--- In harryproa@yahoogrou
>
> Hi,
> I just accidentally ran across a video of Rare Bird in the Gladstone race
> that was uploaded to YouTube a week ago. Did I miss someone announcing it in
> this newsgroup. As grateful as I am for the posting, it isn't a great video,
> and I was hoping some others were gong to get uploaded.
>
> The short of it is that there are GPS speeds of up to 15.7 kts visible on
> the video. I have a question; was it raining, or did the cockpit get that
> wet from spray off the lw hull?
>
> Thanks,
> - Gardner
> York, PA
You didn't miss anything, I did not announce it as I did not have time to explain the inevitable spray questions when it was posted. If you freeze the video as soon as the gps is visible, it is doing 16.9 knots, Top speed recorded was 17.3. There are no white caps as it was a gust from an island behind us. Pre and post gust it was 10-15 knots. No idea of what the gust was, but assume about 20.
The spray from the rudders was all from the rudder supports which stick out from the hull and the rather bulky cassette in which the rudder blade sits. I don't recall any waves hitting the beams during the race. These rudders have been superceded on later designs although they work very well. The gudgeon on one of them broke during the race due to crevice corrosion in the stainless steel and damaged the lower support. The owner has decided to repair it rather than build new rudders which is an indication of how well they worked.
The spray from the bow is significant and is caused by too blunt an entry which was considered desirable to maintain a high prismatic. We went too far with this and future boats have much sharper entries. If Rare Bird ever has a collision and damages the bows, the repair will be a lot sharper. This is easy to do as the bows are polystyrene covered in fibreglass for the end 600mm/2'.
The "rain" is spray from the windward hull which is even blunter than the lee hull. There was very little from the lee side of the hull as it has the bridgedeck cantilevered off it. There was copious amounts from the windward side which blew over the hull. Standing under the overhanging roof was dry, (no one has wet clothes) but outside it was wet, although from memory most of the drips were being blown across the deck so once you were past the overhang it was dry.. Finer bows will help correct this, or an overhanging shelf on the windward side of the boat as per the original harry. see http://www.harrypro
I am not sure whether spray rails would help or make the problem worse. Something else to experiment with when El is back in the water. Beam fairings is another good idea, more for improved aerodynamics than for reduced spray. The beams on El are triangular and deflect some spray down.
regards,
rob
>
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