· Page Last Updated 14th December 2002
Another year, another update! Quite a comedown for what must have been effectively pretty much the first sailing blog, although I didn't think of it like that!
Seeing a post about the beast on Yachts and Yachting's Forums has reminded me I thought of some stuff to put in a post here a coupla weeks back, though I've forgotten what it was!
What has the last year seen? A couple of problems with wing beams: well they're six years old now. Two of the club youngsters noticed a crack while they were sailing the boat two handed, and brought it back in gingerly before it snapped, and the week after I had repaired that I found another incipient crack, so had to stop again to do that. Basically just chuck on a few more layers of unis, hardly rocket science!
Have bneen thinking that when I get round to do the next boat I must replace the mast as well. More taper in the mast tip and a higher aspect ratio sail (so taller mast) I think, bring the range when its time for the small rig down a bit for the same area and have a better aspect ration with the small rig. I'm tempted to do a Bethwaite type collar round the mast foot to cover the kicker area. Bethwaite has made some reasonably aerodynamic claims for these - admittedly his argument is principally to do with interaction with jibs - but it occurs to me that on a singlehander one could maybe run the collar back as far as the mainsheet which might make quite a difference at the botton of the sail where teh losses must be horrendous.
To be quote honest the Cherub is taking first place at the moment by a long way, and late Summer/Autumn in the Cherub went very well indeed to the extent that we have some new glassware at home. Consequently over the year the singlehander only really came out for the Wednesday evening series, in which I got some for me reasonable results, aided by what I think is an excessively favourable revised club handicap. It was the best place I've got overall in the series, although keeping the boat on the water all summer so I got a reasonable number of races in helped
I'm giving some thought to a possible further round of hull tweaking though for a year or so's time. The extra rocker and rise of floor has helped in the light stuff, but at the cost of a considerable penalty in planing conditions. I'm mulling over the possibility of putting a flat around a foot or so wide along the centreline of the boat, washing out a bit before the mast. What that would do is give a bit more lift to the centre of the hull at speed, without having too much of a wetted area penalty. It would also decrease rocker along the centreline without changing the buttock lines farther aft. To do it would simply be a case of shaving off some of the extra foam we put on the boat in 2000, leaving a feather edge, and slapping on a new layer of glass over the top. Well, a bit more sophisticated round the daggerboard case, but that's the run of it.
Of course the other thing you have to think about, with all the sucess the Moths are having is lifting hydrofoils, and the thought is certainly very tempting, but I think the launchin could be a real problem at Island Barn. The trick I suppose would be to work out a trailer system where the daggerboard can be left in all the time - more like a lifting keel.
Well, we're most definitely back on the water now. To replace the shroud brackets I got some substatial triangular stainless steel "rings" and wrapped a good number of layers of unidirectional carbon round them and onto the hull surface, spreading them well over the outer face of the hull flare so that the load is distributed over a wide area with plenty of adhesion.
Back on the water we've had outings in a variety of conditions. Last Wednesday was the first evening race of the season. An Eighth out of 24 odd was pleasing, especially as I beat some *very* talented Laser Sailors on handicap. However it must be said that the Lasers had been having a very close battle all round the course and had basically sailed themselves to the back of the fleet on handicap. They blamed the course, but I figure the internecine squabbling must have easily cost them the 90 seconds that would have put their leaders 2,3,4 instead of 7,9,10.
This Saturday we had more wind, 10-15 knots building to 20ish, 25 in the gusts. With the big rig up it was something of a handful, especially bearing away and other direction changes. I actually messed up the race on the first beat though. Feathering into a gust I let the boat slow too much, and when it then headed 20 degrees I found myself stationary with foils stalled out and no control. Worse still the following pack was hurtling up to me on starboard, and most of the obvious moves for regaining control would have put me in someone's path with no rights at all... I just had to wait!
What has become especially irritating lately is the business of gusts downwind. I think with the rocker changes the boat is just a little slower downwind. Previously it used to just sail in the lulls, which was irritating enough (see the June 2000 entry in the 2000 Diary. Now it seems just a tad slower and gusts do catch up to me. At which point I speed up and sail out of the front of them again. Meanwhile some slower boat behind is sailing in 50% more wind and staying up with me. Arrghhh. Obviously if I was as fast as a 49er then I could sail into gusts. The thing to watch out for is the days when there are wind lanes, because then you'd just point up or soak down to the windy bit. Or else sail on the sea where the breeze is more consistent...
No, not a sailing update, just a note to say that the shroud brackets have now been replaced and the boat will be heading back to the sailing club soon. I've been busy all summer with Cherubs and the poor old ++ has taken a back seat.
