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O'Day 25 difficult to turn?

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  rccu 
#1 ·
I chartered an older (I'm guessing '80s) O'Day 25 for a day on a lake. The wind was light to moderate. It had a swing keel (or maybe something similar, but the marina called it a swing keel).

During several tacks, we would get part way through the turn, and then it just couldn't keep going. It felt like the rudder was too small to keep the boat pointed in the turn. The wind would push us back around and it was quite annoying.

Now I'm quite a new sailor, so this very well could have been my skills. But I didn't have this issue when sailing a Capri 22 or Cataline 25 in similar winds.

Might this have been the boat, or was it probably me?

Thanks.
 
#3 ·
I believe it was down (and sure hope so!). The marina pointed to a line and said that's the swing keel - don't touch it. The line was short, which made me think the keel was down (i.e., if the line was long, that may indicate that the swing keel has been pulled up).

Come to think of it, I don't recall sailing upwind very much. Because it was a lake, we didn't have a destination. We mostly went from broad reach to broad reach, back and forth. When it was time to come in we were on a broad reach.
 
#4 ·
This sounds very strange. The Oday 25 is a very manuverable boat. What you describe sounds like a boat going into "irons". That is, you are trying to swing the bow of the boat through the wind from one tack to another, and the boat stalls before it can get through the manuver, with the wind taking hold of the headsail and pushing the boat back onto the original tack. This can happen on any boat when you do not have sufficient momentum to keep moving forward (thereby keeping the flow across the rudder and giving steerage) because the boat wasn't moving fast enough when the manuver was started. With light winds, getting into irons becomes more likely. Next time, before putting the helm down and beginning the tack, fall off the wind a bit to build up some speed. Then put the helm alee. Keep the jib sheeted for the original tack and let the jib become back winded (i.e., let the wind catch the "wrong" side of the jib); this will really help swing the bow of the boat through the wind. As soon as the boat passes through the eye of the wind, release the jib sheet and haul in the opposite sheet and trim on the new tack.
 
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