Balancing a C34 sailing to weather

[dw]

Interesting, how many fin keels C34 were made? it seems most I see advertised are wing.  Did you note any difference with the water tanks, starboard vs aft tank full vs empty?  Do you have any details on rig turn fixed backstay? Thanks for all of you attention to detail will have take notes.

[PaulJacobs]

Our experience is that all the extra "cruising weight" has relatively little effect on the sail trim conditions necessary to achieve sailing to weather with ZERO hands on the wheel.  Nancy and I typically sail with the water and fuel tanks either full, or very nearly full.  Since we no longer race Pleiades we are not "weight fanatics".  Thus, while we do not have air conditioning, a TV, or a microwave, and do not bring along a work table with a vise in the quarterberth, we do sail with spare lines, spare blocks, a pretty full tool box, and four group 31 batteries.  In regular cruising mode with a week or even two weeks of food and ice aboard we probably have about 1500 lbs. of "non-racing trim" additional weight aboard. 

For example: (1) full water tanks = 72 gallons x 8 lb./gallon = 576 lbs., (2) a full fuel tank = 23 gallons x 7 lb./gallon = 161 lbs., (3) three "extra" group 31 batteries = 195 lbs., (4) a pretty full tool box = 50 lbs., (5) about 50 lbs. of spare parts (nuts, bolts, screws, extra blocks, etc., (6) a dodger (probably 30 lbs.),(7) a spare second anchor (20 lb. Danforth, another 40 feet of 5/16" chain, and 180 feet of 5/8" diameter nylon tri-braid rode weighing a total of about 100 lbs., and ( food, beverages, and ice for a two week cruise (perhaps another 300 lbs.).  So how much does all that "non-racing trim" stuff weigh?  About 1500 pounds.  Our experience is that Pleiades will STILL self-steer with or without all that extra "cruising" weight.  The sail trim settings may be ever so slightly different to accomplish self-steering -  including main sheet tension, traveler position, vang tension, outhaul tension, jib halyard tension, jib fairlead position, etc., etc.  Simply stated "everything effects everything"- even if only a tiny bit.

One more substantial change we made a few years ago was to permanently retire Pleiades fixed, three-blade propeller in favor of a two blade FlexOFold folding propeller.  Even though we do not race Pleiades, a bit more boat speed is always nice, if just to allow one to arrive at an anchorage in daylight vs. dark.  This was one of the best additions we have ever made to the boat!  Indeed, there is substantially less overall drag due to the folding prop.  You really notice the difference in light airs.  Before, if the true wind was less than five knots sailing became pretty tedious, and the "Iron Genoa" would inevitably come on.  However, with the folding propeller we find we are often still sailing down to about 3 knots of true wind.  That might not sound like much of a difference, but I would guess that 15 - 20% of our sailing, especially in the morning or in the evening happens with true wind speeds in the 3-5 knot range. 

Amazingly, we see almost no difference in performance with the 2 blade FlexOFold propeller under power.  We still reach about 5 knots in flat water, with a clean bottom, at roughly 2000 RPM, 6 knots at about 2500 RPM, and close to 7 knots at 3000 RPM which is just about WOT for our 2014 Yanmar 3YM30.  Performance in reverse is actually even better than before, since there is less stern-to-port "prop walk".  Obviously, since she is now sailing a bit faster, the new "optimum tweak conditions" are ever-so-slightly different, but the overall result remains the same.  When properly tweaked, our C34 will sail to weather with ZERO hands on the wheel for many MINUTES at a time.  What a blast!

Fair winds and following seas.
Paul

[oldcatsailor]

Paul , Moody Blue sail 1064 tr wing keel my wife would comment she's sailing her self again when things feel right .