gladesville bridge to port hacking ??

[paclet]

well there top hatters i sailed the old t h back from gladsville and what a voyage with quite a bit of learning done on the way , from syd heads it took 4 hours witch is really good time i thought the 25 knot ne breeze prob helped somewhat had to reef the main and battle the helm vigirously as the weather helm was cronic. round up was an issue it i think it may be a rig set up issue ?? also learned that i phones and water no good and managed to wreck the auto helm to much load maybe ?? luckly had my dad and brother and friend to help mind you i think my friend roberts had a rough introduction to the seas he may also be broken but all in all a good voyage

[Miker]

Glad you made it and had a good time doing it. Uneventful trips are always nice, but then you never have a story to tell afterwards.

By the sound of it, if you had severe weather helm, you may have needed to just allow a little wind spill, or close to it. Top Hat's usually don't get too much weather helm unless they're either over powered or sheeted on to much.... at least that's my limited experience. Others may have better knowlege.

Michael

[storm petrel]

Congratulations on making it in such good time. For what it is worth: I generally put the first reef in the main when the wind reaches 15-18 knots and the second reef (which is deep on my boat) at 20-25 knots. I have found that my boat sails comfortably and fast in 20-25 knots with a double reefed main and about 80-100% Jib. Beyond this I have to reduce the jib considerably. In this sort of breeze down wind in a seaway I either pole out the jib and put a preventer on the double reefed main or fly an old heavy weather gennaker off the anchor roller and give it a bit of slack on the halyard to get it away from the main. My boat also has quite a bit of weather helm if it is over canvased.

Mark