Weather helm on a shoal draft Catalina 27...

[YOLO110]

Hi All,

I have owned my Catalina 27 for 5 years now. It's one of the last ones made and is the 'shoal draft' version with the weighty wing keel.

The yacht sails beautifully in winds unto 10-15 kts. But above that I get horrendous weather helm. Recently had a new set of top quality sails and new rigging.

The mast is plumb upright. I cannot tilt it any further forward to move the CP forward, as the base of the mast would then not be flat on the deck fitting/compression post.

I have tried reefing the main down, sailing with just the headsail, and every combination in between. As the boat heels, the load on the rudder increases a lot and it's too the point where I literally cannot get the bow down, so it's quite challenging in a close racing fleet situation!

The heel never gets the leeward rail under... the boat rounds up long before that point!

Given my sails are new, flat and the rig is well set-up by a professional rigger, I am wondering if helm is due to;;

1: The very full hull shape, or

2: perhaps that my shallow (and over-balanced) rudder is simply not up to the task, 'stalling' early.

I am aware that Catalina make a deeper and much better balanced spade rudder but it's an expensive option.

Do any Catalina 27 owners on here have any sage advice please?!

Cheers,

Pete. :>)