There are few things that you can do to save you from the deep darkness of the weather helm. The most urgent action is to reduce heeling, and the best way to do it is to reef the main. Reef whenever you remotely suspect that you will need it. While on light racing yachts and dinghies heeling can be reduced by moving people to the windward side, this will make no significant effect on heavy cruising boats. In this case, the best salvation to the weather helm is: don’t let It come by having appropriate and well-balanced sail area. As soon as you start feeling ‘Its’ presence (you will feel the helm getting heavy, starting to be pulled by that invisible force), then it’s time to reef. Reefing will reduce the forces on the sails and heeling. It may sound counter-intuitive, but reefing an overly heeled boat can actually improve speed. This happens because heeling causes a lot of unnecessary drag that slows the boat down.

You should always start by reefing the mainsail, because its centre of force is behind the centre of lateral resistance (CLR, see a short description below if you do not know what it means). As the CLR acts as a pivot point, and because the centre of effort of the mainsail is behind the CLR, reefing the main will (in addition to reducing heeling) reduce the tendency to turn into the wind. On the other hand, reefing the head sail would probably make things worse, as it actually helps reduce the weather helm by pushing the bow of the boat away from the wind. In fact, if the boat keeps trying to turn into the wind after you’ve reefed the main and heeling was reduced, increasing the area of the headsail (or any sails forward of the CLR) can reduce the weather helm. By fine-tuning the areas of main and head sails you can achieve a perfectly balanced sail, in which case the helm feels very light. If you have not reefed and are suddenly hit by a gust, the best you can do is to spill the wind --let go the main sheet and/or steer into the wind. Dinghy sailors do this so frequently that it becomes an automatic reaction. Dinghies are extremely light and in general very susceptible to heeling (and capsizing!), so this is one of the first lessons dinghy sailors learn.

If your boat shows a consistent tendency to sail into the wind, you might need to reduce the mast rake. If you have ever sailed a windsurf you will know that you can steer it without a rudder by simply moving the mast aft or forward. Moving the mast forward will bring the CE forward of the keel and this will turn the windsurf to leeward. Bringing the mast aft will take the CE back and turn it into the wind. On a sailboat, you can obtain the same effect by tuning the mast rake –the angle between the mast and the vertical. Reducing rake will bring the CE of the main sail forward, which helps reduce the weather helm.

Finally, a tiny bit of weather helm is actually welcomed and considered safe by many sailors. If, for example, you are sailing single-handed and fall overboard, a boat that is possessed by the weather helm will turn into the wind and gradually stop. When the helm is perfectly balanced (neither weather nor lee helm), you also loose the feel of the helm, which is uncomfortable to many people. So keep in mind that we all like a tiny bit of evil, but do not let it take control!