G'day,
Took Elementarry for a sail with the new
rudders today. 15 minutes from arriving at the ramp to ready to sail, then
out into 15-20 knots. Took it easy to start with, but everything seemed
solid so went for a blast. Worked very well. Shunting is slow with
raising and lowering rudders, but on the Transpac this will not be a
problem. For close quarters sailing, I left them both down. The
river was empty, but eventually a 29er skiff (70 kgs, 12.5 sqm sail, 2 small
guys crew) came out to play. I sailed behind them and luffed
up to hard on the wind. They were mostly overpowered (small easing of the
sheet), i was way underpowered. I could not sail through close to
leeward of them, so went into pointing mode, got behind them then scooted past,
pointing higher and going faster. They then bore away onto a reach, I did
not notice for a few minutes then bore away as well. Caught them like they
were anchored. A triumph for long and skinny over planing.
They went ashore and I noticed a hydrofoil moth up
wind. I came hard on the w ind and after a couple of tacks was gaining
(much slower, but pointing higher). He then bore away and sailed downwind.
I followed but did not have enough sail area to go as deep or as
fast. We then started reaching (breeze now 12 knots) and he left me for
dead. A triumph for foils over length. The skiff has a little more
sail and is lighter than El, the moth has 70% sail and about 40% of the weight,
so it was not too embarassing. The crew of both of them were
working very hard, (the moth did a couple of spectacular crashes off the foils),
I was mostly sitting there, wishing for 10 knots more breeze or a bigger
main. The rudders squeek (cheap drainpipe bearings), which will eventually
drive me nuts, but otherwise work very well. All in all a fun way to
spend an afternoon.
Next job is to chop off all the old bits of rudder
tracks and fittings and see if I can make the Outleader kite work.
Stay tuned.
regards,
Rob
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