>>UK which is basically 30 miles down wind and then 30 back again and (after an upwind start) we got the the end of the Downwind leg in 1 1/2 Hrs (gybing down wind) - so 20+ kts as-the-crow-flies, but no GPS
Land miles or nautical miles ? Current ? How many gives where required ? Was the bottom mark perfectl downwind.
Land miles ? = average 17.4 knots Current helping ? = deduct 1 to 2 knots => 15.4-16.4 knots Bottom mark not prefectly downwind => more and more equate the 'as the crow flies" speed to real boat boat speed despite gibing downwind.
And this is why GPS readings are so important. Especially as the show what the current was by looking a drift right before the start.
Wouter
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
I know most of the discussion has centered around cats 20' and under but I thought this might be interesting to add. I copied and pasted this from the Aquarius Web Site (ARC Catamarans).
"In 1984 Bill [Roberts] started designing and developing the RC-27, a design which would set the standard for many boats well into the future. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the RC-27 set numerous records in the US and Europe. In 1989 Bill, his son Eric, and Peter Zboyan set the record for the lowest elapsed time in the Miami Key Largo race at 1 hour 44 minutes for the 45 mile course, that is an average speed of 26 knots! "
If the average speed was 26 knots, can you imagine what maximum speeds they were hitting in short bursts? And this was on an actual open water race course ... not some 500 meters of dead flat water in a ditch or lee side of a sand bar. Must have been a wild ride!
Regards, Bob
Re: Wouter, you should have known!!
[Re: Wouter]
#39795 11/10/0412:42 AM11/10/0412:42 AM
My G-Cat 5.7M pitchpoled well within a boat length. Once that front trampoline dug in, the bow turned submarine and the stern turned catapult. BOTH bows went in up to the mast beam and the boat hit a 75 degree verticle angle before laying over on its side.
G-Cat 5.7M #583 (sail # currently 100) in Bradenton, FL
Hobie 14T
Re: Wouter, you should have known!!
[Re: Sycho15]
#39797 05/12/0506:17 PM05/12/0506:17 PM
Just to bring this back up the radar, I know have a plot of me doing 22.7 mph ~ 18 kts last weekend without the kite up and I am hoping to be out tomorrow too. Anyone else ?
I'm trying but weather overhere is not really helping. Either lightwinds or it is very strong and blowing from the North. It is bloody cold overhere. Only several degrees over freezing. We still have mild frost over night which is very strange for the Netherlands in this time of year. We are still wearing wintercoats. Has been like that for weeks. Water temp is just as low because the air temp was too low to warm it.
My best speed, with GPS on board, is still 16 knots. Was on a reach without a kite bank in 2003. Had one or two promising runs since then but GPS logger died. My logger has a very sensitive back light switch. When it is on than it drains to batteries in about an hour.
Can you publize your GPS plot Scoob ?
Wouter
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
Re: Wouter, you should have known!!
[Re: Wouter]
#39799 05/12/0507:23 PM05/12/0507:23 PM
OK, I will have to withdraw my claim of 22.7 as the GPS plot only records the actual average over the same course(I could take a Digital picture of the GPS Screen I suppose...), however I can claim 20mph (17.38 kts) for 24 seconds :
Paste of the plot log (edited for clarity, I can post all 566 plot polint if anyone wants):
Quote
1 08/05/2005 10:56:53 123 ft 162 ft 00:00:11 10 mph 343° true N52 17.912 W0 18.980 2 08/05/2005 10:57:04 125 ft 305 ft 00:00:17 12 mph 345° true N52 17.938 W0 18.993 3 08/05/2005 10:57:21 119 ft 180 ft 00:00:07 18 mph 28° true N52 17.986 W0 19.013 4 08/05/2005 10:57:28 119 ft 408 ft 00:00:16 17 mph 41° true N52 18.012 W0 18.990 5 08/05/2005 10:57:44 125 ft 521 ft 00:00:19 19 mph 43° true N52 18.063 W0 18.919 6 08/05/2005 10:58:03 128 ft 28 ft 00:00:01 19 mph 39° true N52 18.126 W0 18.824 7 08/05/2005 10:58:04 128 ft 102 ft 00:00:04 17 mph 17° true N52 18.129 W0 18.819 8 08/05/2005 10:58:08 128 ft 175 ft 00:00:08 15 mph 347° true N52 18.145 W0 18.811 9 08/05/2005 10:58:16 127 ft 80 ft 00:00:05 11 mph 336° true N52 18.173 W0 18.822 10 08/05/2005 10:58:21 125 ft 161 ft 00:00:11 10.0 mph 210° true N52 18.185 W0 18.831 11 08/05/2005 10:58:32 128 ft 264 ft 00:00:11 16 mph 209° true N52 18.163 W0 18.852 12 08/05/2005 10:58:43 131 ft 456 ft 00:00:17 18 mph 198° true N52 18.125 W0 18.886 13 08/05/2005 10:59:00 134 ft 701 ft 00:00:24 20 mph 201° true N52 18.053 W0 18.923 14 08/05/2005 10:59:24 128 ft 467 ft 00:00:18 18 mph 210° true N52 17.945 W0 18.990 15 08/05/2005 10:59:42 127 ft 574 ft 00:00:22 18 mph 193° true N52 17.879 W0 19.054 16 08/05/2005 11:00:04 127 ft 368 ft 00:00:13 19 mph 177° true N52 17.787 W0 19.089 17 08/05/2005 11:00:17 128 ft 84 ft 00:00:03 19 mph 190° true N52 17.727 W0 19.083 18 08/05/2005 11:00:20 128 ft 54 ft 00:00:02 19 mph 205° true N52 17.713 W0 19.087 19 08/05/2005 11:00:22 127 ft 216 ft 00:00:09 16 mph 222° true N52 17.705 W0 19.093 20 08/05/2005 11:00:31 125 ft N52 17.679 W0 19.132
Personally I think momentary (display) speeds on a GPS are highly undependable. The minimum average time should be 10 seconds. I think your 24 seconds is small enough to get a good average speed reading. 17.38 knot (European Inter-17 singlehanded no spi) is the current top score.
