Whilst sailing my Sunrise yesterday I noticed a strange thing, to me at least.

With the boat broadside to the wind and the sails close hauled she will push squarely away with the wind. I have been fighting a severe case of weather helm too.

So here's my bright idea - I want to build a mast step to allow a more forward positioning of the mast. This, in turn will need reinforcement under the deck!! I've looked at a couple of suggestions for the Victoria and the V32 but do you all have any positive input on what type of under deck/step support might work well. Remember, this is only a 24" boat that I'm trying to modify.

I'm working on getting something bigger but it's the "Champagne taste on a beer budget" syndrome.

Hawk, I don't know that any reinforcement needs to be anything exotic or even complicated. I'm a great believer in always trying the simple solution first and the majority of times it works. If I were sitting in your shoes, I think I might just take one of my trusty popsicle sticks, cut it to fit and goo it up with a bit of fast epoxy.......then slap this on under the deck. That should stiffen up the deck and spread the load.

Also you can tune out a bunch of that weather helm by pulling the mast forward rather than to the rear. Most people think the more rearward their mast is pulled, the better. Play with some tuning.

This mast is stuck in a tube in the hull and doesn't lend itself to pulling forward much. If you look at a picture of a sunrise the mast is set almost centered to the keel. I would like to try moving it 1/2 to 3/4 inch forward to start.

Hi Silverhawk,

When I position the sails on my boat like you decribe, mine only goes side ways too, with little to no forward movement.

Sailing like this need the sails to be opened some 30 degrees, or else you'll get nothing but drift.

The weather helm can be remedied with more forward mastrake, like Pecos suggested.

Also, when the sails are hauled closed, the jib boom should point towards the stay.

I would try tuning your boat first, before you resort to drastic measures, after all, your boat won't be designed by a complete moron I presume...

Could you post some pictures?

Regards, Jan.

As for something bigger on a budget: look at the Thunder Tiger Voyager 1M, a good sailor, but it needs some work (sails and mainboom).
Ask pecos for a link to a cheap offer for this boat.

Voyager - Good suggestion, Jan. It's not much more than a Victoria but the Voyager is a 1 meter boat and already has CF masts. I think I found it on E Hobby for $150. I'll check and come back and post a link.

Link is: [link=http://www.ehobbies.com/rc-mrp-5559.html]voyager[/link]

Since the mast is 2 piece aluminum and stuck in a tube that runs through to the keel I don't get much forward rake w/out bending at the mid-mast joint. [&o]

Most other setups I see are sitting on top of the mast step and are easily raked fore/aft with adjustments to the rigging. If I let the rigging loose it would probably still sail.

The jib is set to point to the side stays and the boom points to the "corner" of the transom when close hauled. My reasoning behind not allowing side drift as above is the tests for CE and CLR. I haven't measured these as yet, it just seems that according to this I can guesstimate a change. Yes, I will do more measureing before making major changes.

I have decided to not give up the lease on the Sunrise yet. I could take the money and invest in another boat but, what the heck, it seems to me that sailors are MAJOR tweakers and tinkerers. The Sunrise seems to be a good "test bed" to experiment with.

Having looked at the Sunrise, the keel looks exeptionally wide and I agree the mast could be more forward.

Is replacing the mast with a carbon tube an option?
This would allow for more forward mastrake with a gradual curve.

Or, make a bigger jib to restore the sailbalance, or move the pivot point for the jib more forward to get the same result for testing purposes.

It sure looks like a nice boat, go make her sail nice aswell...

Regards, Jan.

This Stock picture might show a bit of what I'm talking about. The keel is quite wide and if you all notice the mast is planted more in the middle of the keel than to the front as usually seen.

My plan is to make a mast step that will allow movement of the mast, at the most, closer to the midway point on the leading edge of the keel taper. I have started playing with the position of the pivot point for the jib already.

I think I'm going to try and wedge a piece of balsa under the deck that will extend the length of the mast step. The deck is 'glass also it isn't too apt to break before it gives. I'm also going to try a piece of dowel rod for a trail mast so I won't be messing up the original mast yet.