I just bought an F25 after sailing an F21 the last couple years (rescued from a chainsaw). I really like the Freedom idea, having watched them evolve in Newport over the years. The F21 was fun but too small for my wife which is why we moved up to the F25, hopefully that will all be good. I primarily raced the F21, I made a couple fat head mains and a .6 oz. kite specifically for racing, unfortunately most of the races turned into windy dead beats, not the strong point for the F21. However, I was able to do well in a couple (and really badly in a couple others), below is a write up of the last two races i did before I gave the F21 away to a co-worker of my wife.
Well, with Labor Day past my F21 season has come to an end. I did two more
races, both distance races, with mixed results.
The first race was a navigators race where boats start in different locations
and sail to as many designated marks as they can, never sailing the same leg or
it's reciprocal more than once, and all ending up at the same finish line (SI's
at
http://www.twentyhundredclub.org/Prince_Henry_SI.pdf). This was the day
before Irene hit Narragansett Bay so there wasn't another boat out sailing other
than those in the race and only 2-3 powerboats on the water all day, quite an
anomoly for this area on a weekend in the summer.
I started in Bristol Harbor (mark 3 in the attached charts
http://www.twentyhundredclub.org/Prince_Henry_Chart.pdf) and basically drifted
in the current (it was running at almost 2 knots due to a moon tide and the low
pressure to the south of Irene) almost all the way to the Newport Bridge. There
was never more than 2 knots until I was almost at the bridge, then a nice
southerly filled in (and the tide turned the other way) and I sailed more than
twice the distance in half the time. In the long run, I sailed (or drifted)
20.23 miles in 6:20. According to the formula they have that takes your PHRF
rating into account, I won the race by more than 5 miles. Pretty hokey but the
weird thing was that I covered more distance than anyone else in the fleet,
including a J-105. So that was good.
What wasn't so good was our annual Labor Day race around Conanicut Island.
Getting to my boat for the typical 2 hour motor to the start, I started to untie
everything from the hurricane prep. As i was motoring into a stiff breeze
against the current, I noticed the boom moving fore and aft quite a bit.
Worried that I would miss the start, which I had left plenty of time for, I
figured if there was an issue I could fix it quickly at the starting line and
race. When I got near the start I picked up a mooring and looked at the
partners to find the spartite around the partners had lifted up and the mast was
totally free at the collar. I knocked it back in but short on time I didn't get
a good chance to lock it in.
There are about 100 boats in this and I was firmly planted in the bottom of the
rating band. Starting earlier in the sequence, we had a 4 mile beat in 18-22
knots and big seas, against the current, not such a good thing for my little
boat. I did get to see almost every boat in the fleet sail past me, always fun
when you're dipping boats twice as big but still a fun day. At the first mark I
set the kite and immediately took off at 7-9 knots. Unfotunately, I was so far
behind I wasn't going to catch anyone so I just enjoyed the downwind part of the
sail until I noticed the mast moving around again. The spartite had popped out
again and as I hit a large wave the bracket at the base of the mast that keeps
it from rotating blew off and the mast started pounding all over. I nursed the
boat to the leeward turning mark where I expected I could knock the collar back
in and keep sailing, but being by myself in a now building 25 knot breeze and
big seas, it wasn't going to happen. The mast was over rotated and the
gooseneck was getting ready to shear off so I nursed the boat back to my mooring
(which was fortunately downwind) and called it a season. I'm getting too old
for this.