Thank you for all your comments and suggestions.  I have added some stiff battens and cleaned / painted the bottom. I have also shifted the rig forward a few inches. I has a brief trial today and she tacked well.  I plan to do more trials soon. The old battens were pvc pipe and had become bent. She needs a new sail but this will have to wait. The current sail is quite rotten.  Thank you again for your help and ideas. John.

Just reading Mark's comment re bendy battens. If your battens are very bendy that will create all sorts of problems - been there, done that! When we first got Footprints and with the original sail, the battens were just bendy plastic pipe. The sail was hopeless and led to all sorts of handling problems. In fact even on a reach when a gust of wind hit the sail the battens would curve inward at the aft end and the boat slowed down rather than increase speed. So the first winter I made up a whole new set of battens from cedar timber and with unidirectional fiberglass on either side. I also added an extra batten to the sail. These battens were very stiff and completely changed the character of the boat handling. Then when we made our new constant camber panel sail I reused those same cedar battens. With the extra loading in the camber panel sail the battens were terrible, they bent so much I was surprised they did not break, it was probably the unidirectional glass which stopped that happening. So, we made up another set of battens. These were a mix of carbon fiber tube, and for 3 of the battens aluminum tube. These new battens were very stiff with almost no curvature over the 6.5m length, and once again the sail and boat became controllable, although it would still not tack properly until I raked the mast forward, as I mentioned earlier. 

So, if you have bendy battens that would probably be a good place to start with your handling problems. On a junk sail battens should be very stiff, producing only a slight curve in stronger wind conditions.

I had no problem when I had mine, sailed in all conditions.  She had a flat sail.

i suspect the issue is your bendy battens moving the centre of pressure back.  Stiffening the rear half of the battens may help.  Have you tried using a down haul?

if it is the battens bending, then she should be fine in light airs.   I assume she has a good clean hull.

a side point, beware of the offset outboard,  she won’t turn to starboard without some way on.  If you can make it so you can steer the outboard a bit. 

have fun. 

Hi All. I have a Newbridge Coromandel that I hope to do some cruising on. I sail her in a small harbour most of the time and she has 2 issues that make it all a little interesting:

1) She won't come off the wind even if I ease the mainsheet and put the rudder hard over. This is obviously concerning in a small harbour with lots of boats.  If I want to go from beating to running it is nigh on impossible.

2) She won't go through the wind when I tack. I have to keep a paddle in the cockpit to paddle myself round.  

I have spent quite a while on the boat with the sail in various degrees of reef.  I believe these boats are know for having a small rudder so this may not help but it feels more signifcant than that.  The sail has bendy buttons that were fitted when I bought her but when reefed I can get the sail fairly flat.

Could the sail be to far back? I guess that would keep her from bearing off.

Any thoughts or ideas would be much appreciated.  I want to sail with out an outboard at some point but daren't do that with her sailing as she is.

Thanks in advance. John.