"I've been everywhere, Man"
Well, it's been a while since my last post. Me and my trusty mare, Edna, my customized 3/4 ton Chevy van, have really packed on the miles, 27,430 be precise!!! With the inclusion of the Sirius satelite radio and "Nigel/ Jessica" the GPS, Edna is truly my home away from home.
My first stint this year was to race in the SoCal Mid Winters in February. I convinced Mike that he needed to get away from the bitter cold of Calgary and fly down to LA and race his boat in the Mid Winters. I said "I will have it there and all you have to do is step on". So Mike agreed. He applied and got his PHRF cert and then registered in the "Sport boat B" fleet. B fleet, in theory, consisted of light diplacement boats in the 90-135 PHRF range. That would include: B 25, M 24, Tripp 26, R 22, Capri 23.5, Viper 640 to mention few. What a great fleet!!! As it turned out no one showed and we were thrown into a PHRF fleet that ranged from a J 109 to a MacGregor 25!
I got down there early to tune and get the bugs out of a new boat. Mike got a new set of North 3DR and I was eager see how they looked. Ever since we got the new rig in 2005, I have been tinkering and playing with the rig. My challenge was to make the boat de-powered in heavy air. I looked to the M24 class and they gave me some clues like " the helm should be neutal" "de-power the main by making it flat" "get lift off of both foils". I didn't have the luxury of 2 boat testing so I had to do the "trial and eror".
Fast forward to Mike's boat and the 3DR. I had already concluded that rake was good so I maxed out Mike's at 27in at the gooseneck. Then put the sails on. They seemed OK in the light stuff but was still too full even in 12-14kts. I needed to flatten the sail. I had kept in constant touch with Dave Cross at Quantum and he was pushing LOTS of tension on the rig and rake before we resort to recutting sails. So with my trusty (newly aquired) Loos gauge, I started to put "the screws" to the ri
g. Below are the same mains.
The interesting thing is that the cap shrouds on the left rig is tighter than on the right. The solution is in the D2 or intermediates. The rig on the right, I started with only the cap shrouds until I got the bend of the mast to match the sail. The loos guage was at 26 or 1030lb. I then tightened the D2 a
nd lowers to eliminate pumping and side deflection. The D2 ended up at 15 or barely 400lb and the lowers were just hand tight. The sail on the right actually had 2 turns off the mast screw because it was 8-10kts. There is still a lot of work to be done and it would really speed up with 2 boat testing in a variety of wind strengths and waves.
We ended up taking out 1" out of the luff of the main for Jim Lanter's #10 and it really look good in heavy air (20-29kts) and flat water. It's the main above. We were able to "put the sail to sleep" or neutralize it without flogging when we didn't need the power.
Last week I used all this information and took a couple of M24 sailors for a test sail on the infamous Berkeley Circle. I didn't won't Mike to shoot me so I put on Rocket Science's sails. The circle wasn't at its best but it was still 20kts plus with short waves because of the adverse current and shallow waters. I had the screw cranked to flattenen the main and reduce headstay sage. At first the guys sailed it like a M24 and we pounded a bit but once we pulled the barberhaulers out and dropped the traveller we were able to widen our groove so we could play the waves and put the main to sleep. The guys were amazed that we were going unhill so nicely with only 3 on board and NO HIKING. They were also surprised at how dry the Rocket is. I think one of them said that "on a M24 they would gotten close and personal with every wave".
Oh ya, the downhill ride wasn't bad neither!!!
My first stint this year was to race in the SoCal Mid Winters in February. I convinced Mike that he needed to get away from the bitter cold of Calgary and fly down to LA and race his boat in the Mid Winters. I said "I will have it there and all you have to do is step on". So Mike agreed. He applied and got his PHRF cert and then registered in the "Sport boat B" fleet. B fleet, in theory, consisted of light diplacement boats in the 90-135 PHRF range. That would include: B 25, M 24, Tripp 26, R 22, Capri 23.5, Viper 640 to mention few. What a great fleet!!! As it turned out no one showed and we were thrown into a PHRF fleet that ranged from a J 109 to a MacGregor 25!
I got down there early to tune and get the bugs out of a new boat. Mike got a new set of North 3DR and I was eager see how they looked. Ever since we got the new rig in 2005, I have been tinkering and playing with the rig. My challenge was to make the boat de-powered in heavy air. I looked to the M24 class and they gave me some clues like " the helm should be neutal" "de-power the main by making it flat" "get lift off of both foils". I didn't have the luxury of 2 boat testing so I had to do the "trial and eror".
Fast forward to Mike's boat and the 3DR. I had already concluded that rake was good so I maxed out Mike's at 27in at the gooseneck. Then put the sails on. They seemed OK in the light stuff but was still too full even in 12-14kts. I needed to flatten the sail. I had kept in constant touch with Dave Cross at Quantum and he was pushing LOTS of tension on the rig and rake before we resort to recutting sails. So with my trusty (newly aquired) Loos gauge, I started to put "the screws" to the ri
g. Below are the same mains.
The interesting thing is that the cap shrouds on the left rig is tighter than on the right. The solution is in the D2 or intermediates. The rig on the right, I started with only the cap shrouds until I got the bend of the mast to match the sail. The loos guage was at 26 or 1030lb. I then tightened the D2 a
nd lowers to eliminate pumping and side deflection. The D2 ended up at 15 or barely 400lb and the lowers were just hand tight. The sail on the right actually had 2 turns off the mast screw because it was 8-10kts. There is still a lot of work to be done and it would really speed up with 2 boat testing in a variety of wind strengths and waves.We ended up taking out 1" out of the luff of the main for Jim Lanter's #10 and it really look good in heavy air (20-29kts) and flat water. It's the main above. We were able to "put the sail to sleep" or neutralize it without flogging when we didn't need the power.
Last week I used all this information and took a couple of M24 sailors for a test sail on the infamous Berkeley Circle. I didn't won't Mike to shoot me so I put on Rocket Science's sails. The circle wasn't at its best but it was still 20kts plus with short waves because of the adverse current and shallow waters. I had the screw cranked to flattenen the main and reduce headstay sage. At first the guys sailed it like a M24 and we pounded a bit but once we pulled the barberhaulers out and dropped the traveller we were able to widen our groove so we could play the waves and put the main to sleep. The guys were amazed that we were going unhill so nicely with only 3 on board and NO HIKING. They were also surprised at how dry the Rocket is. I think one of them said that "on a M24 they would gotten close and personal with every wave".
Oh ya, the downhill ride wasn't bad neither!!!
posted by Alan @ 1:28 PM
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