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Hello everyone. This year I was invited to race on a melges 24 in wich I jumped at the opportunity. It has been an awesome summer of learning and sailing. I never really cared about how high my weekender could point until lately when I thought there was something i could do about it. On the melges if we rake back ( the mast)  it helps on the up wind. This is the same for wind surfers and other boats. When I got my weekender the forstay was made up and so I just went with it. It is crazy tight. I'm also considering Paul's keel mod. The one with the reduction of the fore foot. And possibly a aluminum centre board. The boat is great if you got no where to go. It reaches all over the place. It gets a bit frustrating when you actually want to make windward progress.

I have not noticed a whole lot of difference between the pointing ability of my weekender and most of the boats I sail near in the harbor.  The most that I notice is a bit more side slip than a deeper boat which may or may not add an extra tack.  I would personally not give up my shoal draft in favor of a deeper keel to make up the difference.  I can't say exactly but I think the gaff rig has more to do with lack of windward performance.  I had a nice talk with a fella that is a world cruiser this summer and his notion was that if I could vang the gaff, I could equal or best most of the Bermuda rigs I sail with.  There is too much twist in a gaff rig to pull it tight to the wind.  I can see the difference with my CP 16. 

According to the Stevenson website, the people who built center board weekenders, which was the first design, told them that the boat seemed to go to wind just fine without the board, and they weren't going to use it anymore.  So they tested it and dropped the board from the plans. 

Last week I took Duckie to a lake in my home town in northern Minnesota.  It is not a big lake by any means, but the wind was blowing from a perfect direction to push the boat as close to the wind as it can go.  I found that the favored tack pressed me right to the windward shore and would cause me to tack at least once if I could not pinch up a bit or side slipped at all.  I had enough wind to really fill the sails, one of which was my lapper, and I caught one nice little lift.  I managed to clear that windward shore with tons of room to spare while making no leeway that I could detect.  The best part was that I could sail on that tack from the leeward side of the boat because I had my wife with me on her one sail boat ride of the year.  I had about ten degrees of heel with her weight countering mine which is about what I like for going to windward.  It was grand being able to actually see my lapper pulling.

Anyway, try letting the boat heel a little and don't sheet in too much when you are trying to sail to windward.  You want that sharp chine to bite the water for you, and if you sheet in too hard you just put more twist into the main with no benefit that I can see.  If you try that I think that you will find the boat's groove isn't too bad.   

Al

So I added 2 shackles to my forstay and boat is a whole new creature. It's a pointing machine . I too have noticed that over sheeting is no benefit. between a close reach and close hauled seems to perform very well with minimal leeward slip. Found an epic cave on Okanagan lake, was able to sail right into it. Love the shoal draft. Here's a link to the cave http://youtu.be/H45bR7nm-lE. I am restoring my faith in the weekender and getting a lot more intamite with her sailing characteristics. Loving it.

Pointing abilities are governed by a number of factors, one of which is the Weekender's keel profile and another is her aspect area (span to chord ratio). Gaffers generally speaking, have several other factors that limit their upwind progress.

As the gaffer evolved, some effort started to crop up to address many of these issues. A good one is the elimination of the gaff jaw, in favor of a saddle. This appeared just at the end of the gaff's rule and essentially it's a U shaped piece of metal that fits around the mast and a regular gooseneck is fitted to it, which the gaff is attached. The saddle removes weight (always good), but more importantly is the drag reduction, a relatively tight fitting sheet metal shoe has over a the big hunks of timber, typical of a gaff jaw. Additionally are other windage reduction efforts, such as internal halyards or switching from line to wire, to decrease the exposed area. At the very end of the gaff era, many of the "new fangled" Bermudian rig features were being tried, such as mast tangs, instead of gaskets over thumb cleats,  hollow spars, wire stays, switching out mast and spar "irons" for lashings or swedged gaskets, short gaffs with higher peaks, etc.

The appendages also play a role, but only so much as the rig has potential to take advantage of. If you put a gaff rig on a Melges 24, it'll suck upwind, in spite of well shaped appendages, because of the limitations of the gaff rig. Even so, the appendages on a Weekender can benefit significantly from a better keel. As designed, the draft is 12", which is simply not enough, unless wisely arranged. If the keel was "modernized" a bit, leeward skid will decrease, maneuverability will improve and a slight pointing ability increase will be seen. With a few more inches of draft, say 15" or 16", you'll get more of everything, up to a point, where the rig just can't offer anything else, without upgrades. The difference between 12" or 16" of draft, just isn't worth getting crazy over, in fact, if it was me and I didn't want to play with a board, I'd go to 18", as knee deep water is pretty much the same as water half way up your calf, in terms of shoalness. If the deeper, modernized keel was married with rig improvements, even more improvement. Decreased leeward skid will be the biggest improvement with a modernized keel.

