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Another reason I went for longer boards!!!!

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I'm not sure how long boards help, they simply offer lift at that point. On the Stealth the boards are vertical so making them longer is simply more lift ( and drag ). Elaborate

I'm not sure how long boards help, they simply offer lift at that point. On the Stealth the boards are vertical so making them longer is simply more lift ( and drag ). Elaborate [/quote]

Are you sure they are vertical? I dont think mine are

We found we were fastest when we sailed with less rake than the class norm. Sailing with the class norm our rudders even ventilated at times so we had to sheet out to regain control! With less rake we were seriously fast and went even better to windward. I think we overcomplicate a lot of stuff. Trim rake so the boat tracks straight when going to windward in your dominant conditions and you are fine in my opinion.

Pete, by moving weight forward you get less mast rake quite fast.

I dont advocate sailing with loose shrouds. Your jib tension will hurt in light winds, you want that mast to stand straight all the time and you want to be able to control it. With loose shrouds I find it harder to sail properly, even if the mast is easier to rotate well

"jib tension " No jib! Loose shrouds, but not too loose!

Travel the main out and sheet in, then tighten the shroud, that is what I mean by right and thight And find the balance for mast rake. I bet you can sit by the shroud and sail as fast as the top who sail with "mega rake"..

Rolf, my "loosey-goosey" settings are giving me the best results I've had with the F16 so far. These are for light air, no whitecaps. I'll see what happens at Kelly Park before I change anything else. Of course, if the wind is higher the shrouds will have to be tightened a bit.

If that works best for you, run with it! Dont listen to any mumbo-jumbo before an event at least Afterwards when there is plenty of time, perhaps test my suggestion in a two-boat setting.
I think your observation on better windward VMG with more weight forward is very accurate and it is something I would have worked more on to replicate.

What I learned at Kelly Park:

Basically, weight placement is critical! Going to weather, I keep two toes ( I'm serious) forward of the front cross bar and if the wind drops I slide in and hug the mast. Going forward onto the the weather hull doesn't seem to help. Getting the weather hull out of the water helps a lot.

Downwind, getting the weather hull out of the water is like lighting the after burner!

So, my boat is fine. It points well and is quick off the wind. Now I need to do lots of work on tactics and boat handling. A little preventive maintenance wouldn't hurt.


I did tighten the rig a bit and put on a little bit of rake. Those things need tweaking.

Wish I read this before... our rudder on the T did not only ventilate but break last week-end. Now we join the club, not sailing but laminating

Cheers,

Klaus

How did it break, Old age, fair wear and tear or hit something harder? Big T foils look very robust compared to the more modern designs.
I had a great sail yesterday on the F16 which hadn't been out since the Rutland Cat Open, I have been doing a bit of crewing on a Cork 1720 in the meantime which is a great sportsboat.
The Weather was surprisingly nice after a showery start to the day. The wind was light to moderate and I went out 1 hour prior to a Club race to practice spi gybing from the wire. I hardly ever fly the kite from the wire during a race and it's something I wanted to work on to improve my current dodgy technique. I think it will take another 2-4 hrs to find a good routine for getting out on to the wire and also master a gybe where the spi doesn't collapse as soon as I start to come in off the wire. Having studied Cats racing I reckon a collapsed spi costs on average 2 boat lengths and this is one of the main reasons why I usually sit in downwind.
Do you racers who regularly trap downwind have any video footage of your spi gybes, if so could us minions get to see them somewhere?
The OOD arrived 30mins late for the race and only 1 F18 and a Dart stayed out. I won the race but the wind was so light by 19:00hrs there was no way of trapping up or downwind.

old age (30 years), careless helm (me) and fair winds. Hard to say how much wind, 20kts, maybe 25kts. I wanted to bear away to use a wave for surfing, when I broke the rudder. When I sail on that boat (it belongs my friend), something is breaking. Sort of curse. We are still friends...

That is the story of old Tornados unfortunately, as far as my experience goes. 1987 or more recent Marstrøm Tornados are durable.

Pete, thanks for that thread. Having no one to compare to I find I’ve been way off on my body placement. The mast has been so straight up that I’ve been sailing with my front foot at the side stay. (68 Kg., me)
thanks.

Currently, I'm running a moderate amount of mast rake. Using the trap wire method, the rake is 1" forward of center of the rear port.

I had a chance to talk with Matt over the weekend and he stressed making all movements as smoothly as possible. He cited several specifics of top A class sailors. My tendency is to lurch around like a wounded hippo! Bad form, very bad form.

I've been sailing uni also this weekend (mast settings remained for 2-up mode) -> rake about the same as Pete however.

The wind was about 13 knots and I weigh 72 kg.

I must say that my experience was not in line with my expectations on beforehand...

I thought I would be sailing slower and higher upwind and slower and deeper downwind compared to an Infusion.
However, upwind I had about the same speed and angle as the Infusion. If I steered higher I had no lift and no speed. But to keep a steady speed it was not easy since a small gust made me lift a lot. -> so eventually I lost ground after a while.

Downwind I sailed as fast but deeper so gaining on them.
Downwind it was easier to keep the boat up to speed, so I didn't loose ground here.

What I was really surprised of was that I couldn't steer higher then the 2-up boat (and I was standing at the front stay). Do you have the same feeling or am I missing something?

Hi Gilo,

why do you expect to sail higher than a F18? I guess that they could double trap already. So they are fully powered, have a longer mast and longer boards, two guys on the wire, four hands...
So everything is for the F18, it is quite impressive that you can keep them upwind.

Cheers,

Klaus

I have found that I can not sail any higer 1 up vs 2 up. If anything I go better 2 up because at 70kg in winds over 10knots I tend to pinch more than I should sailing uni. It feels like I am going high but at the end of a leg I am lucky to be even.

There was an A I saw a few years ago that was fitted with a jib. They could go just as high as the uni boats, and a bit faster in the light to med stuff because of the added sail. Then they were a lot faster off the wind.

My personal view of the uni going to weather better is bunk. Its the driver.

Point noted this weekend with strange westerly winds and random chop. We ended up in a mix of H16's and could not point with them for a while. We could go faster, so just kept going sailing the wind and conditions we had at that moment.

Good to hear that this is the same for everyone.
If you sheet in with a main only you feel the boat wants to head up. With a jib fitted this is not the case. Therefore I thought I would point higher.

As Matt says, when I was trying to pinch, the foils stopped working and I ended up lower.

I must say that I was very impressed with the way the Blade behaves uni in those conditions. I have heared the FXone to be quite a beast to handle in 10+ (I'm not sure if it is design or the driver). Anyway, I could trim the Blade so it was very pleasant to sail and not having the feeling I was way overpowered.

And ofcourse the downwind run was a great ride!

Regards,
Gill

1 up beating to wind is all about 'feel'. It's got to be as you don't have any jib tell tales or crew to tell you when you are pinching.
Some solo helms like to go higher and slightly slower, others go lower and slightly faster.
The very best seem capable of doing both (high & fast) but they are paid to do so!
If I were you Gill the next time you sail solo just alter your mast rake slightly further forward and then you might not get that horrible heavy weather helm feeling. Or just let off some tension in your top 2nd & 3rd battens which is a little less time consuming (not sure how well it would work).

Gill,

I have the same experience as you. Same pointing upwind and about the same speed to the F18's and deeper and faster on the downwinds (all when 1-up).

Wouter