That's quite amusing. Did you gather all that info from your computer or out on the water with us?

All tape separation, no tear in anything except the luff tape from load.

"I'm going to find out what he plans to do about the head of my spin that pulled out."
Most likely nothing, I had the same thing happen in my last Worrell and that's why we had reinforcement straps on every corner.
Tawd

Even tho the spin is barely a year old?

So was mine, when it pulled out.I use the gromett for a keychain fob, an expensive keychain fob.
This year's was hoisted for the first time in Islamorada.

Flumpmaster,
I have a print pic of my I-20 mast coming in at a Worrell finish that looks the same. I can't find the pic ,but when I do I'll post it. So they will take it, show some respect.If it wasn't for the Nacra 20 there would be NO Tybee 500 for you to have participated in.
It was good meeting you this week.hope to see you soon.
Tawd

Reinforcing the grommets has been standard fare for us for several years - this is the first time I've had a seam come apart...but at least most of the entire fleet had the same issues. We'll add stitching the seams to our prep list in the future.

I don't necessarily think it was the tight reaching - sure, that puts some extra stress on the sail but ours let go on the day we were running deep in 12 to 16 knots of breeze after already holding up for 50 miles or more on the same angle of sail.

It sounds like EP will graciously take care of the problems - it sucks that several of us had the issues we did but it's not much different than in NASCAR when they get a bad tire compound with their supplied tires that results in a lot of flat right front tires. That's racing.

I can't comment on durability beyond 500 miles with a fair amount of double trap reaching - but so far so good. I got the idea from the Dutch sailors at the Tiger Worlds. Tony got a few hints from the guy who paints his sails - after that it was down to experimentation with some squares cut from a wrecked main before I pulled the trigger and sprayed a nearly new main. I finished painting it the evening before we left for the race - just enough time to put on the graphics and throw it in the bag. It still smells of fresh paint!

I will post a how to once I have decompressed a little - I think this is a super cool thing to do - it brings back the vibrancy to the sport of the original colored Hobie sails - but you can do so much more with paint and vinyl. This is something the public really identifies with.

Be warned though - this is a lot of work - requires a modicum of skill spraying and the paint involved is 2 pack urethane - so air fed full face mask and a suit covering all exposed skin is the order of the day. Do not try using Krylon fusion - we tried - it does not adhere well to Pentex even after keying the surface. My materials cost for painting the sails was around $400 - $450 (3 quarts of paint and some rather expensive additives).

Chris.

Spot on Chris!

-Todd

Not knowing anything about the N20 class rules: cant you guys buy a spin from Nacra Europe (read: Performance Sails)?

Atually, I get that info from a number of long distance races on the infusion, against tigers and capricorns.. races such as round Texel and a little race called the Archipelago raid...

A how-to would be great, and I totally agree that sails like yours is a splendid addition!

Hey Chris,
How 'bout using some lead paint next time?

Tawd

How many Archipelago raids have you done? Looks cool.
Lee and I are gonna come do it on a little boat called an RC 27.Maybe a 22 if we can drop a little weight.

Painted sails are nice but from my experience of them they add a fair bit of weight. Mischa at Eurocat told me his black Bulthaup sails are 2kgs heavier than normal sails.

Nope, Mischa closed that loophole back in 2007 when he chartered by boat

Suggestion for modifying this thread's title:
"Why the Tiger rocks at predominantly close reaching distance racing"

;-)

Or to stop a **** fight
"why do F18s rock at predominatly close reaching distance racing"

My point exactly Mike.

• In the US the 2 most challenging long distance races are coastal, and run at a time of year when a thermal sea breeze is quite likely to develop.
• This is why being able to close reach is important - you are not going to be sailing close hauled or on a dead down wind run if you are tracking paralell to a long, fairly straight coastline in thermal sea breeze conditions.
• This is why the F-18s have an advantage over the Nacra 20 in this type of condition.
• Anyone seriously suggesting maxing the downhaul and rotating the mast back on a wing mast rig when double trapped in 15 knots of breeze? The result is likely going to be expensive. An old school mast of equal cross sectional weight can be made stronger in the minor axis than a wing mast - and hence you can get away with making these moves on a Tiger rig.
• Max down haul / rotated back = spilling a lot from the top. This depowering is in addition to raising boards, traveling down a little etc.
• So the Tiger has an extra trick in the play book when depowering in wind conditions that are reasonably likely to be encountered at some point in one of these races. The wing mast F-18s will have to drop more traveller earlier. This eventually leads to the transition where 3 sail reaching no longer pays because the slot at the back of the kite is pinched off when you are travelled down a long way.
• She/he who can keep the traveller more centered for longer when reaching with the kite will be faster and will make the kite work for longer before having to drop it and jib reach.

I'm not suggesting an F-18 is going to be faster than a Nacra 20 running down wind in huge air. I would suggest that on average it may be better suited to coastal distance racing with reasonable sea breeze (reaching conditions). Which conditions are you likely to see on average on these races?

Chris.

There have been some years that were upwind for almost the entire race. Others have been downwind much of trip, while others saw an extreme variance. Don't you know it's all about Al Gore, the Intarwebs, and global warming? Trying to assign an "average" to what you're going to expect in regards to wind is useless. Leave that one to God. Or ask Forest Gump.

Did Al Gore invent "upwind" ?

Our box of chocolates melted the first day.