Paul Alani sailing an F18 with former Hobie Worlds Youth Representative Jake Sailor (his last name...really...),very nearly won the area G Eliminations Regatta this past weekend in Santa Cruz, California!

Paul Alani, an undergrad. at UC Santa Cruz and former U.K. F16 National Champ,had Sailor's F18 flying round the course! Sunny warm temperatures and double digit wind velocities found the boys atop the very tough regatta field at the end of day one! Sadly,day two of the regatta was raced in little or no wind, effectively dooming the low PN F18 to second place...
Paul Alani is one hell of a good sailor and the sudden favorite of the Santa Cruz race crowd!
I'll post details of the regatta when time permits...

Paul Kilkenny
USA 300

That's ma boy!!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

- Hang on! HE'S MEANT TO BE STUDYING!!!!!

Full race results or pics ?

Wouter

Paul flying a hull under spinnaker at 2:20 into the video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5419748492567302327&q=alter+cup+2006&hl=en


Wouter

At the beginning, nice shot of Paul showing how light and easy it is to wheel around an F16 on land.

Oh, and it really capsures Paul's trademark extreme hiking

Hey Wouter and doc,

I promise the report will be submitted this week.

Not me on the tape moving the F16 - the hobie guys just took turns doing that for fun...

In all seriousness - video is valuable: I've identified no fewer than seven less than optimal (slow...), aspects of my
approach of the mark, rounding to set, set, sail trim,hiking and personal appearance/ asthetics... In the interests of the class, and again in all seriousness, how would you remediate my sailing (about 6knts. flat water), on this film ?

PK

Flying a hull, kickin' up a wake downwind--looks good to me! In 6 knots, I'm in the middle of the tramp trying to get the hull up. As for the hoist, I'm not about to give you any tips--you're getting way too fast <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

The thing I saw was that you are waaaay to slow in getting the kite up.

Just bear off, point the boat in the direction a little lower then you really want to go under spi. Lay the tiller on the back of the boat or throw it in the water sometime during this setup phase. The get on your knees (the boat will track) and hoist that spi with both hands and large arm movements, going from all the way front to almost all the way to the back of you. Rotate your upper body at the hips. Imagine that you are being a grinding on those Americas Cup boats. GO GO GO !

When it is up the boat will have rounded up a little and you should be on course to power up.

Also I thought your mainsail was a little bit to far out (twisted) when you started hoisting your kite. The conditions appeared to be light and so there is no need to depower the boat that much after you have beared off to a deep broad reach. So sheeting out, rounding mark, sheet in, hoist kite.

I echo Greg Goodall when it comes down to spinnakers. Each second lost in hoisting that kite and getting it to drive costs you 10 mtrs. If you are 5 seconds slow then you've lost 50 mtrs and you really have got to be able to tune your rig very well to win those back. So the simple solution is to keep what you got and just get that kite up quickly and driving.


In a crowded mark rounding (not the case this time) you'll want to approach the mark wide and exit the turn around the bout tight. So in wide, out tight. That is tactically better and when you get a shift or alot of dirty air then you won't be put onto the mark. Additionally, when singlehanding a F16 then you often want to be below the other spi boats as singlehanded with spi you tend to drive a couple of degrees lower then the doublehanded spi boats.

The part when sailing under spi looks perfect to me. You know best what the conditions were. If you force me to say anything about this part then I would say, sheet the main in a little more and go to the trapeze. The water is flat so no trouble standing firm under spi. You are light and seems to have sufficient apparent wind to keep flying and the Taipan hulls don't suffer to much when the luff hull dips in now and then (like the Blade does, to these sailors, keep lifting the hull).

Wouter

After this weekend, I dont think it is a good idea to trap out with spinaker up in bouy racing. You have to heat the boat up too high to build good aparent wind.

After talking to a few of the local gurus they informed me that if you trap out with spin up (in uni-rig) you will have more speed, but you are actually sailing a higher course.

I still need to do more testing.

Robi, can you please give us land-lubbers a report on the Carlisle Classic? Things such as how many and what type boats were there, wind strenghts, etc. Then I'll give you a full report on my trip to Bombay... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Sailing a higher course is not a problem per se as long as your increase in speed is sufficiently large.

When the winds are light or medium then don't trap and sail deep. Here the speed increase is to little to pay off.

When the winds are higher then medium then trap and sail more faster then you'll loose by depth.

The trick is to find the point in windspeed where you need to switch from non-trap to trap. If you are not sure then don't trap. That is always the safest bet.

In the video it looks like Paul is sailing with alot of mainsail twist. Assuming his heading is sufficiently deep already then he could be better off sheeting in and trapping out maintaining the same heading.

Wouter

Hi all,

my guess on breeze is about 8kt with a bit more in gusts, I am 90 kg. and this would almost be enough for me to trap, so I would advise lighter crews should be trapping if wind is at all consistent, in that breeze you can do around 15 kts. boatspeed if trapping which makes it worthwhile.

I would not trap if the wind was very shifty, as you can gybe quicker to follow the shifts and gusts if sitting on tramp, this is especialy true for sailing one up, as it takes longer to gybe. I tend to sit on tramp and go deep as possible though, I have never found hiking to give good VMG. Either trap for max. speed, longest distance to bottom mark. Or sit in for max. depth, shortest distance to bottom mark.

The defining reason to trap is keeping the leeward bow above water, I get to a point sitting on tramp where I have to trapeze off the back to keep the bow up. But once it gets too hairy on trap, it becomes time to sit back on tramp and oversheet main to depower, go slower, deeper and keep bows up. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

The defining reason to stay on tramp, is that in the lulls you have to head too high and oversheet spinnaker to keep hull flying, this is bad VMG time, not good.

Just my experience, for what it's worth.

Regards Gary. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />