first time out

Hi there everybody, Just wanted to share my experience of with sailing my mossie. Just got one thing to say holy [email]s@#t.[/email]
First time out and we had this thing flying on one hull for ages passing mono's left right and centre (munch munch mono's for lunch). We didnt actually go out to race as we just wanted to test and see what we are capable of and find out what we can do better to go quicker, but when you fly past a mono on one hull and your only less than 5 meters away from them you know your on something awesome.
There's only one thing that Im dissapointed about and thats the fact that I didnt get my hands on one sooner( alot sooner).
Just one last question how heavy is the steering on one of these things? I found it to be very challenging to turn the boat a few times.
cheers
will

Shouldn't be too heavy while sailing straight, just a little bit of weather helm. Just to cover all bases, are your rudders all the way down, ie. vertical?

When tacking/gybing I had a lot of pressure on the rudders. Now that I've built new rudder boxes the pressure has decreased significantly while manoeuvring. It has to do with the pivot point between the tiller and the tie-bar. The hinge/universal joint should be about 2 inches in from the centreline of the rudder blades.

Wildtoy

Hehehe, I know exactly how you feel.. my first time on my mozzie was only 4 months ago. I came from a Windrush Cat and yeh "Holy S%^$" great fun though.

My rudders aren't heavy at all.. like nickb said make sure they are fully down and if so, is the leading edge of the rudders inline with the pivot point? If the leading edge is behind this pivot point it can get real hard to steer.

Glad to hear your enjoying it...

Cheers

Wildtoy,

Was it weather helm or lee helm ? Are the rudders vertical AND aligned with the rudder pins ? If it was none of these there are also some threads about Ackerman angles and rudder geometry (inboard rudder turns more than the outboard rudder because it has a smaller turning radius and is closer to the turning axis).

Regards,

Peter

Wildtoy,

Just a thought; have you sailed cats before ? If you were used to sailing monohulls and throwing the rudder to tack fast then you need to be considerably more gentle with the cat otherwise you'll stall the hulls and end up in irons. Just get up as much speed as you can then take it easy on the tiller and let it turn gently through the eye of the wind.

It may take a bit of practice but once you get it right you'll never forget. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Regards,

Peter

Thanks for the idea's everyone. After close inspection I found the port side upper rudder mount bent out of shape, so Ive bent that into place and now Im just checking to see if the rudders are vertical and parallel with each other.