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I seem to notice a tendency for the boat to round up into irons while sailing to wind even when I am hard over fighting against it. I have experienced this with a wide variety of sail balance, it seems the rudders just loose effect while heeled over.
I'm thinking of making some rudders that are a bit wider to give them more bite. This should help with the standard docking steering these boats are famous for as well.

Has anyone made their own rudders?

Check your mast rake. It sounds like you have too much aft rake. Keep it at ~2º. Also, don't carry quite as much sail for the wind you are sailing in. Anything more that ~15º heel and you're making more leeway than headway. Keep your sail shape flat when beating. Keep it on and even keel. The X will sail very well, if you stay more upright, with less sail. More rudder will just make it sail slower with more heel.

~Rich

Our 26X was PIG....slightest bit of a gust and she'd round up...adjusted mast as far as the front stay would allow...much better but probably could go just a bit more!!.Now going to instal another stay fixture above the current one (too lazy to shorten front stay because of furling gear etc) allowing front stay adjustment again...careful not to take it to lee helm ie in stages....MIND YOU THE REPLACEMENT OF THE BLOWN OUT SAILS ALSO HAD INFLUENCE

Yep, forgot to mention blown out, baggy sails. Thanks Bart. When properly rigged, I find the Mac X to be a very docile boat.

~Rich

My initial reaction to the Mac was one of disappointment in its sailing ability but having built 2 other trailersailers and having set up the rigs myself...I knew there was room for improvement even to the extent that my sportpilot will handle a lot of gusts with ease...prior to adjustment it had no hope...now all is good and worth some tweeking and adjusting.Certainly NO need for rudder replacement although I do believe there are aftermarket ones available...too expensive to send to Australia

Hmm, we'll we were heeled over pretty good. This last time I had the storm jib up and the main reefed in about 10-20mph winds. The main is pretty baggy and could use a tune up and i will probably add a second reef.
The forestay is pretty darn tight, I suppose I could try to loosen the stays one notch and see if the forestay tightens further, the furler is off the boat right now because the genoa needs some work, but the regular forestay is much tighter than the furler.

Hi Kevin,

I had the exact same problem at first. Check your mast rake, but here are three things to try with your sailing:

1) hard over on the rudders stops forward momentum because the rudders stall, acting as brakes and and create a lot of drag without turning the boat effectively. When the boat slows, lift moment becomes heeling moment and you go over further, which causes rounding-up. These boats are set to steer in both sail and power modes, and while sailing they oversteer dramatically. Keep helm rudder angle less than about 30 degrees to avoid stalling. I'm looking at ways to change the stops for "sailing mode" to prevent oversteer but haven't come up with anything simple yet.

2) uncleat the mainsheet and sail with it in your hand for a while. Whenever it wants to pull hard, let it out, and when it goes soft, harden it up a bit. Keep about 10 lbs. of tension on it. This should keep the boat at an even 20 degree heel, right where the hull wants to be. When the boat is at proper heel, the rudders work just fine and everything is at its design efficiency. The number one trick to smooth sailing is to control the mainsheet actively to manage heel. You'll find that this usually matches what the sails want for aerodynamics as well, and the boat will sail faster for it. I get my best speeds doing this.

3) when managing the mainsheet can't keep heel under 20 degrees, you are over sheeted. Furl in the jib as necessary to get to where you can manage the heel with the mainsheet again. When the boat is upright for lack of wind, unfurl.

Those three things should solve your problems instantly presuming your mast rake is correct or has been fixed.

In addition you might also try moving the traveller to leeward and giving the mainsail more twist by easing the boom vang (if you have one).

- B.

No traveler on the x

I'm out right now in 12-15 mph erratic winds. I loosened the stays one notch and was able to tighten the forestay quite a bit more. It seems to have helped a lot! Also when going to wind if I have the jib sheeted in nice and neat and the main sail out just before the point of luffing, it seems happy and fairly flat on the heel. Top speed on the iPhone shows 7mph. Mostly on a reach. 6mph to wind.

Oops- forgot, no traveler. Glad to see you,re working things out. Makes me jealous, though- the steady rain has melted the snow here!

Kevgrn114 wrote:No traveler on the x

I'm out right now in 12-15 mph erratic winds. I loosened the stays one notch and was able to tighten the forestay quite a bit more. It seems to have helped a lot! Also when going to wind if I have the jib sheeted in nice and neat and the main sail out just before the point of luffing, it seems happy and fairly flat on the heel. Top speed on the iPhone shows 7mph. Mostly on a reach. 6mph to wind.

Yep, that all sounds correct. When you keep the mainsheet out to the point just before it luffs, you've got the best laminar airflow on the main and it's getting maximum lift. Tightening it in more will increase drag and heeling. 7mph is 6+ knots, and hull speed is 6.4 knots so you're doing about what the boat is capable of doing under normal conditions.

You can tighten the boomvang to flatten the main even more in heavy air.

~Rich

Yeah I had the vang as tight as I could get it. A great day of sailing!
So when I get my genoa fixed and put the roller furler back on I'm going to need to adjust it to fit with the newly adjusted stays. That should be interesting.

Of course, a tighter vang will close up the leech of the sail which will increase weatherhelm too. And heeling, if those were still causing any trouble.

Glad you had another good day on the water!

- Brian.

Of course, you can always change from the stock rudders. We were not happy with the way the boat pointed (and were too lazy to do the minor repairs to the stock rudders) and bought new Ida rudders for our X. The boat does handle and point better than with the stock rudders.
http://www.ruddercraft.com/catalog/prod ... 57f9561e5a