bows and wide shallow sterns, need to be sailed upright. But not this boat. I am convinced that you have too wide a sail, with too much area, and the camber is further aft than it should be. You don't need a bigger rudder, you don't need to move the mast, you need a better sail.
Weaverbird is also fairly fine in the bow, but the helm is almost neutral when hard on the wind, even when over-pressed. Weather helm only develops on a fast reach, when the sail has moved well out from the centreline of the boat. Why? Partly because the sail is of fairly high AR, but more importantly, the after 60% of the sail is
absolutely flat, there is no curvature in it at all. The curvature is all in the forward 40%. It's well known that having the camber too far aft results in more heeling and more weather helm.
So yes, a wingsail like mine is the ideal solution, now that I'm pretty sure that I'm on top of what needs to be done to make it reliable in the long term as well as a good performer. But it's not the only solution. You could improve the situation a lot by recutting your current sail, taking some width off the leech and and flattening out the after half of the remaining area.