Hi Tony,

I often hear sailors talk about tucking their rudder blades forward past the pivot point to reduce weather helm, to my understanding this has nothing to do with the weather helm of the boat, it only effects the balance of the rudder blade itself. What it can do is stop you from feeling the weight of weather helm, which I think is a bad thing. I think it is OK to have the leading edge past the pivot point, but not to the extent you have no feel of if you are pulling on the tiller or not.

Weather helm or Lee helm is a result of the balance between the centre of effort in the sails and the centre of lateral resistance of the parts of your boats that are under water, ie.Hulls below the water line, the centreboards and the rudder blades. I don't think there is enough adjustment in any of the parts in the water to make a difference to the weather helm, apart from pulling your centreboards up.

So I always adjust the mast rake to balance the boat to the point where it turns into the wind when you let go of the tiller, but you are not constantly pulling the tiller against the weather helm to keep it sailing straight, close hauled when you are on trapeze in about 15 kts. of wind.

Regards Gary.