hobie one 12' monohull sailboat

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Severe lee helm in light wind on Hobie One 14 - why?

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I'm just beginning to learn to sail. A few weeks ago, I completed a 12 hour sailing class with mostly Sunfish sailing, which was pretty easy and confidence-inspiring. The last day, the instructor showed us how to rig a Hobie One 14 (monohull, regular mailsail+jib rigging) and we sailed it around a bit. This afternoon, my girlfriend and I rented the same Hobie to sail on a small lake. However, our confidence was blown away when we realized we couldn't tack, and in fact had difficulty holding a beam reach. The tiller required a substantial angle just to hold a reach, and when trying to turn slightly into the wind, even holding the tiller hard over, it would just refuse to turn. So, we lamely zig-zagged a while trying to figure out what was going wrong, until we ran out of room and got stuck on the rocks on the lee of the lake. Our demise was accelerated somewhat when we accidentally popped the rudder out of its gudgeons while fiddling with it to see if there was something wrong with it. It felt pretty bad having to concede defeat and have the park ranger tow us back to the dock; but even more so, I'm totally confused by what happened. None of the staff on duty at the lake were sailors, so they weren't able to explain it. So I thought I'd give this forum a try... The wind was pretty light, about 6 or 7 knots, with occasional gusts. In retrospect, we may not have rigged the downhaul line correctly. We also forgot to insert the battens into our sail, but we thought it should be OK without them. Other than the roach flapping, the sails seemed to fill with air in the proper way. I'm pretty sure everything else, the rudder and the jib, was correct. One annoyance was that the drain plug was missing, so we took on a small amount of water in the cockpit. We checked the centerboard line, and it seemed to be extended correctly. We checked the rudder afterwards, and I'm pretty sure we had installed it correctly. I'm totally at a loss about what happened. My best guess is that we had incorrectly rigged our mailsail some sort of way to introduce excessive lee helm. It also seems like low wind was a contributor, because whenever we got a good gust, things seemed to work a little better. Can anyone help explain this, or have any ideas what we might have done wrong?  

aaronwindward said: .. We checked the centerboard line, and it seemed to be extended correctly. .. Click to expand...

aaronwindward, Welcome to SailNet. Believe it or not Hobies are not as easy to sail as a Sunfish. I'm with John Pollard in that your description makes it sound as if one of the center boards (there should be 2, one in each ama or hull, no?) was not properly deployed. The rudders can also kick up too and you need both of them fully deployed to steer. I would also try to remember to put the battens in the main sail as without them the sail can become baggier then it really should be. Too much main sail pressure should give you weather helm though and not lee helm. Too much jib pressure should give you lee helm. You could try furling in the jib a bit or even dropping it altogether if you feel too much lee helm. It wont be such a fast or fun ride with only the main but it should give you more weather helm and be safer. It is not so easy to tack a Hobie-cat. These cats don't point so well into the wind to begin with and will often end up in irons in the middle of a tack. One trick is to leave the jib cleated in and let it back wind which will push the bow through the wind. Once the boat is pointed the right direction you then tack the jib. Another trick is to simply jibe instead of trying to tack although you should be able to do both. Don't give up. Try it again but have someone look over the set up before you go out. Hobies can be a blast so have fun, learn how to set it up and sail it.  

The centerboard not being down is the likely culprit as pointed above...but it was probably at least partially extended, since you were able to tack and weren't just side-slipping all the time. Not having the battens in the sail would have added to the problem, as it causes the main sail to effectively lose sail area from the roach, shifting the Center of Effort forward, while the centerboard not being all the way down is shifting the Center of Lateral Resistance aft... both contributing to the lee helm. Other issues could be the way the boat was rigged-was the mast raked properly or not; where you and your GF were sitting-if both of you were too far aft, it would change the balance of the boat by again shifting the CLR aft a bit more. Just ignore CalebD who missed that you were on a Hobie 14 MONOHULL sailboat, not a beach cat.  

aaron - Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I've seen this happen. When the wind was coming from the starboard side of the boat, which line were you using to control the jib, the starboard jib sheet or the port jib sheet? If you were using the starboard jib sheet when the boat is on starboard tack this could have caused your problems.  

