Weather helm is the tendency of a boat to turn itself into the wind (weather). Too much weather helm and she’s not only hard to steer but slower than if balanced. How do you counteract the tendency for the boat to turn into the wind? You turn the rudder. So, the more weather helm the more you need to turn the rudder. Not only is this quite tiring but it is slowing the boat down. When you drag a large appendage sideways through the water it takes a lot of force to make it move. This force could be going into driving the boat faster but you are now using it turning the rudder sideways slowing you down.
While we haven’t sailed Ramble On enough to notice any significant weather helm, we’ve read from many Tayana 37 owners that it does exist. One solution for this has been to shorten the boom and mainsail. We took about 23 inches off the back of the boom. And that was the easy part. We then had to take the boom to a welder to put the end with the outhaul and reefing sheaves back on. After we stripped and refinished the boom, we reinstalled the reefing lines and outhaul.
