Some Photo of SF regatta and Taipans

Wouter what was the combined crew weight for Bill and yourself? I am just trying to get a feel for how deep the boat sits in the water for a given crew weight. Since you guys are going down wind it gives a much better indication than if you were on some other point of sail.

As a side note: The building project is moving along slow but sure...I folded up the first hull this weekend.

Bob

I think the combined weight was 380 lbs. = about 169 kg's. Quite heavy. Btw don't look to closely at the results given on teh SF page. There are some errors in it.

A remarkable error is :

2nd race first day (friday)

Kirt and Micheal came in first

Then Kenneth and Ann Marie only some 100 yard behind Kirt

And Bill and I came in third again only 100 yards behind Kenn

Still Kirt and Kenn were scored 1 and 2 and we were scored last out of 7 boats.

Kirt sailed that race at 309 lbs, Kenn at some 285 lbs and we at 380 lbs. And there was really no more than 10's of yards between us. In that race that is. We missed the start in another so then we were last to finish.

And I hear reports that your progress is very impressive !

Wouter

Wouter

Thanks for the info…ya, at nearly 60 lbs over optimum racing weight that sure explains why you and Bill are sitting so low in the water. Looks like you were almost dragging the rear cross beam in flat water…LOL… You guys must have been doing something right to stay so close to the lighter crews!

Bob

Well, that is just an optical illusion, I don't remember us hitting the water with the rearbeam. It looks likes were passing a wave or something. However, It was flat water so the jury is still out with respect to the rearbeam in choppy water.

It can also be just luck. Although, in the short and simple test that did on sunday when the other boats went in because of light winds we found :

That the 1-up with me onboard (80 kg's) was about as fast upwind without the jib as Kirt en Ken (350 lbs) with the jib in 2-up mode. I could point just a little higher when I sheeted the Taipan main right but that is logical considering the Uni rig in 1-up mode. Downwind we would only loose one-another when one of the two collapsed the spi.

All in all, in the testwinds, the boats in 1-up and 2-up where quite comparable in performance. Winds were light about 4 knots. Story in stronger winds can still be different though.

We were ourselfs quite amazed that both setups were able to reach equal topspeeds these conditions. In some discussions with others that followed we postulate that the jib is in the right proportion upwinds and that the spi is theoretically limited to a topspeed at a given windstrength. For both boat wouldn't accellerate past a certain speed. Going lower or higher didn't help to increase speed either. Maybe the angle of attack is the limiting factor.

Having said this; I was personally very pleased with the light wind speed of the Taipans. As indicated before we were travelling with just less of halve a boat length a sec both up and down in about 4 knots of wind. I felt , and so did Kirt and ken, that we could easily have raced in these conditions. Mayb not sound like much, but when you hardly feel any wind it is quite astonishing.

Regards,

Wouter

Wouter

speaking of erroneous scoring,...I was in a class by myself but still managed to finish third in one race!

Yes, we noticed some other remarkable things too.

I also feel a little bit sorry for Mark Schneider. His tornado sport as good as equal in performance to the us I-20's and other spi boats not to mention his dimensions are alsmost an I-20's and still he was put in a class of his own.

I really hope that NAMSA and you can change this seggretattive thinking.

Anyways. The ham and party were excellent.

Wouter