Dear Charles,
<br>A remark you made in your last post has me wondering... you said,
<br>"I really like to keep the main sheet tight, I will probably decrease the tension just a bit and play with the traveller. I will ease the mainsheet tension just in order to help the traveler to move more freely. "
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<br>Charles, when my main is so tight that the traveler won't go all the way past the hiking strap, there's usually very little twist in the main. Off the wind, in order to get both my high and low leach tells flying, unless the wind is howling, I usually find a need to twist off some.
<br>I'm told that this is because the wind is faster aloft, and so the apparant wind up there is further aft. Do you have tells on your leach, one set above the hound, and one set just above the lowest batten? That's Rick's suggested setup, with matching pairs in the luff, a few inches lower. When all the leach tells are fluttering, your main and traveler are balanced... then you just have to find where to set the traveler...
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<br>Someone else on the old forum, last year, told me to try my traveler a bit higher than usual for boarded boats.. the suggestion was 'about at the foot strap' .... I do notice less weather helm when the traveler is up there, instead of 6 inches further down, at the inboard edge of the leeward hull. I guess the main just can't torque the boat around as much, when it's held in closer, at the bottom where it's longer. Using Rick's telltale pattern, I can still get the entire leach into the game.
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<br>Finally, you can fight weather helm by bringing the CE forward, as has been suggested, ie; less mast rake. Another variable is to bring the CLR aft. If you deeply bury the bows of a 5.0/5.7, the CLR goes forward, inducing weather helm... when your cavitating/flipping event occurred, were the bows in deep? Maybe try getting a tad further aft?
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<br>Good Luck!
<br>Ed Norris<br><br>