New Olson 911S owner

Slick470 said:

Welcome,

We sail our O911S in lighter air on the Chesapeake Bay, so I haven't noticed too much weather helm, but then we haven't really pushed the boat in full crewed racing conditions either. That said, from previous discussions, most owners have been able to minimize the weather helm by adjusting the mast rake closer to vertical, putting mast forward at the partners to allow for more prebend, and tune the rig to the conditions you sail. I have not tried any of these suggestions, so YMMV. There are also some differences in how the Pacific built boats and the Ericson built boats respond to these changes.

As far as sails, what condition are yours? The ability to flatten them out will help with weather helm as well. If they are stretched and you can't flatten them, a new set will also help.

As a last thought, some owners have put a deeper Schumacher designed rudder on the boat which also helps in controlling the extra helm.

Another good source for O911 information is the mailing list. It's pretty much a ghost town these days but there is some decent information archived there. http://www.sailpix.com/email/olson911/

I'm sure that others will pop on here and ask you to post pictures of your boat in your user gallery, so please do that too.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. Suspect it might be the sails, we are looking around for new ones, will update if it solves the problem.

Weather helm

For sure the boat does NOT normally have a heavy weather helm.
1). Make sure the mast is not raked too far back
2). Make sure you do not excessive weight in the bow
3). Do not sail heeled more than about 20 degrees (flatten and shorten sail if heeling more)
4). related to 3-it is esential (as with any boat) that you have the right size and shaped sails for the conditions you are sailing in. If you are overpowered you will have a lot of weather helm. Heeling is slow and uncomfortable and makes the boat hard to control. It looks good in photos, but is poor sailing to run around tipped over too much

Have you noticed this problem is worse on one tack or only shows up on one tack? If so, you may have a bent rudder, or the rudder is flatter on one side than the other (not symetrical).

The deeper rudder is not a bad idea, but is not the solution for your issue-the boat has a good and powerful rudder (some of the older King designed e-boats could use a bigger rudder for some types of sailing, but not your boat). You issues is either 1-4 or there is something wrong with the rudder. BUT if this is the case, the boat will feel vcery different on one tack from the other. If it is always the same, your answer lies between 1-4.

Cheers