hi all,
yesterday when i sailed off from the beach on my 5.2 the guy i bought it off was sitting in the windiest part of the lake, taking photos of 2 of his windsurfer students doing to speed runs past his dingy

with him already out there as backup, in case of a capsize, (have been worried that my 70kg, (154lbs), wasn't enough to right the boat's 155kg, (340lbs) it was the perfect chance to explore the upper lean angles reasonably risk free

what a blast! with the gps showing around 16kph, 8knots, i would lean in to the middle of the tramp, find the last bit of boat speed with the rudders then as the windward hull started getting light pull her up with the main

with the rear leg on the center tramp bar and the forward leg under the hiking/jib wire i would start hiking out to control the rise and gently start turning into wind and slipping the main slightly if that wasn't enough

occasionally the the wind would gust at this point and i would end up turned almost into the wind at very high angles with the boat almost slowing to a complete stop before a final drop on the mainsheet would bring her back down

this went on for about 30 minutes and some of the hull-up runs must have been getting up around 45sec, (new personal best:-) until i finally overcooked it and found myself standing on the tramp bar watching the mast ever so slowly continue it path to the water

even with the sheet completely loose the mast had gone too far to stop now and every moment i had less effective weight to lever the boat back

with hindsight if i had done like a laser sailor, dropped everything and started climbing over to the daggerboard while holding the hiking strap i might have brought her back...but by then i was already diving for the stern

once in the water uncleating the sails went well enough, (but may have forgotten to loosen the downhaul) and the combination of mast sealing and beachball at mast head was enough to stop turtling, so there was lots of time to run around the hulls, (boy do they flex underfoot), and get my knotted righting rope over the hull and start leaning out.....and leaning out.....and leaning out some more

just couldn't get that last few feet of the mast to budge from the water. meanwhile previous owner was motoring around me like a curious shark. several times i worked my way up to the bows and stayed there until the bows were about 45degrees to wind for a bit of "power righting" with the wind under the sails and then lent out again until i was almost touching the water....but nothing. so i tried it again from the end of the daggerboard but the angles seemd all wrong and it was flexing a lot, so i asked mr.shark to stop gloating and pull up the the mast tip from the water. once it was about 3 feet out of the water up she came and i grabbed the dolphin striker to keep a hold of the boat and stop her going over again and pulled myself on board

so i learned quite a few things

1. you can fly a hull easily in quite mild winds
2. you really do slow down a lot the more you tip over
3. i really do need a trapeze harness for this kind of play
4. i REALLY need a righting system
5. the nikon d50 takes really good pics

the previous owner, a former hobie 14 national racer, also commented that he was sure i was going to pitchpole it before laying it over on it's side and that those big hulls were much better for that kind of tomfoolery than the little bananas on the hobie 14 and 16

eric e happy newbie
have attached 1 of the 20pics here and will post another to the "lets see the cats" thread

I really am starting to miss my 5.2. Great picture.

airborne

Glad you had a good time. I am truly surprised you couldn't right the boat, but looks like you need a righting system.

Work on having the same kind of grin every time you sail! Looks like a very good time. Splendid picture.

maybe could have gotten it up if the wind was stronger, getting it into wind seemed to give no assist at all. perhaps because i didn't go over due to strong winds but because of mucking around at angles that left no room for newbie error, here's another pic. think the way the bow is up means that it's just after i've rounded into the wind to try and reduce the heel a little

once i get some sort of righting bar sorted i'll try it again but concentrate more on keeping the fastest heading and controlling the heel with minor movements of the sheet

until then i guess i'll just have to stay flat and go faster

hope everybody's seen the "Everbody" video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE

eric e

Ha, I posted on some other thread where you put the same picture. So here it is again:

How come your daggerboards are so long? Are they original? What's the blue line on them? Mine are definitely shorter, so I'm curious to know if yours were extended or if mine where cut...

Anybody know the original daggerboard size for the 5.2?

was trying to reply to your post when you deleted it, STAY STILL! the blue line is just tape i used to mark when daggerboards are up and it's safe to beach

i hardly ever have them all the way down but when they are down they are longer than the rudders, which doesn't tie up with the nacra 5.2 line drawing, pic attached

maybe they lengthened them during the 10? years of 5.2 production, or maybe mine got lost at some time and the japanese importer passed off some 5.8 daggers as 5.2???

will measure them next time out at lake

eric e

the pics are a little different, for this thread i posted the shot that had the most heel, for the show the cats thread i posted the best overall pic

Sorry, it was somewhat OOT on the other thread, so the deleting it there was probably the right thing to do.

I'm going to measure my daggerboard this WE as well, I'm just curious...

THose are the same length mine are, so it looks right.

When you get on the trap make sure to protect your feet, I´ve seen serious injuries caused by the shroud adjuster.

Sweet pix Eric. I was practicing flying in the Bay with a friend of mine the weekend before last. We were doing laps between Alcatraz & the city seeing how long we could keep the hull raised. I think we managed a few runs in the one minute plus range. I've gotten to the point now where I don't over-correct. When I first got the boat, the panic would kick in and I'd over-correct every time. Now when we get too high, I sheet out enough to start the momentum in the other direct, then tug back and sheet in a little. That method was working fine for us until we got hit with a one-two gust that chucked us onto the main as the boat capsized. Nearly all my battens broke in the process. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
The coasties came over to lend assistance just as we got the boat righted. With no battens to maintain proper sail shape, we had to limp the mile home. It was all downhill to the dock from there so it wasn't too bad.

Re: Pitchpoling... I've only really found it to be an issue with 3-up. With just one crew, as long as we get the weight really far back the bow doesn't get too buried in the water.

I like to lift the hull and try to make the boat stand still...so my bum is over the edge sitting on the outside of the hull and just try to stall the boat there.
Anyone in the discussions about the uses of the mid tramp pole can see now it stops the falling down the tramp problems some might have.

Yeah, I love my knee knocker pole! Feet against it for sheeting in and then it also keeps you from sliding across the tramp.

yes, the mid-tramp pole was a very very good foothold, but by using it my legs weren't quite long enough to get my butt cheeks over the side of the hull

when we finally got the boat back up i noticed the tip over had broken 1 of the lower battens, i seem to remember something not being right when i hit the water, maybe i hit the sail...

on shore the break turned out to be at a previously repaired break where glass had been laid on and then almost all ground off

how did you repair yours ubicomp?

have attached another pic, (from the rear leaning in to the middle of the tramp to initiate hull out). it shows well the tall aspect of the boat. coming from sailing dingies i was surprised by how main trimming seemed was so different, but this shot reinforced to me how tall a cat sail is and how main control is mainly sail twist control

That is a very nice picture!

Well, I just bought the last of airborne's old battens to replace the broken ones for now. I'll be needing to repair one of those though. It should be a simple repair.

To Repair:
Buy some polyester resin, catalyst, and a strip of fiberglass. Buy a 2" wide strip of directional glass, since the battens are 1" wide. Cut a correct length of fiberglass to fix the broken spot in the batten. Fold the strip the long way over one edge of the broken spot in the batten & apply resin. Fold a piece of mylar around this, lay flat on a table, and rest a heavy book on top of this. Wait for the resin to cure. I'm no fiberglass pro, but this much I think I can get done. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

FYI, the purpose of the mylar is to provide a non-stick surface to allow the resin to cure & to rest a flat weight on top of. Any fiberglass shop should have all this stuff, I think.