Mirage 30

[Bajadude]

Hello, i'm new to this forum, so i'm not sure i'm in the right spot?
I am in the process of buying /84 Mirage 30, during the Sea trial we caught a puff of about 12kts, on a close reach, the wheel spun out of my hand and the boat rounded up. The seller said" oh that's a safety feature, we really like that", now i was taken aback as i've never seen that happen before. We were heeled to about 30 degrees and about a foot of freeboard when this happened.
Is this normal???
Thanks for anything related to this.

[TrentePieds]

Yes, that's normal for a boat of this particular design idiom. Never sailed a Mirage 30 but I sailed the 27s a lot. The seller was pulling you leg. Heeling to 30º is absolutely counterproductive in any boat designed in the modern idiom. 12ºs would be common enuff because that's where the boat sails best. 15º on the clinometer is an indication that it's time to shorten sail. 18º of heel means you'd better get on with the job before you broach as you apparently did.

All well-designed boats will have just a touch of weather helm when heeled to 12º. That is indeed a safety feature because if you take you hand of the tiller, the boat will stand up on its feet and luff with no input from you. In addition to being a safety feature it also permits you to know what the boat is doing just by the slight pressure of the tiller against your hand, and by the "thrumming" the water flow over the rudder transmits to you hand.

Wheel steering in a boat as small as 30 feet is not desirable because that "feel" for the boat is destroyed by the wheel's linkage to the tiller.

When you heel a boat of this particular design idiom - it's not just the Mirage 30, it's all modern cruiser/racers - the rudder pulls out of the water either partly or completely due to the boat riding up on its midships bilge, so that you can no longer control the boat, and it broaches wildly as you have now experienced.

An aggravating factor is that boats of this type sail to a large degree on their headsails, and people therefore tend to carry something like a 135% or 150% genny long after it's safe to do so. If at 12knots of wind you've come down to a 100% jib and full main, at 15knots a 70% jib and a single reefed main, at 20knots a storm jib of about 50% and a double reefed main, you can sail comfortably and safely because the boat will not broach. You'll find also that you will go FASTER through the water.

Always consider when you take a boat for sea trials that the seller will know no more than you do, and may well know less (that might be why he's selling!) so don't ever believe anything the seller says unless it can be independently corroborated :-)

Welcome to our forum, and be assured that any question you may have can be answered by the "old hands" here.

Cheers

TrentePieds

[letsgetsailing3]

Yes, normal, and yes, you'll know to make adjustments before that happens after you know the boat better.

[Mirage35]

I don't know how the designs compare but our Mirage 35 will try to do that if we have too much sail up. We're learning to reduce sail earlier and more than we first thought was appropriate, and get much easier handling with no loss of speed.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, dude.

[Bajadude]

Gracias trente pieds.
I'm a cat sailor trying to learn how to live with only one hull under me.
Great advice and i should have thought about it, makes total sense.
Thanks for the kind words, we need more of that in this world.
Salud salle pues.