It's a bit like building a hot rod. You put in a cam and a 4 barrel and it does pretty good. Fatter tires, better brakes and more improvement is seen. Toss on some headers and a little bit better yet, add a shift kit and a little bit better still. One by one, they don't add much to the package, but once totaled up, significant improvements. A boat is the same deal. You'll see a huge improvement if you do it all at once, but incremental steps if it's piecemeal.

Everything you say is true Paul.  However for the way I use my weekender, it is important for me to be able to beach the boat which in many cases 16 inches of draft would prevent.  I hate to admit it but I have also come to appreciate the massive forefoot of the keel for making mistakes.  For example I once sailed my weekender at full speed up the concrete ramp of a public landing with no damage at all to the boat. 

That not withstanding, I have a couple theories about why weekenders sail the way they do.  Actually they are more like wondering. With the lateral resistance exceeding the length of the waterline, if there is any forward motion, wouldn't that be like having her on a rail?  I know that Duckie is a bear to spin around at the dock when I launch.  Coupled with that, if I let her heel too much would the sharp chine blanket the keel and allow more slippage?  I don't let her heel more than 10 to 15 degrees unless I screw up.  Even with that, would the sharp chine act somewhat as a resistance to lateral motion if even a little bit?  I'm thinking of Matt Layden's Paradox.  I've thought of this in the past many times, but would it be better to have most of the lateral resistance in the stern like most fixed keel boats?

Al

The shoal draft requirement is a set of compromises, some can be difficult to live with. The deep forefoot is a determent no matter how you look at it and the evolution of keel design, started cutting it back as soon as it was practical, from an engineering point of view, particularly in shoal draft craft. For example if the forefoot was no deeper than the bottom to topside plank joint, you could head into shallower water (at the bow), before it digs into the bottom. Look around at other shoal draft boats and see if you find any other boat with a deep forefoot, which raises the question of why not. Well, actually there are a few, typically quite antique middle eastern designs, but they sail much like a Weekender, with lots of leeward skid and difficulty maneuvering.

The chine runners used on Matt's Paradox work for different reasons, but comparatively, if a Paradox was matched with another, with a conventional centerboard or fixed fin of moderate draft, the differences would become very apparent. I've performed this test on a few occasions with identical centerboard one designs, where one had it's board slightly deployed, just enough to let it track straight, while the other had it's board in a more point of sail appropriate position. The results are as you'd expect, both could sail, but the boat with deeper aspect did far better in terms of leeward skid and progress upwind.

The other thing the deep forefoot does is resist the bow turning through an arc, when tacking or maneuvering. This is great when sailing in a straight line, but not so much when you want to tack. A centrally located appendage is much better is this regard, permitting the bow to come through the arc, as the helm is put down. Fixed keel boats (or well designed centerboarders for that matter), don't have their lateral area aft, so much as balanced under the sail plan and the CB. On a boat like Weekender the CE, compared to the CLP ideally is in the 12 to 15% range, closer to 12%, because of the low aspect rig and main appendage. Weekender is a bit "light" in this regard so the folks that rake the mast aft a bit, find she performs better, because this decreases the "lead" on the CE/CLP ratio and places the CLP closer to the CB (the point the boat wants to rotate around in a turn). This also tends to increase helm pressure, so the boat feels more "in the groove". Also Weekender tends to trim down at the stern, which causes her to "fall off", if you try to point very high. The more heel on, the worse this feels. A common solution is to trim her more bow down, which lifts up some of the wetted surface aft, effectively shifting the CLP forward, which does the same thing as raking the mast aft a bit.

Small boats are best "butt sailed", which simply means you can adjust the way a boat handles, just by farting good, or shifting your bottom a half a cheek one way or the other. With the steering wheel, your butt is basically married to one spot, because you can't scoot forward to help trim the boat (bow down), which is damn handy going up wind. In fact, it's a good idea to tie the helm down and steer with your butt for a while, just to get an idea how effective this is. I use to sail a class where there wasn't a movable rudder and you maneuvered by moving forward or aft to tack or jibe the boat. You should try this just to see what happens.

As far as minimum draft, I don't think anyone has any difficulty pushing a boat around on a beach in knee deep water, compared to a few inches below the knee. To me, minimum draft is the bottom of the boat, resting on the bottom. This is as shoal as you can get, though you'll need some sort of deployable appendage to sail effectively upwind. One comparison I'd like to see is a set of chine runners on a Weekender, that's had its keel removed, leaving the bottom clean. I'll bet there's slight improvement over the stock keel, not so much in leeward skid, but the ability to maneuver crisply. This isn't a big deal, until you need it, like in a crowded marina or anchorage or maybe short tacking up a channel. In the end you just have to decide what's most important and establish the priorities that these compromises force on you. To me, I want to sail as well as practical and will deal with the launch and recovery operations as a matter of procedure development. Of course this isn't you, so . . .

