At last weekend's CRAW regatta, we had a Falcon present. I took some photos primarily to show the differences between the Falcon and the Blade. BTW, the Falcon took 5th in what I felt was a pretty good fleet of Infusions and I20s.

Basically, I tried to show the differences in the hull, beams, tramp and jib track. I'll break this into a couple of posts.

A few More

And a shot of the new tramp setup

A couple of comments. I was most impressed by how the hulls felt structually. When you tap them or give them a hit with your fist, they have a much deeper thud to them than the Blade. They just seem structually more solid. Also, there is no "hull cap" for lack of better words. On the Blade you have the lid that fits over the hull between the two beams and allows access for repairs. The Falcon does not have this.

The front beam is a D shaped versus the round beam on the Blade and more integrated into the hull. The rear beam seems to be the same, but again is more integrated into the hull.

I don't have the self tacker on my boat, but the new track pivots. I don't know what issue this addresses.

The tramp has the traditional pole lashed to the rear beam to tension the tramp, but now the sides can be tensioned as well. I think this is the same setup I saw on the Infusion.

TEH,

Four questions.

-1- who was sailing the Falcon at CRAM and are the race results posted online ?

-2- Can you send me the high resolution picture ; wouterhijink(at)hotmail.com ?

-3- Did you measure the freeboard at the bow and mainbeam ? (That will be interesting the compare to the VWM Blade !)


Thanks alot in advance

Wouter

Dan Feldman sailed 1up. He is helping Matt establish F16 in the Midwest. He sailed a Blade the last year or so. I believe it was his first time on the Falcon.

Let me know the size files you want. I think the originals are around 2M each.

I don't think the results are up yet but here is the web site:
http://www.crawsailing.org/events_2009.htm

I think there were three infusions, five I20s, 3 F16 and one A-cat. There was also a FX One, but he did not race. Winds were very shifty and varied in speed.

Sorry, I did not do any measurements. Maybe next race.

What a pussy! Oh, wait....

Not a problem, do me the originals.

I can receive a max of 10 Mb per mail, so you'll probably have to spread all the pics out over 2 mails, but my inbox still has about 2 Gb free so there is not risk of you filling her up.





12 (performance) cats competing and coming at 5th place under the new FASTER F16 handicap. The handicaps of the F18, F16 and N20's are now pretty much were the should be, they certain not favour the F16's anymore.

So that is a good result. The infusions are a good design F18, up to date in rig and sails. So no help there.

Nice fleet.

Personally, I really like the Falcon (and nice to see my mainbeam design finding its way on there). And I noticed quite a few differences to the VWM Blades I know (and sail at my club). A lot of little tweaks that just work better.

Yeah, I think I will be in the market for one when my money ships docks in.

Wouter

I raced, if you could call it that. Still, I learned a lot about reading the wind in shifty and variable conditions. The CRAW guys were great and tailed me in the chase boat and gave me pointers.

The wind was pretty unpredictable. Some times you sat, other times I was having trouble keeping the boat down (just me, though).

TEH,

Was there any noticable difference in wind angle (higher upwind, lower downwind) and speed. (Ofcourse both are highly affected by the sailor and not only the boat).

Gill

I am sorry to report that I was so far behind, I could not tell the difference. Dan did not mention any difference when we were off the water.

I can ask him next time I see him. We are trying to get the F16s together for practice before the next race.

Tom- you and Dan should try and make it to the Shell Lake event. It looks like Mark is pre-registered and last year there was a couple of F17's that made it there. One is from Minnesota, I'd be surprised if he didn't show again this year.

I don't think I have Shell Lake as one of my officially "sactioned" events. I might be able to swap it our for Racine.

I may have Dan's schedule as we were trying to coordinate attendance at regattas. Petenewell and Madtown are my next two.