Rudder alignment?

N

nutzuns

New Member
Noticed last night (in light airs) that when the tiller is exactly centered in the boat, the boat does not sail straight towards a mark etc. I needed to either heel the boat or use a slight amount of tiller to get me there.

Is that right, or could my tiller be out of alignment? Concerned I am slowing the boat by using unnecessary rudder.
 
the breeze (though light) is still trying to push the boat sideways.
So... adjusting your weight in the boat is the answer to making it track straight woithout pulling/pushing the rudder. try moving forward a little more & see if that doesn't give you a neutral rudder... though just a little weather helm helps your pointing.
 
There are a number of things you can check/verify - Roshambo pointed out one. Sailing with a slight amount of heel is also going to cause the boat to require some rudder correction to actually track straight.

The location of the gudgeon is done with a jig (including the drilling of the holes), so it's pretty rare that it's off, but since humans are involved.....
Checking that is usually done with the daggerboard and rudder in place, with the boat upside down. From in front of the bow, eyeball and make sure they both line up on centerline and vertically.

I've had the section of the rudderhead where the tiller inserts become slightly twisted so that when the rudder is straight, the tiller is no longer centered - this usually happens when one side of the SS is subject to a lot of load, like trying to bear away from the top mark in a big breeze without keeping the boat flat and easing the mainsheet. You can either put the rudder head in a vise to straighten up the sides, or shim the tiller on one side so it's centered again..
 
Thanks, both make a lot of sense, as its an old boat I'll take a look at alignment but probably me not keeping the boat dead flat...
 
I have known one of my mates gudgeons to be a little out which does make an incredible difference! Also, might be worth replacing them anyhow as, as they get worn then this starts to contribute to play in your steering; if you have a little bit of play across all the joints in the rudder, obviously this is slow but reasonably cheap and easy to fix. Slightly off the point I know!!!
 
Gybe or tack and see if the problem switches sides??

In fact...Measuring whether the rudder is centered is difficult but..If the boat feels about the same on either tack???... Better alignment probably doesn't matter anyway..

Note: we were messing with a centerboard trunk the other day>
1. Looking at the hull from behind, I thought the centerboard truck was crooked. The "Trying to sight straight back from the trunk and then stick my finger on the bottom to see where it pointed" system had me placing my finger on the bottom about an inch to port.

But...When we stuck the Centerboard in the trunk and flopped it back and forth, it seemed to come out about exactly the same on either side.

Worries over
 
I did an eye ball check last weekend on my "new" boat (actually a Radial Worlds event boat) and the attached picture is what I saw. Note that the centerboard can lean one way or the other by a tiny amount because of the "slop" in the trunk. I don't know why I took a picture...

Tracy
 

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Off topic totally. But has that hull been buffed and polished for hours or do new Lasers just have a much much better finish than they use to?

Mine looks terrible in comparison....thats a beautiful finish
 
Laser76489 said:
Off topic totally. But has that hull been buffed and polished for hours or do new Lasers just have a much much better finish than they use to?

Mine looks terrible in comparison....thats a beautiful finish
Click to expand...

That is what it looked like when I picked it up. Since it was an event boat sailed by a woman (as I recall, from Japan) in the Woman's Radial Worlds, I would not be surprised if it had been washed and waxed prior to the start of racing.

Still, new boats do look pretty nice.

Tracy
 
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