More Mast Rake

It seemed to me on the last trial that the boat wanted more weather helm when on the wind. (There really wasn't any at all.) I spoke with Matt about this and he suggested more mast rake via moving the step. I planned for this adjustment and have not permanently fixed the step yet. It is secured temporarily by a single bolt. I moved the step 75mm forward, which seems like alot but I didn't want an ambivalent result. Here is a photo at anchor. Compare with the prior post. Sailing in 15 plus knots, all points, over and under powered. With this rake the boat rounds up on her own when overpowered, but it does it in well-behaved way, then will bear off again once the gust passes. All a good thing, in my view but will see what Matt has to say. I may try a mid-point and see if I like that better. The boat tracks well on most points, especially on a beat and in a consistent breeze. With this ballast (~270 lbs of water in 5 gallon cube shaped jugs), she is remarkably stiff once heeled as long as one sits on bottom. In moderate (underpowered) conditions, a helm seat (eyes above cabin combing) works great.

At Anchor After a 2nd Trial

Here is Fantasma at anchor. Did I mention the name of the boat? Fantasma. Spanish for ghost or spirit. Kind of a play on the Enigma theme, too.

In this picture she has 270 lbs of water in jugs for ballast. I am thinking this is less effective than more dense, lower sitting ballast of the same weight.

I sailed her again yesterday and this trial was in both light and shifty conditions and in more wind than the prior one. I will say that I would like her to have a wider range of stability than she has at the moment. It is not clear to me that she will recover from a knockdown with this amount of ballast. Mind you I am going to wait until the windows and hatch are in place (hopefully) before pushing the limits in this department. In any case, she stood up well to 15 - 18 knots of breeze and bay chop. Drove up wind well enough with reefed sail plan and even without windows, only a few drops of spray came in through the cutouts. She doesn't seem to throw much water up off her weather bow.

she has a bit of lee helm which is not right, and I have talked with matt about this and actually set up the mast step with this adjustment in mind. I will rake the rig aft a bit and see if that doesn't help her balance out a bit better on the wind. Also, the sheet tends to snag on the rudder when going from starboard to port, so have a small modification to do in that department. All in all, quite happy with her at this point. Just a few bugs to work out. this is why we are doing a prototype.