Sadly the 9.1m mast I have would take me outside of class limits but then the 13.95sqm total of mast and sail combo, under SCHRS handicap will give a slightly lower handicap than the 15m F16 so all is fair (approx). Bitsa is slightly underweight at 100kgs and only 2.3m wide as well so it balances out nicely to just under the true F16 handicap, under SCHRS.
Why only 2.3m wide, I think we have gone over wide on the solo boats as with a low aspect 15m main at 95kgs I found it really difficult to fly the hull in anything less than 7-9 knots of wind. Less RM will allow that hull to fly earlier and on the water I would say I have substantiated that with both Bitsa and the early Stealth ( which was only 2.3m wide ) flying the hull earlier than their wider brothers. I think also there is something about less tripping and diving also with the narrower boats.
Its been long known that I feel the jib gives the dual handed boats more drive than the weight penalty of another body on board and that really shows at low speed where the jib smooths the flow over the main. All the knitters loom of wires and snuffer etc can only make the bottom of the uni main even less effective, anything we can do to at least give something back to the bottom of the main can only be a good thing. This winter I plan to build a blade jib and fit it to Bitsa to test out my theory's.
Why the foward angled rudders. Most vintage aircraft with leading edge pivots on their rudders have foward angled rudders to balance the rudder and prevent flutter. Water being a lot denser means much lower speeds before the potential of flutter. How many times have you sailed some of the Hobies to simply feel the rudder " spin out " and you have to slow somewhat before you get full rudder control back, thats flutter setting off ventilation. On Bitsa I tried to get as much board ahead of the pivot as behind to try and prevent this and give a nice feel to the rudder. As a bonus the foward lean prevents a lot of the ventilation problems we often see, the moths certainly have had to do this to prevent air leaking down the leading edge and getting to the hydrofoil. There is a really good You tube clip made by a guy called Bulgari which shows this happening. I'm sure SmithCats would be able to put a more finite analysis on whether I'm right or just luckily wrong as the rudders are really light and nicely balanced at the moment.
