At 1900 we slipped Ardglass and set off towards the Scillies. Wind was 4kts from the South with a lot of swell, then picked up to 12kts from the NW. By eight o’clock we had the engine off and the main up.
It soon became obvious that all was not well. We were on a beam reach in 12-14 knots of wind the on port tack and there was massive weather helm and slow, even ponderous helm response. Better on starboard, but not great. We sailed on for a bit, tacked a couple of times and sailed round in circles while we discussed the issue. Finally at 21.30 we decided not to continue with the boat in this trim and set off beating back to Ardglass, getting in in the dark and coming alongside at 23.25 feeling greatly disheartened and thinking we would have to return home to fix the boat.
Darren said he would look at the rig in the morning and generally gave us a bit of a morale boost. Drink was taken.
Saturday 8th August
The next day we took one of the toggles out of the rigging to move the top of the mast forward, and tightened the forward lowers and slackened the aft lowers slightly to take the middle of the mast forward and so decrease the draft of the mainsail. We also moved the first reefing line considerably further aft and lowered the boom slightly on its track on the mast.
At 15.45 on Saturday 8th August we slipped Ardglass and went out for a test sail. Although still a little heavy on the helm, the boat performed well – and equally well – on botrh tacks, pointing well in 18 kts apparent wind without excessive heel. She also responded well to the helm on other points of sail, and it was decided there and then that Darren was a genius and the voyage could continue.
(Though I am now of the opinion that the mainsail on this boat must be treated with considerable respect. Although it is a fairly new Jeckells sail it is too big for the boat – seems whoever ordered it measured the full hoist and used that for the luff measurement, then took the full length of the boom minus a couple of inches as the foot measurement. The sail is also a little deep-drafted (or ‘nacho-shaped’ as Darren put it). Pulling the first reef well back and lowering the boom has improved the sail shape a lot, and the rigging adjustments have made the weather helm liveable with – though it remains to be seen how the autohelm and navik will handle it.
Back to Ardglass again for a good night’s rest and a planned 11am departure in the morning.
Interesting about the weatherhelm. My MG30 is a swine for it easily overloads the 75kg autopilot once the wind passes 15 knots. I usually reef but it feels over-reefed for the conditions at the point it becomes manageable. I may look at the mast rake!