Well?? Cary? Did you get a ride? Too bad about Saturday, I know how windy it was, I spent the day outside at a horse show, eating blowing dirt! The jumping had to be delayed twice as the jumps kept blowing over!

There was also a Light Sport Aircraft expo in Sebring Saturday, two airplanes flipped over when a gust of 55 mph came through! The tents were trashed.

Too bad they didn't just slide the regatta over by one day, today looks great out there and I'll bet most of you have the holiday off...

I just got off the phone with Bret who sailed with Hans on the G-Cat F16. I reserve comment at this time.

Bob

Well Bob, did you sail in the A cat regatta? Can you tell us about that? I couldn't find results for the 12,13th on the A cat site, only for the first two days. And, who had the black van pulling the two Nacra A2's up I75 Saturday around 5pm?

Trophies were handed out in the following order.
1st Chuck and wife (sorry didnt get to meet her)
2nd Matt and Gina McDonald
3rd Seth Stern and Kelly (Grey?????)

I sailed with Cary Palmer, we had a blast. We did alright. I would say, I sailed better than Daytona beach. It is extremely hard to keep up with folks that have been sailing as much as they have compared to my less than a year on the boat, and two years total on beach cats.

Had a close look to the G-Cat two words SWEET BOAT!

If you compare a Blade to the G Cat the only difference is the hulls and the rudders. Obviously G Cat hulls are boardless and it had Dotan rudders.

As far as racing goes, Me and Cary only kept up with the Uni-Can (Bruce, I forgot his catsailor nick) Very good sailor indeed. He definatley proved that a F16 Uni can and will keep up with the sloops even in a blow.

Our first race, I was too powered up the 10 seconds prior to the start, and to avoid going over I had to sail to far down the unfavored end. This same race, we took the B mark twice when we were not suppost to. Cost us LOTS of ground, big error.

Second race Cary took the stick. We had a very good start and we were keeping up with the fleet really good. Sadly we were having a hard time to complete tacks. We were getting stuck deadwind and the boat would not move.

Third race we pitch poled pretty insanley. Both bows went under and we were unable to recover. Once I slided foward, it was all over. We brought the boat back up and continued the race and finished.

We finished dead last in all the races It aint easy sailing against bad butt sailors. Still a lot to learn. These boats are NO joke. Time to consider a sailing seminar.

All in all a very funfilled weekend.

Sounds like a good weekend!



Have you tried backing the jib as you tack? It's not the fastest way to sail, but it does more or less guarantee making the tack. As crew, just slap your hand on the jib track, just inside the cart before it goes and hold it there till you're comfortably through.

Paul

It was Cary's first time tacking the boat in high wind. It took him around three attempts then we were good to go. It was his first time on the stick in a race. He did drive friday afternoon, but the winds friday were not even close to sundays winds.

You should not be having trouble tacking the Blade. By this I mean that something is done to stall the drive during the tack. I wonder what it could be ?

Are you willing to describe in detail how you guys executed the tacking manouvre. My first guess would be however that the skipper is keeping the mainsail rather tight during the tack. With selftacking jibs I found this to lead to getting stuck in irons.

Lets discuss this, maybe we can help sort it out. Afterall the Blade with its very round keel line is one of the most easy boats to tack.

Wouter

Yes Wouter you hit the spot. We only got caught maybe three times max. We did not get caught or stuck into irons so much as the boat came to a dead stop, but it was mostly a very slow tack.

It was Cary's first time tacking the blade in high wind. I should have been a little more helpfull in letting him know about releasing the main just a tad.

When I tack I usually let go the mainsheet around six inches.

Well, Chuck and Matt were also sailing Blades, were they having problems with tacks? I find in big wind I ease the main a BUNCH (at least a foot of line, maybe 18") as I pass under the boom, because I don't want to get flipped if the crew is slow to get out on the wire and we get a puff with the main sheeted in.

Also, if you are getting stopped dead in the water by large waves, you will need to bear off and power it up before you go back to pointing, so you want to have the main eased so the jib can pull the bows down and you can get it moving again as you trim in the main and get settled in on the wire.

I blew a few tacks myself. I rationalized it thusly:
(Reminder, I was sailing one up)
With the early big winds, I was a coward and crossing under too early. I didn't want to have to climb uphill.
I have driven a Nacra5.2 for 10 years. The longer sterns and therefore tiller arms respond differently from the short sterned Taipan. So, more than once, I just pulled the rudders over too far as I was crossing over.
Being a sloop guy, the boat had to remind me a few times to bear off further and ease off more before getting into Rock and Roll mode.

Bruce

From what I saw the G-cat was getting it done. Aside from the rudder problems the boat and team looked quite quick. Granted I had my own distractions so I only caught brief glimpses.

Ding

Did you do well Bruce? Like the shorter cat?

Hi Scott
I guess you could say I met or exceeded my expectations. For those that have never heard of Wabamun, our lake experienced an 180,000 gallon Bunker C fuel oil spill last August. I had not sailed since the end of July and you could say my hands were soft.
I really enjoyed my time on the Taipan. In the bigger breezes of the first race I was able to mostly control the Taipan by pulling everything I could find tight and just a little easing of the traveller. Still caught a few breezes that just wanted to round me up. After the A mark I worked up the guts to unfurl Rick's Hooter. Scared myself broaching once but managed to tame the beast. As time went by and the winds dropped I became more competitive.
After Sunday's racing I jumped on Matt's Blade for a quick rip across the sound. In the dropping breezes we were still able to heat up the F16 and light the afterburner so to speak.
I have committed myself to buying a Blade. On the beach, it was so easy to lift both sterns up when compared to my old solid glass Nacra.

Sounds like it was lots of fun. Can not wait to hear more about it.

The F-16 is quite light, I'm used to a heavy boat that has momentum through the tacks, took me awhile to get it right, I'm used to driving 400 pounds of boat through the curve, that will stall an F-16 fast if you turn sharply.
I have a report coming, sent most of it off privately last night, will post the edited version up later tonight.
All told We both improved steadily through the weekend, I was starting from nothing, I have a Gig of pictures to sort through, I took pictures of every boat's rigging except the Marstrom. Lots to compare there, I have to sort them out.
The Blade is FAST downwind, easy to sail fairly well. Beautiful handling under kite as long as you keep your weight back.
We did a very gentle pitchpole in the third race, just some bow tripping, then stuffed the mast in the mud.
I have a lot of rigging suggestions to make it easier to sail. Will adapt some of them to my Tiger if I keep it.
Gotta get back to work.
CARY

.

.

.

.

.