Mast rake

[Paul]

I have deen sailing a Dockrell 27 and the weather helm is very heavy even in low winds. The mast used to rack foward and that was worse. It is now vertical and still unmanageable. Can anyone advise me on corrective action.
Cheers
Paul

[Bill W]

Paul,

Not familiar with this particular boat but I doubt that the mast should rake forward. It is sounds as though your head sail is too small, are you sure that it is full size and not a no2 jib. Try reefing the mainsail with the jib that you have, that should balance things up, if so I would suggest that to use the full main you need a genoa.

Bill W

[roncornwell]

I purchased a Dockrell 27 last year and I have the same problem with weather helm. I am interested to know if you have managed to resolve it. Somebody suggested to me that the mast was stepped too far back.
I spoke previous owners and was told to reef early. Sounds like there could be a design problem to me. Too late now I guess, just have to live with it.

[roncornwell]

Hi Dave.


Thanks for the advice. Yes, they are similar boats above water but the splayed out keel of the Dockrell may well affect the handling I suspect. The idea of the splayed keel was to help the boat take the ground and to prevent leeway which is good but believe me the weaterhelm is bad. The only solution it seems is early reefing.

As you probably know Dockrell went bust after making this boat, I wonder why?

Ron C.

[Pete, Flo, D27]

love my 27 and been in some pretty harsh conditions in the bristol channel and the irish sea,dont mind the haters evry bsailboat has a learning curve, my 27 came with a bow sprit wihch pushes the sail area fwd a little an does I beleive make a difference, but reefing early is not a bad thing either and hull speed is ahieved with less sail area anyhow, once you have sailed her a while and learn to balancea the wee cutter rig and things will fall into place people may comment on the design but you seldom see a good one up for sale which says something for there were a fair few built.The shoal draught really is great when it comes to busy ancorages and inlets, and tbh carries her lines better than any production boat ive seen, they are quirky but pretty little ocean capable yachts in the right hands can do what ever you want to do, whats not to love eh