Telescopic tillers are not used because they are too slow..... You have plenty on downwind in these breezes to worry about reducing the length of your extension. My thoughts also are keep it simple and keep it fast. Sometimes when it is short course racing or it is realy blowing I also will not lift the windward center board.
Maughan,
When running a spinnaker it is essentual to let of your downhaul and mast rotation to protect your mast.
Mike,
Yes it was very rough that regatta...... 25 to 30 knot winds and waves between 1.5 to 2 meters and the occasional one at 3 meters from bottom to top.
Upwind we would lift the windward hull as high as we could to clear the wave. Some of the big waves you could not lift the 10 foot beam high enough to clear the wave and both crew and skipper were washed off the boat. Also if you miss steered over a wave or encounted one of the big ones the complete boat would get airbourne. We were seeing at times, full leeward centerboard and as the boat fell, our feet were lifting clean off the boat. You just prayed that you landed back on the boat.
Downwind took some nerve to push hard and one slip up steering over the wave would see you swimming. I quiet often heared concerned comments over my sholder as the crew would call out oh Sh#t, biiig wave on approach followed by uh, uh, uh, ohh sh#t as we surfed down the face off it.
I have a cool pic of the boat surfing down a monster, crew trapezeing at the rudders, boat at a seriously down sloping angle burying the nose, kite eased and on the edge of loosing the boat sideways. Probably the scariest Tornado photo you would see. About 15 seconds later we lost it sideways. Brent lost contact with the boat and was actualy boady surfing down the waves to catch it. I climbed back on the boat after putting my arm through the main and stuffed the kite away. I was later able to bring the boat back upright by myself without the use of a righting rope. All I had to do was hold the dolphin striker and the wind and waves did the rest...... Never done that before.
Anyway the pic is about 2 meg and I do not think I can post it here...... I will later have it on my web site.
Gary,
You are correct, the line is attached at the transom and is sucked into the rear beam by a pully and bungie system when not in use.
Attached is another pic of one of the other Tornado surfing down a wave. These photos were not taken on the biggest day either.
