Strangely, I have not been aware of strong weather helm. The helm is so light that I'm not aware of a tug at all. It could be weather helming, it is just that it hasn't forced itself into my conciousness by needing two hands.
The other possibility is that your rudders are raked forward and that's concealing any weather helm.
Was your measurement from the tang, or from the deck above the tang? Not that that makes a huge difference (probably less than an inch).
In any event, it seems that my forestay is a little bit shorter than yours (presumably this is a European vs US thing).
Paul
