Racing Holland 25s

[julianfox]

Greetings,
Very happy to find an online resource on Holland 25s... Great initiative!

I recently purchased one, and have started racing it. I am quite new to racing and to Holland 25s, so thought I would the put the question to the assembled experts on how to get the best performance out of H25s... We seem do quite well against the bigger yachts in light winds, but when the wind gets up, we heel over, get quite a bit of weather helm and have a tendency to round up. We race 2 handed, so only have limited ability to put weight to windward. Should we run a smaller jib and reduce sail area in moderate to strong winds? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

On another matter - we tend to stuggle on broad reaches - is this a recognised weakness of the design - or are we just poor sailors!

Any help in getting us up the rankings would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers, Julian.

[ricochet]

G'day Julian,
I have only had my H25 for 3 years, and have only done a couple of twilight racing seasons on 'Ricochet', so I too are reasonably new to racing a Holland. I have a plus 4 model with a fractional rig, which I think carries a bigger main than a masthead rig. I too have found myself on a windward leg in an increasing breeze, and found that i am heeling over and rounding up after you lose steering from the helm being too heavy. In my opinion, it is definately a case of having too much sail up. However, in my case with a fractional rig, I am probably more keen to put a reef in the main to reduce the size of the main before reducing the size of the headsail. (Having said that, obviously you need to be reasonable in what size headsail you are putting up in a stiff breeze.) This may be a different case for the masthead rig, but I have found that a reef in the main settles the boat down, still gives the boat lots of power, but balances the boat out nicely and puts her in an angle of heel that is much faster and more productive! We have had a couple of 'breezy' races where we performed very well with this approach and setup. I don't find the broad reaches too bad, it is more the running with a decent swell that I find demands my greatest concentration thanks to the narrow transom of the Holland!
Hope you are enjoying the Holland, I really love mine, especially for a nice weekend away cruising. Such a massive interior for a small yacht!

Happy sailing, Nick.

[bigfoot]

Hi Julian,
Ive campained small yachts most my life and still learning.
We have raced our H25 Bigfoot for 9 seasons and generally find her to have a bit of excess heel & weather helm around 20knts with an oversized masthead rig.

You probably know this and I don't wish to be a smart ass, but this is what we do,.....

I suggest you firstly try dropping the traveler down and bring on the sheet hard as. Some H25's like the plus4's have a thingypit sole mounted traveler unfortunly limiting adjustment.

Flatten the foot of the mainsail with the outhaul, pull on the cunningham to bring the drive forward and use max backstay to tighten the forestay with max headsail halyard tenson for better pointing. Bring headsail car aft to flaten the sail.

Tensoning the vang is worth a try to assist on pointing from the leach of the main, but its more suited to reaching and running, depends on the conditions, sail cut and age.

Feather in the gusts, get some bodies on the rail, hike hard and nothing will touch you to windward.

All you gotta do is change gears in heavier breeze.

Being a typical masthead rig, we have a small main and large overlaping headsail, if your main is backwinding and fully out of control, then its likely due to the headsail slot, concider changing down to your #2.
We have never reefed the main and don't feel the need to even have a reef point.
Experiment with your boat, next time your crusing and feel ur on the edge in firm breeze just drop the headsail and sail under main only and you'll likely find a headsail change could be the answer.

I recommend a book by Nth Sails called 'Fast Course' and even better get their 'Smart Course' book too.
Happy sailing,
Tony

[julianfox]

Many thanks Nick and Tony,

Heaps of useful advice which we will put to great effect every Wednesday in our clubs Twilight series. We have a masthead rig with a smallish main - so we will try varying the headsail in stronger winds to improve performance.

Cheers, Julian.

[scurrilous]

Gday Holland 25ers..in over 20 knts Scurrilous goes best to windward with a #3 and full main. ..just luff the main in the gusts. ..she is a masthead sloop