Loosing Less

a club championship race today in perfect breeze. A consistant SE 18kts gusting to 20. The first race in foiling wind I have finished and I seem to be loosing by less.

I got the boat foiling nicely upwind but still got no idea which angle to sail down wind. Whenever I try to hot it up and bear away I loose the pressure in the rig and it becomes rather unstable in heel.

Foiling in amongst a fleet is so much fun. Slotting into gaps between a chain if optmists while doing 3-4 times their speed is extrordinary.

Narkla and I took it out in a gusty westerly yesterday. Patchy with gusts up to 18. Narkla has set a new best speed on the boat of 18.6kts and claims, on his first decent sail to have pulled off a foil gybe and a fast foil touch foil tack. I wouldn't know I was at the crab island bar.

My gps is boned. The foretrex 101 battery compartment has leaked and the terminals are very corroded. I have heard others have had this problem. It's a pity it's a great unit and cheap.

Insurance

Time for some third party indemnity I think.

Today was sprint races. First race was 5kts breeze and 2.5kts current. I hit a lazer, a 420, a 29er, 3 jettys, a sandbank, the bottom mark and got my rudder foil tangled on the top mark. Then my coke drifted away.

I skipped that race and the next and joined the last one. Managed to get it flying in 10kts of breeze which is a new best.

first

the only question is just how much purchase is inside this boom of doom?

can't...hold...it...in

we've designed a wand linkage system incorporating a cam on the wand axle (just a quick screen shot, parts to come) and also built a vang that sits inside the boom with just one dyneema rope coming out of the bottom to the king post. more pictures to come.

aahhh, I've been holding that in for awhile...whether those two items work or not is another matter, time will tell...it may all just be ill-conceived tinkering...

well, that was a secret fail

boatwork

I am glad all this reposting has stopped. i did put a comment to that effect foilermoth but it didn't appear to get past moderation. i feel oppressed lol.

a bit of boat work going on atm which is no excuse to not bloog really. two weeks to go till the start of my season and time to do the first real servicing session on my boat since it was built. all in all it has held up will for an amateur home build... so far...

the list of maintenance/mod jobs:

• replace 6mm fibreglass push rod with a 10x1 carbon pultrusion (50% comp.)
  
• fit a "dial" to the push rod (50% comp.)
• repair some cracking in the deck edge (80% comp.)
• replace tramp lacing (0% comp.)
• replace deck grip with foam (0% comp.)
• affix the mast ram with epoxy+glue powder rather than the duct tape and sikflex (100% comp.)
• tramps to sail maker to shorten, and add cut outs to moving hiking straps outboard.(0% comp.)
• shorten hiking straps (0% comp.)
• new boom webbing (0% comp.)
• take gantry to sail maker for a monofilm fairing with a velcro pocket (0% comp.)
• sail to sail maker to repair batten pockets and recut pocket opening at hounds. (0% comp.)
• new vang system, but more on that in a later post - a little secret squirrel, will post when it works. (40% comp.)
• New wand to flap linkage system (very secret squirrel till it is actually on the boat and working, we're both a bit excited about it but want to have a working conventional system first).