E33 RH mast rake

[K2MSmith]

As some of you are aware I’m in the process of replacing my rod rigging ( with a rigger ) and doing several mast upgrades at the same time .
The 33RH has a big mainsail / rig and a relatively lightweight keel so it can become overpowered with a lot of weather helm easily with small crew and the winds we have in the Bay Area . Of course , reducing and flattening the sail is done frequently in the summer . The rigger is also suggesting reducing mast rake which moves center of effort of fail forward , reducing weather helm .
That all sounds reasonable but that requires more adjustments ($$$) to the mast step and i worry about shortening the forestay and jib sail fit .
I would especially be interested in hearing from any E33 owners in this topic. ( all 3 of us ? or anyone with any experience . I’ve also messaged Seth .

For example , what is your current rake measurement? It’s easy to measure ( estimate) by removing tension from the backstay and letting your main halyard hang . Measure the distance from the halyard line to the mast at the deck . It would be interesting to know what other E33’s sail with.

Thanks in advance!

 

[G Kiba]

Unless the rake is excessive, I have have found in most cases that rake reduces the weather helm? Your boat was raced a lot by it's past owners and did really well. Maybe the problem is elsewhere? What condition are your sails? Is changing the rake the yards idea?

 

[K2MSmith]

Unless the rake is excessive, I have have found in most cases that rake reduces the weather helm? Your boat was raced a lot by it's past owners and did really well. Maybe the problem is elsewhere? What condition are your sails? Is changing the rake the yards idea?

The boat was raced with a crew of 5 or 6 and I’m mostly single or double hand . It’s a lightweight keel for the sailplane . Sails are relatively new Norths I installed about 2 yrs ago . We are trying to optimize handling so the boat doesn’t require reefing so early. It may be we have to leave in more of the rake if we can’t adjust the mast step .

 

[K2MSmith]

Update... with some clever engineeting, the rigger was able to "unstick" the mast step and get it move back, so they are happiywith the rake amount we now have (I am too). It appeared that some 5200 got into the bolt holes and froze the assembly. The previous installer of the mast step (12 years ago) didn't take the time to clean the surfaces of sealer first and they got stuck. I'll measure the new rake at the mast for the record once I'm able to get a halyard down. The rigger thinks that this will greatly improve my handling of the boat. The boat was previously sailed with a crew of 5 big guys and I am SH most of the time, so this makes a big difference in a fairly light racing boat, in terms of weather helm and the center of efffort of the gig.