Australian Nationals 2013 - Day -2 / -1

Nick and I got down to the nationals venue (Wangi Wangi Amateur Sailing Club on Lake Macquarie) yesterday and a little update from our end of the fleet.

I am sailing same old SLINO with MSL10B, Fastacraft centreboard and , Goddard/Doinka rudder and some recent modifications - a single skin carbon plate gantry and the assassin wingset from Rob's deceased. Photos and designs for the latter to follow. I am also running a tension system for centreboard control (rather than a pushrod) - a concept which I am now told has never ever worked in waves and today the boat tried to tear me a new one. I am so sore and my wetsuit is now full of holes. I started getting it going through the chop before attempting a gybe now my right arm doesn't work. 

Nick is sailing 'Silver Shadow' an older Rocket Surgeon Composites carbon nomex machine with a foil set from the same and MSL10C. It may end up with a cam control system later in the regatta, but a test sail after crimbo was messy and it is currently running a typical pushrod system. 

The regatta will be an interesting one. Looks like their will be over 70 boats on the start list making this the second largest moth nationals in history (the only bigger one was just before the belmont worlds - bolstered with internationals who were there for the worlds). And even more interesting is the range of boats - much more than the wall to wall M2s we had last year.

Oddball List

   - SLINO

   - Silver Shaddow

   - Bob Pearson custom M2-a-like

   - Luka's scalpel

   - Nick Flutters ex Blue Meanie

   - 2x Dave Lister Monstros (one sailed by Nathan Outridge)

   - 4ish Fastacrafts including Alan's old one

   - 3ish BRs of various flavours

   - Ian Sim's scow

A couple of other interestings:

   - 4x aftermarket M2 lifters with folded down tips and flap pinned at the foil tips (so section doesn't distort)

   - A spreaderless rig for some of the western australians

   - The Advanced Wing Systems moth rig

So many sailors went out for a practise today, Nick and I inclusive. Nice 12kts in the morning. Nasty 20kts and chop in the afternoon. Luka is smoking in the light. AMac, Scott and Josh very fast in the blow. RobG incredible smooth sailing and height control (from what we saw yesterday - not sure if he sailed today). 

Lot's of boat work happening in the park on all kinds of boats. Wet'n'drying of foils and even some painting. A bit of fine tuning of the new MSL16 rigs.

Tomorrow is an official practice race and looks like it will be lightening off till wednesday. 

AC72 Heel Moment

As with a previous calculation for the moth, watching the AC72s blasting around I wondered about their heel moment characteristics. This time though I had a neat new tool to test out...Autodesk ForceEffect.


 AC72 Heel Moment Report

Blue loads from left are; crew, platform, rig. Pink are reactions.

Make of it what you will, the numbers are rough, the height of the sail restraint is dubious. The items that stand out though are the angle of the resultant hull+foil force and the total hull+foil force...
8.5 tonnes at 24.5 degrees from vertical (and that's just a static load)

Let me know if I've made any major mistakes. Shut your hole if you're an ETNZ fanboy, I couldn't find a photo of New Zealand from the right angle (I'll swap the photo if you supply a good one though.)


In other news, Markla decided that a few weeks before the nationals was a good time to do major structural modifications to his boat. Luckily it all went smoothly and the result is much better than the original

Equally crazy is my goal of coming to the nationals with a new control system...I only started on the weekend. It has been percolating in my brain for ages and now that I have a shed it can be put into practice. Wish me luck.

Photos of the above to come.

PB Speed Records

Not much in the grand scheme of things, but today Markla, Rob and myself went out at Lake Samsonvale just north of Brisbane for some big wind and flat water.

Markla and I set new pb speed records. (Below is for our archives as much as anything.)

10 seconds
Markla - 22.3 knots
Narkla - 23.6 knots
Rob - 22.1 knots

5 seconds
Markla - 23.2 knots
Narkla - 23.95 knots (because Markla won't let me round up to 24.0)

200 metre
Markla - 21.7 knots
Narkla -22.9 knots

Peak
Markla - 24.9 knots
Narkla - 25.6 knots
Rob - 22.8 knots (speedpcuk) (but he wasn't trying, pfft, boat retired hurt before the wind really kicked in)

MSL 10B Mast Bend

Does anyone have MSL 10B rigged mast bend loads and numbers? I have a feeling mine is too straight down low and am considering modifying the spreaders.

No Fucking Way!