F25 shots
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 2:57 pm
Almost the end of the 2nd season racing my F25 wing mast. I did a lot better this year as I learned how to sail the boat a little better and cleaned up some of the systems, and did a slight re-cut on the main, which can be seen by the two black strips in the upper leech in this picture
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... f38&idx=98
Pictures in these posts are from a race around Conanicut Island next to Newport. This was my start, not many boats hit the line on time
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=143
But they got there eventually
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=144
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=145
Unfortunately, about 10 seconds after this my outhaul slug blew up and I spent the first leg (a reach, while I was single handing) trying to figure out how to get the clew tied down. In hindsight, I did it the hard way and lost a pile while I sat head to wind trying to tie the clew down. The rest of the fleet sailed away and I got stuck in a different weather pattern behind them with a lot less breeze. I've found that the boat sails very well from about 6-8 up to about 14. Below that it's stuck to the water and over that it's pretty tippy (besides the fact that I usually singlehand) because of a relatively narrow waterline beam. Fast downwind without a kite (I sailed boat for boat with a Sabre 38 for six miles on a run, no kite) and with a kite (boat for boat with a C&C 99 and Sabre 38 with kites). I've experimented with a slew of different setups in different breeze, traveler down, up , in between, sheet tight, eased, all different depending on the breeze. Still don't have it pegged but closing in. The recut on the main helped a lot, I added a lot of power up higher in the sail which I needed in the lighter stuff. Generally, my area has breeze in the 10-15 knot range, the last two years have been a little lighter, though. I thought about making a jib for it (basically for 0-8 knots) but the rig is pretty unstable with more wind (more loading would really make the tip fall off) and I'd have to carry the jib penalty when the breeze is up, have to think a little bit more about that one.
Things that bother me about the boat is that it sits so stern down, it's an inboard and I'm sure the boat wasn't designed for it, the weight of the engine combined with the weight of the fuel so far aft wren't figured into the hull shape. When I have crew I have them sit pretty far forward but that really makes the boat pitch in the waves so I'm not sure what to do on that front. Thinking about it, with an outboard it may not make that big a difference because it's not light and sits a lot further back. Another thing is the traveler, it's unsupported in the middle so every puff lifts the track and automatically depowers. If the car is down to the edge of the slider it's less of a problem but like I said, I've been trying different configurations and that isn't always the best. Another thing is getting the mast to tack all the time, I ended up rigging a line that goes from the arm that goes down to a block at the closest stanchion, with that I can pull on the arm mid tack to ensure it tacks correctly, I also douse the partners with WD40, seems to help a lot.
The one thing I did that was nice is take off all the original lines and replaced them with shorter lines that all double end. When the Pole is out there is only about 5 extra feet of line in the cockpit and I can play the pole very easily with one hand. The pole in/out has 4' total excess and is easily contained on one side with the stoppers, it doesn't even touch the cockpit seats. The spinnaker tack lines are one long piece, when the kite is sucked all the way in there is only about 3 feet of line in the cockpit, I can deploy the clews together with one hand since they're both on the same side. There is virtually no excess line in the cockpit when I sail and even sitting at the mooring the whole look is clean and neat. I made the vang into an 8:1 with the tail all the way back to the cockpit, I can pull it on pretty easily and in the right conditions can flick it off as well (like I said, I single hand a lot, my crew doesn't help much).
As for results, they've been mixed. I sailed a lot of other boats this summer so only got to race a couple times. I won a fleet race boat for boat when I was rated slowest, which was kind of nice. I sailed a race with my wife and daughter that was a little fluky, halfway thru the race we were third boat for boat in fleet (we started 10 minutes behind the big boats and I was only about 3 lengths behind the leader of that group, and way ahead of my fleet), but the breeze died and we ended up last of 10. I then sailed another race that is a navigator race, the point being to sail as far as possible over 6.5 hours, your rating gets figured into it, I won that by over 5 miles corrected. But in the race with the pictures above, the long beat in light air against the current killed me and i was second to last. So, good days and bad days. Actually, any day I sail the boat is good, so all good days.
