update from the lake, we thought was so windless and simple to sail on...
today we had 15 - maybe 20 knots in the gusts (a little hard to judge but I would say it was a strong wind but still far away from much harder conditions I have seen so far).
we went out with a taipan 4.9 with a new ashby main, 17.5m² spi and decided to leave the jib at home. was a good choice! we just left the calmness of the harbour bay when the first gust hit us running downwind... I sailed the 4.9 before only alone and did not yet experienced that much wind with the boat, still had the feeling this boat likes pitch poling very much and today my worst expectations were surpassed! this boat is a nose-diving bitch! we (150kg) were pressed as far as possible at the rear beam, traveller 85% eased, quite some twist in the main shape and any small wave we hit the question: will we stay or will we go? with the spi up things (as expected) becalmed, still it was not really possible to press hard as you always got full speed stopped in the next little wave head...
after sailing a lot of different designs (although mostly 18 and 20 ft) this boat is the worst downwind sailor I have in my memories! I would definitely say the boat is missing definitely some more volume in the bows beneath the waterline! I just sailed a hobie tiger in a 7 beaufort wind a couple of months ago and although I would say the hobie has also this ugly nose-diving tendency, with the 4.9 it seems to threaten you already 2 beauforts earlier!
regarding the behaviour of the boat for me sailing today was more nightmare than fun, although I naturally enjoy these kinds of conditions. but here I had the feeling boyer has put something together terribly wrong and miscalculated either the volume of the front sections and/or the position of the mainbeam!? (maybe already less volume in the rear would help) just to not raise wrong speculations: we were using significant mast rake, high rig tension, noticeable brebend in the must and we didn’t' even had the jib with us!
looking at the theory the story gets some reasons: you have a 4.9m short boat (89% of the length of a f18) with a 8.5m tall and quite heavy aluminium mast(95% length of a f18 mast) and a hull shape design with narrow V-shape bows dating back to the 80's cat design times...
still I read everywhere what a superior boat the 4.9 is and just recently an Australian sailor visited us totally convinced (when asked if it wouldn't be time for AHPC to come up with something more modern like a Capricorn F16)that the new F16 hull shapes (Blade, Stealth etc.) wouldn't do better than the Taipan.
Regarding my experiences today, I can only hope they do! In the A-cat the flat underwater shaped (planning) Flyer have replaced all V-shaped Auscat MK4. When Bim developed the Javelin the design proofed to be much more nose-diving than the earlier Bim 2000... so it always depends on details in the lines.
Tomorrow we expect more wind. Will give the nose-diving bitch another try, but already start so see myself in a shed in winter flexing open the hulls to add some volume in the bows beneath the waterline...
at least, I think after wanting to call my boat 'flexcat' (due to the noticeable little stiffness of the platform), 'nose-diving bitch' becomes an alternative... specially when thinking of the big head mainsail I just ordered...
