UPDATE 5/22/2002



http://www.reynolds33.com/



After 3 days of sailing in the Huntington Harbor fine tuning the boat and trying to find any weaknesses we felt the boat was ready for the ocean. So today, on Wednesday the 22nd, we left the harbor at 11:30 am and lowered the mast under the bridge to venture into the Pacific. The wind was building from 8 to 12 knots and we felt we were going to have a good day of high speed sailing.



We hoisted the mainsail only and proceeded to sail under main only to weather in 10 to 12 knots of wind. We were in about 1 to 2 foot chop and the boat was sailing very well...pointing high and sailing at about 7 to 8 knots. We sailed main only up to Long Beach inside the breakwater. Once inside the breakwater the sea backed down to a 1 foot chop but the wind increased to 13 to 14 knots. So with the added wind strength taunting us we hoisted the jib and proceeded to fall off to a close reach to finally see what the R33 could do. In the proceeding days of sailing in the bay we were restricted by the length of course we had...although we did clock a respectable 17.8 knots of speed in the bay.



So with sails sheeted and 5 men on board (930 lbs of crew) we started to bare off onto a close reach. In a true wind of 14 to 15 knots we were consistently recording 17 to 18 knots. We did this for one hour sailing the boat back and forth trying to break something on the boat. Our best speed for the hour was 20.4 knots in 15 knots of true wind. We then reached back out into the open ocean in about 1.5 to 2.5 chop and 15 knots of true wind doing speeds of 17 to 19 knots. A nice surprise to me was at this high speed we were staying dry...very little spray was coming over the bow.



We then tacked to see what she would do to weather with both the main and jib. We sheeted in and were pointing high with great control doing about 8.5 to 9.5 knots hitting 10.3 knots many times. We did this for about 15 minutes on one tack and decided to go for another speed run as the wind seemed to have picked up to about 16 knots. So we cracked off and with great control of the helm we sped off clocking our top speed for the day.... 21 knots in only 16 knots true. We knew what the true wind was because we had both a gps and an anemometer on board.



After almost 2 hours of hard sailing we decided to break for lunch and fine tune the boat. So we ducked behind the Queen Mary and let down the jib and sailed back and forth idly at 5 knots in her wind shadow to fine tune the mast rotator and mainsheet system. We also kicked back and ate lunch and talked about what fun we had just had sailing at 21 knots in only 16 knots of wind with the weather hull just kissing the water. However, after going over the boat and checking her systems and high load areas we did discover our dolphin striker was starting to slightly bend just above the maintube where the mast sits on a 2 inch brass ball. So as not to take any chances we decided to call it a day and to head into the harbor.



We took down the main and sailed with jib only broad reaching in 15 knots of wind. We were amazed when we were consistently doing 7 and 8 knots with jib only! We then turned the corner lowered the jib and then the mast and motored her under the bridge to her dock in Huntington Harbor.



Once getting her back to the dock and called our design engineer Gino Morrelli of Morrelli and Melvin Design and Engineering to discuss the dolphin striker strut problem. It was concluded that the 6 degrees of mast and maintube angle we had was the culprit of adding extra load to the striker. Simple to correct though....make the striker bigger going from 3/4 inch to 1 inch diameter...an overkill now but in boat #2 the striker will be angled 6 degrees to match the compression load of the mast. We will then be able to go back to a 3/4 inch rod as originally designed.



No sooner had I hung up the phone with Gino the crew had already lowered the mast and removed the maintube. The main tube will go to our machine shop guy, Kim Harding of SS Metal Fabricators in Costa Mesa where we will have a new dolphin striker made and installed for sailing on Friday!



So the R and D process will continue like this for about 2 to 3 months where we will take our demo boat and beat the hell out of her before we start assembling boat number 2 which will be our first production boat. It is hoped that no changes will be made to boats after boat number two as to keep in the game plan of creating a fast and fun one design racing and coastal cruising boat! So until we go faster than 21 knots ...Fast Sailing!



WHAT’S NEXT???



During the next three weeks of sea trials we will push the boat hard to try to find any weaknesses in her construction. Watch for more frequent updates and sailing photos as we take additional video footage and photos of the R33 in a variety of wind and sea conditions.