My Dory can be difficult to bring about too. The problem, I think, is that the hull is so light that it carries little momentum into the turn and is thus rather easy to put into irons. Two things can help: (1) Try to get up as much speed as possible before coming about. This may require falling off the wind just a little if you are trying to beat your way upwind. 

(2) It seems to help me to get my weight a bit back toward the stern. While that may cause the transom to drag, it also gets the rudder deeper into the water and gives it a little better purchase in initiating the turn.

Coming about too gradually almost always puts the boat in irons. Conversely, as you note, throwing the rudder over too hard turns it into a brake and stalls your progress. Somewhere in the middle is a happy medium, but you can't win 'em all.

Have fun

 Can't help with comfort.and never sailed a NED.

However, regarding tacking, there are a couple of things I can suggest. You definitely want speed coming into the tack, it is fine to head off a bit, but then trim in the sails, even over trim the main to bring it up. Also allow the boat to heel a bit and shift your weight forward to also help bring the boat up into and through the wind. Using the sails and weight placement together should lead to less reliance on the rudder to get the bow up and through the wind.

DaveJ

Don't forget about using your weight in a small dinghy to help get through the tack.  Moving your body from one side to the other during the tack with the rudder hard over, will heel the boat over and cause the skeg and rudder to bite at a different angle, possible causing some lift.  On such a light boat, these kinds of little things can make a huge difference.

Rudder angles while sailing a straight course are one thing.  Throwing the tiller hard over on a light boat with speed on should induce a satisfactory tack.  Make sure you reduce anything that could induce lee helm (e.g. lack of mast rake, etc.).

   Thanks everyone. I'll give the weight shift a try. My experience when solo (and therefore more weight toward the stern) is that the light bow gets blown to leeward and adds to the difficulty, so shifting forward makes sense. I'll try side-to-side too.

Still hoping for advice about comfortable seating in a small boat. 

I'm still learning to sail, but my experience tacking my Skerry in light airs is that it comes around better if I do not shift my weight to windward until after the tack is almost complete.  Keeping my weight on the (new) leeward side helps the boom to come on across the midline just when it feels like I'm going into irons. 

I would like to hear other comments regarding this.

Hooper   

Hey Lads,
Tickled this thread comes up right now. I’m getting to the finishing stages of a sliding bench seat installation. They rest fore and aft along hull between second and third thwarts.The benches add an enormous range of seating positions. It’s remarkably comfortable to rest against the side of the hull without a bulkhead digging into your spine. Also, they are designed to slide into center of boat on brackets mounted under thwarts to form a sleeping platform. But that aspect only helps with sleeping comfort.

I also picked up a happy seat kayak seat - am in the process of figuring out how to make it work in the boat. Photos are on my flickr page here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31735445@N06/albums/72157667267363123

Also working on compass block, tiller tamer (this is a perennial problem with Dory folk) and a slew of other camp aboard mods but since they are off topic for this post, or not complete yet, they’ll wait for another day ;-p

Cheers,
e

Very interesting, e.  You have a beautiful boat that actually gets used - great!  That looks like a great place to sail.  Where are you?  Looking forward to reading about your other innovations...

Hooper   

Silver Salt

Wow that is a great idea! I not sure the sliding aspect would be needed for myself. I don’t have the ability to camp from my Dory. But the Bench seat idea I can get behind. How does it impact rowing? I guess my question is more “what do you do with the oars” when you sitting on the bench?  Looking at your pictures it seems if the oars are socketed in the oarlocks they might be in the way?

Hi Hooper, thanks but the boat is crap, well let’s just say “workboat finish”. Rather sail than varnish. I’m in Reston, VA but the photos are from Chesapeake Bay, the pretty ones Barren Island, Janes Island and Choptank River.

KL, for #1, I replaced my barn door rudder with the kick up version built to CLC spec. It helps with the putting on the brakes problem. I try to steer through an arc rather than throw the tiller over hard. I’m considering replacing the standard kick up portion with a little longer and a little narrower shaped foil. But maybe not, the as designed version works, John usually has things optimized pretty well.

Mikeflys, thanks! The benches started at 11.5” but they are shaped to fit the curve of hull. That leaves a bit more than 24” between them in sailing configuration. No impact on rowing. They're that wide to make a wide sleeping platform, slimmer would be fine too. Sometimes I put the oarlocks in the forward station and stick one end over the partner the other sticks out of the boat. Sometimes use the aft station and let things flop where they will. Oars are always a pain in the keel even without benches!
I'll post some other mods later next week.

Cheers,

E

   Great idea and thanks for the link to your photos.....look forward to your other modifcations as I am in the process, albeit slowly of building a NED.

   Silver Salt,

        Thanks for sharing your photos. I'm building a NED and have been considering something similar but I've been reluctant to plan modifications to the regular design until I see where I end up sitting to sail. I'm assuming, based on your photos, that you keep your weight mostly between the #2 and #3 bulkheads if sailing single-handed?  Mine will have a lug rig and I anticipate sailing alone a fair amount.   

       I'm also interested in being able to sleep aboard, so I'm curious how you plan to bridge from the stern seat to the #3 bulkhead to complete the sleeping platform. It would seem that you would need more length. I've seen Birch2's PVC and foam platform and a few other threads on sleeping aboard but am curious about any other favorite solutions.         

        Thanks for everyone's 2 cents. Other advice on the forum has been very helpful so far during the build. 

I thought that scenery looked familiar E!  We're in NC, but my son and I did some eastern shore sailing in May, including a very stormy night on Barren Island.

Hooper   

   Hooper, I Thoroughly enjoyed your Sail to Okoumefest and Barren Island story! Man those skeeters are fierce! Stormy nights on BI seem to be a trend. One time, sleeping on the boat, a small craft advisory popped up in the middle of the night. Interesting. Always remember to secure your oars to the boat.

DK, more bench info in new post NE Dory mods