I have a Lockley Newport Blue Crab sailboat. In higher winds it gets very sensitive and easily spins or overturns. Why does it handle fine in lighter winds?
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ANSWERS: 5
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You might try a smaller jib, in heavy air anyways. Shift more sail area to aft to retain more tiller control and not spin. Are you sailing in a bay? Lakes? Calm waters?
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You’re probably sailing stalled or with too much sail up. When a boat heels excessively the rudder is also at an angle and is trying to lift or sink the stern. The boat rounds up suddenly when you have pushed the rudder over too far and the rudder has stalled. The rudder stops working at this point and the boat rounds up. The Blue Crab is a beamy boat and this makes stalling the rudder when heeled excessively more likely. If you can’t reduce sail area and easing the sheets mare would lead to the sails flogging try raising the centerboard some. This will reduce your pointing ability a little but it will move the center of lateral resistance back and lesson the amount of heal. Remember, flat is fast!
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I read the other answers and they sound knowledgible. If you have all your sail up, you are indeed sensitive to high winds. Lighter winds have less ability to heel your rudder out of the water. Reef early. It can be real fun to sail under a stormsail in even a moderate breeze, cause it shows you things about your helm response, how it runs,points up, etc etc. Good question!
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I also have a Lockley Newport Blue Crab and have not had it out much (yet). I had to make a new rudder and centerboard and wonder if my guess was right. Can you share any photos or give me the dimensions of the rudder (i.e depth below stern going into water or length overall) and overal length of centerboard? I am in Southern CA and have a larger sailboat too, so I could try help. The general answers above sound good. I am curious about your sails and wonder if they are stock or you had new ones made? Again, photos may help. ps. I have been sailing for 35 years.
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Well, first of all ... it's a small dinghy; it's MADE for lighter winds. That is, it's always going to be 'sensitive' to whatever winds are available, which is why it works well in lighter winds. As for the fact of it "spinning" in heavier air, you have pretty much described what happens with extreme weather helm. This is the boat's natural way to round into the wind and shed the excessive wind load on the sails, short of capsizing. Read the definition of "weather helm" in Wikipedia http://tinyurl.com/7sgwen and see if that describes what's happening to you. The main thing is, as others have already said: Keep it flat!
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