Ambassadors Cup, Changi Sailing Club

Oct 28 2008


Category: Cat sailing


More like a Ambassador’s Pot Luck Roast as wind and tide conspired to make it a tougher challenge than before! This piece is aimed at the cat sailors who have been following the Taipan v’s Blade v’s Viper developments. The Ambassadors Cup is an annual event at Changi Sailing Club in Singapore where all the countries Ambassadors spend the afternoon enjoying sailing. This year 27 countries were represented onboard 35 keelboats and 15 cats took part - with no dignitaries onboard!

It ended up being a good measure of things. Normally the course is around Pulau Ubin, the little island that separates Singapore’s northeastern coast from Johore, Malaysia. But this year we ventured 5 miles out to the east of Singapore, out past the airport and some major land reclamation works!

the cat fleet consisted Twincats, Nacras, Taipans, Vipers, Blades and 2 A-Class cats, so a good mix! Singapore also suffers a 3.5m tide and so this can make it a challenge at this time of the year when the NE Monsoon hasn’t set in. Two divisions of keelboats set off first followed by the cat fleet. From the start, it was clear that the tide was going to play a BIG part, just how big we weren’t sure - till later!

Wind at the start was marginal, one on trapeze except for the A-Class, naturally! James zoomed off on the A while most of the 16’s struggle to get 1 on the wire. We’d elected to race the Blade to see how it fairs against the other boats. Most of it was predictable. From the start we had enough pressure to keep the windward hull up. Progressing further up the beat (5 miles), the breeze lightened and we couldn’t keep the windward hull airborne, the Taipans picked us off with more speed and slightly better upwind angles. The Viper followed our line and cruised past as the breeze eased up and soon we were sitting in 5 place. The tide was outgoing so was pushing the fleet towards the windward turning mark. James on the A-Class beat everyone to the mark by a good 15 minutes and we assumed, disappeared downhill never to be seen again! Next around was the Viper, followed by a Taipan and then the Hybrid Blade. At this point the breeze had dropped to about 2 knots and the sea was really chopp which made progress difficult.

As we approached the windward mark we could see what was really happening. The outgoing tide was rushing out at a good 5 knots and anyone who had rounded the mark was having difficulty in making any headway in the non-existent breeze! To ur surprise, James was there on the A-Class with a “welcome to the parking lot!” It seemed almost unfair to pop the spinnaker and start making some headway. Those without spinnakers suffered the same fate - pointing up to get speed meant going beam on to the current which just washed them a way off the course. By this stage the Viper and the Blade had popped their kites and were able to create enough apparent wind to drive back towards the Singapore shoreline. Anyone without a spinnaker was lost to the tide - BIG time!

On the Blade, we tried everything to get up to Katana, the leading Viper! When we had any pressure at all, we burned it off trying to get a lower line than the Viper, but every move we made, they just had more speed! There is one particular headland that you can slip behind a get a small respite from the tide. We watched the Viper go as close as they dared and then knew we could run about 3 boat lengths close to the concrete wall that forms the reclaimed land. That was their first mistake as the small overlap we were able to establish allowed us to carry them past the next mark. We made sure we carried Katana beyond the mark before gybing and giving them no room to get back inside us. Now it was a cat race as we knew the Viper was quicker in the conditions and the only difference was going to be who could get out of the tide first! Again we ran he Blade to within an arms length off the huge retaining wall, at risk is the daggerboards but, these you can lift!! We managed to eek out a 5 boat length lead by running as close as we dared to the wall, Katana meanwhile was forced to gybe back out into the tide…that gave us another 5 boat lengths and every time we diid it, we gained the same amount.

Sailing in Singapore is a unique experience especially in this, our off season. Another unique factor is that we sail through the threshold of Changi Airport and believe it or not, every time a jumbo lands (approx. every 3 minutes) it leaves a ‘jet blast’ on the water. We picked up one of these and made 3 gybes across the front of it to get down to the next mark in good time. At the finish line it was Blade, Viper, Taipan - all the F16’s with the spinnakers put to good use.

What did it prove in the Taipan v’s Viper v’s Blade ‘debate’? In light air (non-trapezing) the flat underwater section of the Blades bow ’sticks’ in the water due to more wetted surface area. The Taipan at the same point has a rounded section and less wetted surface area therefore generates better speed and good pointing ability. The Viper would have come past us 1/2 hour earlier than what they did if they had stayed off trapeze and allowed the hull to lift - this would also put the necessary load onto the tacking daggerboards and get even more windward ability.

The Viper is the ‘reverse’ of the Blade i.e. has its flat section aft of the daggerboards so in times light wind you can reduce the wetted area by pushing the nose into the water using the crew weight. Then it has the reduce wetted area and allows the Viper to move higher/faster than the Taipan and Blade.

Next, we’re going to alter the Balde’s rake a bit forward to get a little more power into the rig and see how much that helps. By the time our season starts, we should have it in full swing. This race was interesting to watch all the boats perform in varying conditions. when conditions settle in a bit more here we’ll do the face-off Blade v’s Viper…

For more pictures and info… http://www.csc.org.sg/photos/race/ambcup08/racing/index.htm


And a question : Do you think these pictures have been photoshopped ?