Rudder trim

Also sorted out the rudder trim.

Up to now the boat had a very neutral helm, but with a touch of lee helm after putting in a reef in the mainsail.

The mast have been raked back as well, and that improved things a bit, but not enough.

The other remedy is to trim the rudder blade's rake aft by a few degrees. Simple job with a kick-up rudder. You just drill a new hole for the locking pin.

The rudder is a composite construction. High density pu foam with a hardwood insert taking the compression loads of the gudgeons. There are also hardwood inserts placed where all the pivot bolts etc pass through the blade.
An advantage of building the boat yourself is that you know whats inside and can drill with confidence!

So the new hole is drilled and that should perfect the steering for the long haul to St Helena.

Next time I work with epoxy I will seal the exposed timber and fibres from the drilled hole.

It was reassuring to look inside the hole and to be reminded just how strong the layup of cloth on the rudder is. The cloth layups on each side of the insert is about 9 mm! Farrier says that if built to spec, you will not break the rudder. I can see why.