I just got a used Aqua Cat 12.5, after sailing a Sunfish for many years.

I went out in fairly strong wind and the one daggerboard I had snapped and the tiller was almost impossible to control. It wanted to head upwind and took all my strength to hold back. I didn't notice the pull until later in the sail - think it got bad *after* I felt something go that I presume was the daggerboard snapping, but it is also possible the wind increased and/or I was getting tired. When I headed a bit downwind to go home, I almost needed two hands to hold it.

I thought the missing daggerboard might be the problem so I made two out of plywood. The problem did not go away, though I haven't been out in as strong a wind. The man who sold me the boat said you barely need a daggerboard on it.

The next thought is that the rudders are not being held down
sufficiently by their springs (being pushed back by flowing water) and that is giving them too much leverage on me.

Should I fiddle around bending the springs in some way? Has anyone else experienced this? I don't think sailing should be this much work - I've steered that sunfish and a 22' yacht many times and it is not very hard. With all this strain, I'm afraid the plastic rudders are going to snap next.

I find the location of the tillers awkward - has anyone improved on this?

Thanks for any help!

Tina

never been on your brand, but in gerneral:
there should be very little effort needed to steer. something is wrong

i would presume something got bent (or a screw came lose) if in fact the helm was ok to start but ended up hard to control.

on my cats (3 different ones over the years) it is almost always a case of the locking screw that controls the rake of the rudder (forward /under the boat and aft/away from the boat) has come lose and the rudder is to angled to far back... causing weather helm.

I have sailed an Aqua-cat,way back in the dark ages.
The only thing I remember is the weather helm, that grew progressively worse as the wind increased.As I remember it took two hands to steer.

FredS

Hi Tina,

I sailed an Aqua cat on Chataqua Lake back in the 60's they rented one there- then bought one sailed on Presque Isle in Erie,PA- boat has weather helm- increased with windspeed. It took us a while to learn to tack if the wind was over 10 mph. We usually sailed with 2 on about 300lb. crew weight and it wasn't terrible- I don't remember any adjustments we made other than to have David Bierig recut our sail since he said it was stretched- was better after that. John

Tina,

The Aqua Cat was designed back when the Dead Sea was only sick.
As a kid, I remember sailing on one a couple of times with my dad back in the mid 60's.

Borrowed one off the beach in the late 80's that was in VERY Good condition.

The only things I really remember about sailing the boat was that it wouldn't point worth a darn, and that it had a hellacious amount of weather helm.

You might be able to make some adjustments to make the problem less annoying,
like raking the rudders further under the boat,
and possibly raking the mast back more to move the center of effort forward.
(altho if i remember the design correctly, that might be a bit of a challenge)

Bottom line, my guess is that it is kind of "the nature of the beast" with that particular design.

Stephen

Thanks so much, everyone. I'm getting the picture. Wish I had known that before I bought it, but it was pretty cheap. The problem may be worse for me sailing alone at 140 lbs.

I don't understand: How would raking the mast *back* move the center of effort *forward*?

I was just in Lakewood last week: Casa Bonita!

Tina, I agree with you about the mast raking- usually that is done to a Hobie 16 to keep from burying the bow in heavy air. It would seem to add to weather helm by moving the sail- and center of effort aft. John