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Last Thursday I had a chance to practice what the last tips article was referring to, tuning the boat to sail by itself. I was able to balance the T37 pretty well. I did a video at the pond with the boat sailing in a good breeze. It’s narrated.

I would normally have a bit of weather helm trimmed as I think its a bit faster, but it sailed pretty well on its own and cought the lifts and headers efficiently.

Here’s the link:

Here is a good article on how a properly tuned boat will sail with no or minimal rudder activity, also it talks about taking “bites” when going upwind.

I’ve always been taught that on full size boats two to three degrees of weather helm is fast, while that applies with rc sailboats, it has the tradeoff of having a bit of “brake” applied by the rudder. I believe having the rig powered up, and a nuteral helm where the boat sails itself upwind is very efficient with rc sailboats. A national champion told me he sets his boat up where he has minimal weather helm, so he needs to flick his rudder approx every 5 to 8 seconds to keep it powered up. That works well.

Here is the link:

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Aa96c83c3-9295-4a92-a262-eb51cede6a63

Enjoy!

Satch