What were the winds and sea conditions, on what course did you achieve the top speed (reach, broad reach?)
Thanks,
Wouter
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
Re: Personally
[Re: Wouter]
#39802 05/13/0505:05 AM05/13/0505:05 AM
Overpowered tight(ish) reach, Kite down. As you can see from the short plot, headings were not constant for long as it was gusty and shifty F5-7. Sea state was "Grafham chop" at about a foot or so - Short square waves that eat you if you are not carefull. Off out for a sail soon, so I'll see what I can do. Agree that 10 seconds is a good basis for "Agreed speed" for any want of a better word.
During the first day of the Steeplechase a couple of weeks ago we logged 23 mph on our gps. It was blowing over 20mph and we were at a beam reach in the bays double trapped on our SC-20 short rig. What a blast, we were screaming. There were boats in front of us so I am sure they were logging higher.
Once we got into the ocean it was way too choppy to create any good speed.
I thought you were being a bit "optimistic" when I read you were going sailing this morning, I had booked the day off to go out on my new boat, took a walk down to the seashore to see what looked like perfect conditions, 10-15mph with a flat sea due to the NNE Wind. However when I got home and checked the shipping forecast a Gale warning F6-F8 sent me back to work to save the day off for a better day.
From my office window I can see I made the right choice.
Yes it was windy, but totally sailable If I could have (sensibly) got out and back - Had the kite up in the same sort of winds on sunday but it was along the lake so making launch and recovery much easier.
Problem was that it was just about dead onshote which makes it a little difficult managing the boat and the trolly on its/your own. It's then really difficult when you come in as I do not want to leave a boat to drift onto the beach while I get the trolly.
Last weekend (7/5/5) during the Round IJsselmeer race in The Netherlands I clocked a speed of 17.1kts (20mph/31kph). Wind conditions where NW F6-F7 with nasty short steep waves. My boat is a Hobie FX-One, during the topspeed I was sailing with just the mainsail with an AWA of +/-120°.
Topspeeds are always a bit doubtfull but exporting the GPS track to Excel showed I have 13 occurences of 16kts (without the spi), which accounts for a total of 180 meters or 00:01:07 minutes. So, if 16 knots is a "normal" speed I would say that the 17 knot topspeed is very real. I'm convinced if I wasnt sailing in survival mode ;-) 20kts+ is possible.
Anyway, an hour later after I pitchpoled, poked some battens through the main, and blew the spi panels apart (Yes the glue let go!) I abandoned the race. When I came ashore someone measured 30kts+ of wind, only 17 out of 65 cats made it to the finish. Texel is easy compared to this ;-) (ps.Wouter, will you be there next year? ;-) )
Complete GPS track available upon request... (Garmin's Foretrex 201 rocks!)
Well I got out today (this evening) about 300 km to the east of you and boy it was "hanging on" weather. I was hoping for flat water because of the eaterly winds we had the last days but is just swing N to NW this afternoon and it had quickly build up a seastate that had us going up and done like climbing Everest.
Good fun though. Water is still bloody cold though. We;ve had day temperature below 10 degrees Celsius for the last 3 weeks. Normal temp would be 16 to 17 degrees celsius. On average we are about 8 to 10 degree to low for the time of year. it is pretty strange to fire up the heater and dig your winter coat up from the closet in halve may.
No GPS recording today, I was taking my new crew out and I already had enough to worry about. So I left my GPS on the shore. With the seastate I don't think I would have broken my own record anyway. It was way to rough for that
Wouter
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
Top speed or 10 second average ?
[Re: cyberspeed]
#39811 05/13/0505:57 PM05/13/0505:57 PM
Rules to this "high score' game are simple. You need to provide a GPS track plot and track with your post and it must be AT LEAST a 10 second (averaged) leg. Momentary and GPS display top speeds don't count. These are just to undependable. Leave your GPS unit outdoors stationary and it will show speeds upward to 5 km/hour speeds due to measurement in consistancies.
Personally I value 500 mtr = 50 seconds averages the highest.
Wouter
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
Wouter you should have known! 
![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/bb_files/49385-Pic%20for%2020mph.jpg)
