That looks great – happy sailing!

Shemaya

I made one more small change that I had to try out before calling it done for the season. Somewhere I saw a suggestion to use a tennis ball to make a standup block. It seemed to work out pretty well. Especially considering I already had a warn out tennis ball. This was a no cost improvement.

Sailing is is much more pleasant without the blocks banging around during the light east winds we have had the last two weekends.

Three weeks ago I went out in some wind where I expected to need at least one reef. Turns out it was just about right with the whole sail up. There was a pleasant amount of weather helm and easy tacking.

I am now convinced that the boat is mostly just under canvased. I expect a wider sail would help, but also adding about two panels to make the sail taller would also help.

I am sure there are many things about this boat and the rig that are not 'right'. But I am happy that I built my first boat from scratch and it does sail. Messing around in boats. Good stuff.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Scott.

Anonymous wrote:
Hi Scott,
<...>
I've been having a lot of fun with using a tack hauling parrel on the little eight-foot dinghy also.
When the wind is very light, the pudgy tends to have lee helm.
When it does that, tightening the tack hauling parrel, which shifts the sail aft, completely resolves it.
When the wind is blowing harder, the boat tends to have weather helm, and easing that line and letting the sail move farther forward resolves that.
Something worth trying maybe, if you haven't already – it's incredibly easy to set up.
<...>
Shemaya

Hello Shemaya,

I had what I think is called a 'Luff Hauling Parrel' rigged both times the boat was out.

This line allows me to haul aft the bottom batten (boom at the tack) and the batten two places higher. It seems I need to have this all the way back as far as possible to make any windward progress.I have not been able to use this line too much when sailing on the wind. But it is absolutely great when is it time to head back down wind. It was awesome to be able to square the sail out in front of the mast and be able to sail at significantly different wind angles without gybing.

Bringing the boat back up on the beach was also a joy. Lowering the sail down to reduce speed and then back up a little bit pick up speed was just as great as I expected. This is a huge difference from bringing the H14 up on the beach, running down wind, with no way to depower the rig.

Scott.

Anonymous wrote:

What's the batten length for your sail? I have an 8 foot Portland Pudgy, and just did a JR rig for it, with 6 foot battens. It's a different hull of course, but if your battens are shorter than that, so the sail is smaller, maybe that's part of the issue also. Off center board position absolutely, as has been said already, but also perhaps the boat is having trouble getting enough drive to really move upwind in light conditions?

Are you having a lot of lee helm? Meaning the boat just won't steer closer to the wind, without putting the tiller way over? Or is it that it steers straight, but just makes no progress to windward?

Shemaya

Hi Shemaya,

Thank you for the response. When I first posted the problem was lee helm. Even with the tiller way over, the closest I could get was about 90 degrees to the wind. With the board moved steering is goo but I now have a lack of drive.

I moved the board up as far forward as practical. I tried the boat again yesterday with this change. I can now zip along on a beam reach and inch my way into the wind. Tacking is also fairly easy now.

At a particular point of sail I can actually let go of the tiller and the whole thing is balanced and sailing right along on its own. While that was fun the total lack of weather helm makes me sure that you, and others, are correct about the sail. I made it way too narrow. I think I will need to remake it wider, or modify it, or add a mizzen to get proper balance. I am not sure I want to put too much more effort into this first attempt at boat and sail making.

The sail along the battens is 58 inches. I was trying for feet but I guess the hems used more cloth than I expected.. The boat is just a little less than 8 feet. 

Is there a good rule of thumb for batten length compared to LOA or some other hull dimension? I came up with 5 feet for the battens by guessing (very wrong) the CLR of the hull and with what I thought make sheeting easy. Clearly I will need to put more effort into this for the next sail I make. I was really itching to 'just do it' and see how things work in practice.

As suggested earlier in this thread, moving my weight around helps quite a bit as well. When sitting right by the lee board I really enjoy how this boat tacks. It comes right around. This is a big difference from the Hobie 14 I had some year ago.

Thank you to everyone who posted a reply.

Scott.

Anonymous wrote:

Don't forget too, to keep your weight forward as much as practicable.

Thank you. This is something I did not consider. I might need to add some length to the tiller so that I can sit by the mast.