Thank you very much for your input. I do think that you and Mike have summed up what was happening to me. I was hesitant to post the original message/question, but am now glad that I did. I've learned something important.
Craig
Tom wrote: I think Mike's got the answer. You may have been what is called "stalling the rudder". It is essential to keep speed on the boat because it is the water rushing past the rudder which gives you any steerage. If you lose your speed, then turning the rudder has no effect on steering the boat. The boat stops and with the rudder hard over can't get going again. She tends to wallow and get pushed one way or the other by the wind. Once she started to get going you pushed the tiller hard over and stopped her again when she started to wallow and fall off to leeward or got pushed by the waves.
You can visualize sailing as being like flying a glider. You can't pull back on the stick and try to fly straight up because the plane just stops and starts falling. Likewise with sailing. You want to bring the nose up into the wind but you can't just push the helm all the way over because it's like trying to fly your airplane straight up. Sure you want to sail up into the wind, but you have to do it gradually while keeping the boat moving through the water as fast as possible. So you have to fall off (point downwind a little) and get the boat moving through the water. Once you have your speed up you slowly put the helm over a little bit and make a little course change, then you fall back down to get up speed again, but not all the way so that you've made a little gain into the wind. As soon as you start to slow down you fall off a little again and get up speed, then you do the whole thing again going a little to weather then making speed then going to weather then making a little speed. If you suddenly put the helm over, as you apparently did, then the rudder starts slowing the boat and the boat can't respond to that much rudder and so it "stalls", i.e., like trying to fly your plane straight up. Once it loses speed you have no rudder and the waves and wind push you around.
Learning to sail close hauled (as high as you can without stalling)is one of the most difficult things to learn and in some ways is an art and a feel that is learned with time. There is a sound that a boat makes when it is making good speed through the waves. I think of it as "chuckling". It's a happy splash that boils along. When I'm teaching people to sail I try to get them to listen to the wake and when it stops chuckling I tell them the boat is unhappy because it slowed down. To keep it happy you have to keep it "chuckling".
These are just cute ways to visualize and feel what is going on. It is very common for new sailors to stall the rudder. They want to go over there so they put the helm over and stop the boat then they are going even less toward over there so they give it more helm and stop the boat even more until finally you're dead in the water and the helm doesn't respond.
At least this sounds like what may have happened. Were you zipping along knifing through the waves and leaving a nice wake? If not, you may have had the rudder stalled. It's hard to know without seeing what you were doing, but I hope this helps, and at least it gives you some possibilities to contemplate. Good luck and don't give up, these are great sailing boats.
Craig wrote: I am a novice sailor and would like to get some feedback about some sailing I did today. I had my Ty out on the lake. The winds were from 15 to 20 mph (if not a more). The water was choppy (I'm guessing 1-3 ft waves) with numerous whitecaps. I had my working jib up and one (and only) fairly deep reef in the main. I was tacking back to the bouy on a port tack and was experiencing considerable lee helm (which was somewhat unnerving). My thought, for which I would appreciate comment on, was that I had the main sheeted out too far, and therefore the center of effort was too far forward. If this was the case, I should of sheeted in the main more to better balance the center of effort. However, as I sheeted in the main the increased force on the main produced excessive heeling. This leads me to conclude that the main should have been more deeply reefed (if I had had another reef point) to balance the boat. Or I shouldn't have been out there in first place given the wind strength and the inability to reduce my sail area any further. Is this a reasonable explanation or am I all 'wet'? Thanks for any comments.
Craig
cnspsych@aol.com