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... f38&idx=98
Pictures in these posts are from a race around Conanicut Island next to Newport. This was my start, not many boats hit the line on time
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=143
But they got there eventually
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=144
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slides ... 38&idx=145
Unfortunately, about 10 seconds after this my outhaul slug blew up and I spent the first leg (a reach, while I was single handing) trying to figure out how to get the clew tied down. In hindsight, I did it the hard way and lost a pile while I sat head to wind trying to tie the clew down. The rest of the fleet sailed away and I got stuck in a different weather pattern behind them with a lot less breeze. I've found that the boat sails very well from about 6-8 up to about 14. Below that it's stuck to the water and over that it's pretty tippy (besides the fact that I usually singlehand) because of a relatively narrow waterline beam. Fast downwind without a kite (I sailed boat for boat with a Sabre 38 for six miles on a run, no kite) and with a kite (boat for boat with a C&C 99 and Sabre 38 with kites). I've experimented with a slew of different setups in different breeze, traveler down, up , in between, sheet tight, eased, all different depending on the breeze. Still don't have it pegged but closing in. The recut on the main helped a lot, I added a lot of power up higher in the sail which I needed in the lighter stuff. Generally, my area has breeze in the 10-15 knot range, the last two years have been a little lighter, though. I thought about making a jib for it (basically for 0-8 knots) but the rig is pretty unstable with more wind (more loading would really make the tip fall off) and I'd have to carry the jib penalty when the breeze is up, have to think a little bit more about that one.
Things that bother me about the boat is that it sits so stern down, it's an inboard and I'm sure the boat wasn't designed for it, the weight of the engine combined with the weight of the fuel so far aft wren't figured into the hull shape. When I have crew I have them sit pretty far forward but that really makes the boat pitch in the waves so I'm not sure what to do on that front. Thinking about it, with an outboard it may not make that big a difference because it's not light and sits a lot further back. Another thing is the traveler, it's unsupported in the middle so every puff lifts the track and automatically depowers. If the car is down to the edge of the slider it's less of a problem but like I said, I've been trying different configurations and that isn't always the best. Another thing is getting the mast to tack all the time, I ended up rigging a line that goes from the arm that goes down to a block at the closest stanchion, with that I can pull on the arm mid tack to ensure it tacks correctly, I also douse the partners with WD40, seems to help a lot.
The one thing I did that was nice is take off all the original lines and replaced them with shorter lines that all double end. When the Pole is out there is only about 5 extra feet of line in the cockpit and I can play the pole very easily with one hand. The pole in/out has 4' total excess and is easily contained on one side with the stoppers, it doesn't even touch the cockpit seats. The spinnaker tack lines are one long piece, when the kite is sucked all the way in there is only about 3 feet of line in the cockpit, I can deploy the clews together with one hand since they're both on the same side. There is virtually no excess line in the cockpit when I sail and even sitting at the mooring the whole look is clean and neat. I made the vang into an 8:1 with the tail all the way back to the cockpit, I can pull it on pretty easily and in the right conditions can flick it off as well (like I said, I single hand a lot, my crew doesn't help much).
As for results, they've been mixed. I sailed a lot of other boats this summer so only got to race a couple times. I won a fleet race boat for boat when I was rated slowest, which was kind of nice. I sailed a race with my wife and daughter that was a little fluky, halfway thru the race we were third boat for boat in fleet (we started 10 minutes behind the big boats and I was only about 3 lengths behind the leader of that group, and way ahead of my fleet), but the breeze died and we ended up last of 10. I then sailed another race that is a navigator race, the point being to sail as far as possible over 6.5 hours, your rating gets figured into it, I won that by over 5 miles corrected. But in the race with the pictures above, the long beat in light air against the current killed me and i was second to last. So, good days and bad days. Actually, any day I sail the boat is good, so all good days.