Altered is Back.

Hi all,

just thought I would let you know, Altered is back on the water. Picked it up and sailed it at Colac last saturday.

Gusting 15kts.flat water. Was last of start line against A class fleet aprox.6 boats (some just back from Australian championships), feeling very rusty was just behind last A at windward mark. They all gybed onto port tacking high angles downwind, I set kite and continued on starboard, crossed all but one before the leeward mark after gybes and drop of kite, very rusty was third past mark. Proceeded upwind to find beam bolts hanging out of starboard hull. Proceeded to shore thinking I was just starting to enjoy myself, but that was end of racing.

Have now fixed beam bolts, look forward to tuning up next few weekends before next big race on Feb.12. Australia Day reggattas are just to soon Jan 22-23. Short sail at Colac reminded me how much I have not sailed this boat. Must get everything set right, one up does not leave any other choice. Am looking at sailing around French Island race on Western Port did it last year on Mossie lot's of Spinnaker in prevailing breeze, like a few hours in one set. Good fun!

Sorry Tony and Phil but don't think I can make it to Broken Bay Reggatta although you are welcome to try and talk me into it.

Can't wait to get back into it this weekend. On the home Gippsland Lakes.

Regards Gary.

Welcome back.

Good luck with the upcoming season.

Exactly how did you repair altered. Got a sub deck now or something ?

Thanks for the race report, I'm sure you were sabotaged !

You now how nervous the natives get when a F16 is around. (JOKE ! a JOKE! It is a joke everybody ! Don't flame me please)

I'm sure the A's noticed. Better luck next time Gary. It is really good to hear you are enjoying Altered again.

Good luck !

Wouter

Tell us how you made that.

Wouter

JUst a link to this image :

http://www.florida3s.com/temp/postpics.gif

Regularly appears in the Sailing Anarchy forums - but not usually in connection to photos of boats!

Here's photos:



And some advertising:

And a long-distance shot of some action:

Will altered by sailed mostly in UNI setup?

I'm not saying anything Gary !

I'm not jinxing you a second time.

But you know what I want to say, don't you.

And break a leg !

Wouter

Hi Robi,

Altered is a totaly one up, cat rigged, uni rigged whatever you like to call it boat. This is why I modified an A class as they were the fastest one up cat in OZ, if I wanted to sail two up I would have used an existing design probably Blade or Taipan and saved myself a lot of trouble. But I wanted an F16 designed purely for one up which is not yet available to my knowledge. The hulls don't have the bouyancy and none of the setup is designed strong enough for two up.

Wouter thanks for the positive thoughts I can hear them from here.

Regards Gary.

Hi all,

just an update on all things Altered. Boat is going OK still trying to to tune up get fittings, ropes right etc. Boat is now aprox. min. weight 105kg. rigged, since repair strengthening work. Can't get over how docile the boat feels, the F16 is realy a very stable platform. Most people look at Altered like it is going to be a handful, but compared to the Mosquito it realy isn't much livelier. It makes me review my feelings about Phil's Blade which I thought felt quite docile, which I put down to the size of the hulls and perhaps a little excess weight. But I think it realy comes back to a GREAT Formula rule.

Yes I can see ease of sailing and feeling docile as positive things for the class. You don't have to be the worlds best sailor to handle one of these things. But at the same time they are deceptivley fast especialy upwind. Sure they don't feel like an A class but they aren't much slower upwind and the kite soon makes up for it.

I guess I should put these comments in perspective, coming of a Mosquito a 16 ft. cat with a spinnaker rigged weight of around 92kg. which has one foot less beam than an F16HP. I am sure Wouter could tell us something about power to weight ratios, righting moments etc. I guess the F16HP may feel alot more exciting to a Hobie sailor.

Spent yesterday racing with three F16 cat rigged Mossies. Had three short races, each race at least one of them had a go at me upwind, but I generaly beat them despite getting some shifts wrong. Speed was very even downwind found it hard to get away from them,finished ahead as much due to shifts as speed. Wind varied from around 12 kts. to drifter. They beat me on VYC yardstick in all but the last race where the wind gods decided to stop blowing after I finished.

Regards Gary.

Tell me about your trailer-
There appear to be some blocks from the rear beam support to the trailer frame- Does this rear support fold back rearward to load/unload the boat then for actual trailering I presume the front beam "plugs" into the front beam cradles, the rear is lifted so the rear beam cradles fit over/under the rear beam and the blocks keep the boat "sandwiched" between the front and rear uprights (or??).

Thanks!

Hey Gary,
You mean you spent all that time, effort & cash on this project....
And the Mozzies are STILL hassling you !!

Just kidding ! Really glad to see that machine back on the water, I reckon once you`ve got the "which string does what" sorted, and stop picking the wrong shifts , They will have a tough time holding onto you. (If they don`t, Jeez, I don`t wanna race against those guys, sound like formidable opponents !)

Cheers
Steve

Hi Kirt,

glad you picked up on trailer design, I have been trying to refine it for a while. On this trailer and previous Mosquito trailer, I have copied front beam supports used on OZ cat trailers for some years, but I don't like supporting the hulls on rests underneath the hulls as most OZ trailers use always seems to be some sand around. I use rollers positioned just underneath beam height to roll boat on then boat slides up onto front beam support. The different part is I then lift back of boat up swing up back supports and locate against beam and then tension in place with pulleys and cleats (old laser vang type set ups). This was easier on Mossie trailer as trampoline did not come under beam allowing for back supports to go under back beam. On Altered's trailer back beam supports cup the back beam not going under the beam where the tramp tube is in the way or over the top as the traveller is in the way. Also I had to put cups right out at inside edge of beams to keep out of the way of lacing of tramp which comes up the back of the beam. It works well allowing for no tie trailering, with no hull contact. Just have to make sure you pull tackle up tight and cleat, boat can't move at all up and down or anyway. The tackles are tied to trailer and use hooks into eye bolts in swing up back support so you disconnect them to swing back support down out of the way.

Regards Gary.

Hi all,

yes Altered was tested on the weekend. Club called off race to windy? 25kts. In frustration I went sailing anyway, first opportunity to realy try out boat without being to extreme.

Sailboards and kitesurfers were having a good time and so did I. Wind was very gusty couldn't handle kite in gusts , not with any mainsheet on anyway. So did some sailing downwind without spinnaker but apart from that handled it all. Gusts to 30kts. choppy waves about .5m, nose dives, kite flogging, even a capsize.

To gungho trapping with kite up and a fair bit of mainsail on. Bearaway, nosedive, thrown forward off trap onto hull bounced off ended up around bow under bridle. By this time boat stopped nosediving but tipped over sideways kite flogging and main still cleated (just can't find the crew who should have attended to these things). All the usual fun stuff for catsailors.

Conclusions, I now have confidence that hulls and mast are basicly strong enough to handle normal sailing. All that is left is to test her speed against faster cats. STAY TUNED.

Regards Gary.