Not a good day. With 30 knots coming down the pond at times I went out for a blast with the mast in the low position and the sail taken down to the second slab reef - so not an awful lot of rag up. At this point the wind increased - apparently well into Force 8 by the clubhouse anenometer. Actually all was fine and controllable until the outhaul decided to give way, leaving an uncontrollable bag in place of a nice flat heavy weather sail. This precipitated a couple of swims, and worse still it appears that at some stage in the exercise the starboard shroud managed to break through the carbon bracket for the shroud. Fortunately because the mast is also supported by the stump and lower shrouds there were no more serious consequences, although I shudder to think what might have happened had this failed on a high speed reach... Time to give up. This in itself was a game and a half as it had to involve derigging the boat on the leeward bank before a tow back, but (thanks Stuart) got back without further incident. But now I have to sort out replacing both shroud anchorages, and I fear there is quite a bit of structure involved. More when I've talked to Mr Paterson...
Yes, been a long gap. What with the Sailboat exhibition featuring my old Cherub (q.v.) and a number of crewing jobs and so on I didn't really do the second half of the winter series in the ++. However tonight the Wednesday evening series started, so I dragged the boat out, complete with its new elastic return on the outhaul and a couple of other bits of string tidying things up. It was the warmest day of spring so far, and a rather pleasant F2ish sort of breeze, somewhat variable in direction but not mega shifty. And I picked up one of my best ever results in the boat - beat the entire club Laser fleet including at least one person who finished in the top 10 in last years Laser Radial Masters. Of course this might be something to do with the best breeze of the evening having been after the Lasers had finished and the fast fleet were doing one more lap, and probably quite a lot to do with the club handicapper giving me a new and exceedingly generous handicap - it seems he was the only person who didn't know I was modifying the boat - but I was still pleased!
15 to 20 knots coming through regularly and a definitely vicious feel to the gusts... I decided to put the small rig out, and as I careered out to a line that was set perilously close to the leeward bank this felt like a good idea... So, how will the small rig feel upwind? You may recall that I had some concerns before ths surgery... Well it feels good - up onto the plane, good speed (apart from one *horrendous* tack) and pretty easy to get in the groove. The boat is definitely a whole lot more tolerant now than is used to be. What with the low aspect/low speed optimised plate and the increased rocker you there's a lot less luck involved in getting a tack right than there used to be...
Onto the reach, RS400s and things falling over right left and centre... Stercus, stercus, morituri sum, as readers of Terry Pratchett will recognise:-) Having a terrible job getting it stabilised on the reach, but with everyone else falling over maybe its just a viciously nasty bit of wind... Next run turns out to be through the middle of the Laser fleet coming up to their beat, and with a huge gust behind. This is getting very worrying... manage to hold it then gybe clear... Another 400 in and another place. Then for laps two and three the wind dropped and I ended up spending the runs and broad reaches sat in the middle of the boat struggling for power...
One nice manouver I was pleased with was on one of the doggier runs where a 400 somehow managed to get an inside overlap coming up to the mark when I was underpowered... pointed up a bit and powered up, and while he was going for a gybe and drop at the mark I gybed early and came onto the mark at full speed right onto his transom... He elected to point up to stop me going to windward with no speed on... So I just shot straight through his lee with the the extra speed and got in front and back in clear air... Its an important point I think, in any gybing downwind boat I think you want to avoid gybing at the leeward mark, with so much else to do its almost always slow, expecially if you've got a kite to drop. Go a bit higher, gybe early and just round up round the mark and you're starting the beat at full planing speed and can keep that apparent wind for a few boat lengths, as well as more tactical options...
There was a bit of everything today! The previous week I didn't race the PlusPlus because there were 40knots plus gusts with a wind direction that was going to make launching quite risky. The morning race was sort of F0 to 1, variable but not too shifty suprisingly. Previously that would have been complete death to the ++, but, coupled with a course that had lots of apparent wind reaching it was pleasing to end the race mixed up with the RS400s. Definitely a big improvement in those consitions with the boat a lot less sticky. The second race was a bit of a disaster - a very congested start line led to a a bad start, and it took about a lap to get clear of the Lasers. The wind blew up a fair bit towards the end, and I have a suspicion that we're noticeably down on high speed reaching, but that's only to be expected. Upwind still feels lots better!
Back on the water. The surgery is complete... First couple of races today in a sort of variable F1/2 sort of breeze that wasn't shifting very badly. We won't talk about the first one, which suffered from winding most of the strings round most of the other strings while rigging. An inability to sheet the mainsail in properly or put enough cunningham on is not especially quick! The second race, however I was third on the water behind a couple of RS400s.Rather too far behind the first of them, but I blame the light bit in the middle of the race:-).
First impressions are that upwind speed has benefited quite considerably. Its much easier to keep the boat planing, and even more importantly it doesn't stop nearly as badly when it drops off the plane in the lulls. Similarly light runs and broad reaches in sub planing conditions don't seem to be nearly so doggy. The boat still slips onto the plane very easily, I'd say that drag is probably much the same in the transition and low planing speeds, but appreacibly less at sub planing speeds.
Lots more conditions to explore, but so far I'm pleased, especially as the improvement upwind seems to be visible from the shore!
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· Page Last Updated 14th December 2002