[Anonymous]

We have a B33 cruiser fitted with the standard sails and find that when sailing up wind in gusts the yacht has a tendancy to want to “round up”. When we take in a couple of rolls on the forestay the yacht performs extremely well and the rounding up problem dissapears. Is the yacht overpowered with the standard sails? Has anyone else come across this problem and how was it overcome?

David
Aurora

[Anonymous]

Hi Aurora

It’s a well known phenomenon, especially with the smaller boats. If you look back through the old postings you’ll find stuff that I put on about my experience with my B32 ‘Another Fantasy’. It’s my view that the genoa as supplied is too big and too fully cut. The trick unfortunately is to change to a slightly smaller, flatter cut sail which makes a world of difference. I use two different jibs, a 135% triradial for light weather and a 110% crosscut laminate for force 5 upwards. Also, make sure that you’ve got the main trimmed as flat as you can get it and be prepared to take in the first reef fairly early. Check that your forestay is nice and tight, don’t be afraid to be fairly brutal with the backstay tension and all will be well!!

Good luck

Ian Culley/Another Fantasy

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for your advice we’ll see where we go from here.

Dave Cooper
Aurora

[Anonymous]

Dave,
We have recently taken delivery of a new Bav33 and find that if you do not have too much sail up there is no weather helm at all. Our backstay is very tight as Ian suggests (set up by PetersOpal on handover) with a lot of mast bend, which keeps the main flat. Going to windward in a F5/6 we found that 2 reefs in the main and most of the jib led to some weather helm. Putting in the 3rd reef (optional extra) meant a slight drop off in speed, but NO weather helm.
I know that the jib on the Bav33 is smaller than the Bav32, so I suspect that reefing the main down in good time is almost more important that rolling the jib and losing its shape.

Michael
Vela

[Author]

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