Since I replaced my wheel with a tiller I typically sail while hugging the cabin bulkhead.  This has produced a noticeable increase in speed as well as made tacking a bit easier.  I mentioned that weekender is a bear to turn around at the dock which is obvious to anyone who has tried it, while my shoal draft CP 16 is a snap to spin.  There is a difference in tacking, but I have to look for it.  That is one of the reasons why I ask these questions.  The dramatic differences in shape don't seem to hold up to the same extent as one would expect.  What does hold up in my eyes is the problem of side slipping.  Unless I have a good head of steam up on either of my shoal draft boats, they both will side slip pretty badly.  My canoe with its big ole lee board will do the same much to my surprise.  Next time I go out in the weekender, I will pay attention to the boat instead of the sails when I tack to see if I can feel a sticking point or an increase in resistance over the CP. 

From time to time I get wind that is steady enough to tie off everything on the CP and sail her with my feet.  I did this on the last outing.  You are right, it is fun.  Weekender is just so sensitive that I don't often get to do more than tie off the tiller and use my butt and the main sheet to steer.  I have been thinking about putting a swivel cam cleat on the boom like Keith Shergold did to be able to tie off the main and still react to a strong puff instantly.  Until I can let go of the sheets and tiller together on my weekender I doubt that I will be able to move the boat around and learn about it better. 

I don't know, maybe I am just getting used to the way weekender sails and don't notice things that just seem normal to me now.

Al

Very astute observations Al. Your Com-Pac does skid off a pretty good bit, compared to other boats in its general range, mostly because of it's lack of appendage aspect ratio. It's not as bad as a Weekender, but certainly one of the least effective keels of the production pocket yacht offerings. Your canoe skids off, because it lacks sufficient rocker along the keel, to permit it to pivot around it's CB efficiently. Canoes are designed to track straight, so turning is labored a little. This said, you're little CP cruiser can tack though 70 degrees with some practice. Try that with a Weekender, which is pinching a bit at 90 degrees. Both boats are pretty sensitive to trim (crew position) and can be adjusted to a fairly fine degree, given some practice. Again, it's the compromises of fixed shoal draft and why this design feature, isn't used much, with designers preferring to use a retractable appendage of some sort.

I've lived in shoal waters all my live, so I assume a board of some type and don't think much about it. Many think it an inconvenience, but it's something you get used to. I rather have to play with a hoisting lanyard or winch then be constantly checking charts and the sounder to insure I have enough under my fixed fin. I say this owning a 8' draft sailor and down here, you're a mile offshore to insure the fin doesn't bounce off the bottom, when the tide runs out. Now, I suppose I could cut this fin off and rig up a drop keel or board, but at the bottom of this fin is a 12,000 hunk of lead, so the hoisting contrivance would need to be pretty stout.

From What I have read you really do have to deal with some skinny water.  A couple weeks ago I sort of ran aground with the CP.  Where I sail that boat the bottom is nice washed sand, so I sailed right through it.  With all three of my boats I find that light air is the biggest problem.  If I have a good head of steam up, all of them track great as long as I don't try to pinch too much.  And of the three of them the weekender with the lapper is the light air champ.  So far, buying the CP has worked out great.  I am learning about the differences and strengths of both kinds of sailboats.  And I don't have to sit home if the wind pipes up too much. 

My canoe has two inches of rocker on a 14 ft. boat.  Do you think that is too little rocker?  I'm thinking about building another one and would appreciate your input.

Al

The difference with good sailors and great sailors is their ability in light air. Anyone can look good in 8 knots of wind, but you really find out how good you and your boat are, when the wind drops down to a few knots and every ounce of energy, needs to be extracted from the rig. Maximizing boat speed in light wind strengths is tough and requires focus. I've won a lot of races because I learned how to sail in light fluky winds.

2" of rocker, across 168" (14') isn't much. There's a bunch of different canoe designs, some well suited to carry a load, while others are twitchy things, designed for rapid maneuverability in rough, turbulent water. Most are generic, capable of carrying a healthy load, tracking straight, so you don't have to chase it around with the paddle or in contrary winds/currents and being fairly easy to propel. A canoe that sails well, usually doesn't paddle as well as others. A canoe that is designed to handle broken water usually can't hold a straight course in smooth water, but will be very responsive to steering. When you look at the lines for different canoes (or any boat for that matter) it's difficult for the novice to tell the difference and the impact these subtle differences, will make on the completed boat. When it comes to human powered craft, you're best advised to select from a designer that specializes in this type of boat. CLC, Kudzu and others are well acquainted with these subtitles, so talk with them about what you might want.