My bad. Hobie One 14 (monohull, regular mailsail+jib rigging) like a Holder 14'. I'm such a dinosaur that I think any Hobie must be a beach cat. They have been making monos as well for some time now.  

Just to pile on here; First of all, please do not feel badly that you ran into a few minor glitches the first time out solo. I suspect that everyone of us have encountered similar bumps in the road in the process of learning to sail. It is one of the reasons that most sailing schools try to teach on small boats, where any damage will be minimal, and mostly to one's ego. As to your problem with lee helm, I am in agreement with SailingDog, that while it is possible that your centerboard was not all the way down, the more likely culprit was the lack of battens. My recollection is that the small Hobies have a lot of roach in their sails and without battens the center of effort would be shifted very far foward which would give the boat a lee helm even if the centerboard was all the way down. I would talk to an instructer before going out again, but I can only hope that you don't feel so disheartened or embarrassed that you won't get out there again soon. Good Luck, Jeff  

Hi, You mentioned that the tiller requied a substancial angle to hold a beam reach... did it require much force or was it really light? These boats have kick-up rudders... Perhaps the rudder was not in the down position (sticking straight down about 2 feet into the water)? When the ruder is up (horizontal), I think it is still partially submerged, and might result in the behavior you described. Also, the rudder can be raised or lowered by quickly snapping up on the end of the tiller, so it is possible to accidentally kick up the rudder. (Raising and lowering are accomplished by an identical motion) Good luck to you! I think its a great boat to learn to sail on (I learned the fundamentals on a Hobie 12). dave  

I really appreciate the encouragement and advice, the latter of which got me thinking about the right things and fueled my research. Here's my current thinking: Likely contributors to lee helm: 1) Fore-aft weighting: My position at the stern at ~200 lbs with my girlfriend only midship probably shifted the weight too far stern... 2) Lack of drain plug: ...which helped us take on more water, which made the weighting worse 3) Lack of battens 4) Heeling/windward weighting: I think we spent most of the time on a port tack, with me sitting on the windward side, so it's likely we were actually not heeling or heeling into the wind 5) Insufficiently trimmed main: I was so distracted by the difficulty in steering that I may not have been doing a good job keeping the mainsail trimmed. 6) Overtrimming of jib: It's possible we just had this in too far; sheeting it in definitely seemed to worsen the condition Not sure about these: 7) Centerboard: Given that this is a public rental, it's possible the centerboard is damaged somehow, perhaps by some previous user who smashed it into the rocks. What is the proper way to inspect the centerboard at the dock? 8) Mast raking: This seems like a more difficult adjustment to make, and it didn't look obviously-wrong, so I'm not really sure about this. I've ruled out these: 9) Rudder: It was locked in the downward position, and until things got crazy, properly attached, so unless there's some fine adjustment that could be messed up, I think it was OK. 10) Using jib sheet: Responding to FSMike, I think we were using the correct sheet, but perhaps just giving it too much trim. So I think there's plenty of room for improvement. I think my next step is to try to get in touch with our instructor (whose hours conflicts with my day job, unfortunately) and also find out if they actually have drain plugs and battens. We also started out later in the day, when there were more time constraints; it might be worth starting early next time, to make sure all of the rigging is correct before we leave the dock. It also occurred to me that we could probably just bring two paddles, and if things go badly again, we could drop sail and paddle back.  

Just to follow up: I talked to my instructor, and it turns out that he took the boat out this past week and had the same problem; he's pretty sure it's due to some sort of damage to the centerboard. The rope that retracts it is pretty chewed, and he thinks it may be stuck partially retracted. On the plus side, it's good to know we weren't just screwing up, but on the down side, I'm going to have to find somewhere else to sail if I want anything bigger than a Sunfish.  

"lack of a drain plug" Whoa. You really WANT that drain plug .....  

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• Sailboat Guide

Hobie Monocat 12

Hobie Monocat 12 is a 11 ′ 8 ″ / 3.6 m monohull sailboat designed by Hobie Alter and built by Hobie Cat between 1973 and 1978.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Thanks to ‘Adelie’ for providing information.

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