gybing from the wire

One of two things: bear away more gradually or use footstraps near the rear beam of the boat. You will probably find footstraps, the kind used for windsurfing, very useful when attached to the rear of both hulls.

ok thanks was out again today on a spitfire and found it alot easier to come back in. What do you find is the best way to sail the down wind leg? High with one person on the wire or wildthing down wind?

Fastest mode depends on the windstrength. If you are not overpowered wildthinging it, that's the way to go.. If you can fly a hull while having the crew trapezing off the stern, thats what you do (until it blows so much and the waves become so large that you must drive it flat again to avoid a cartwheel/pitchpole).

Your nick is a bit confusing for me, I always associated the Gonzo nick with John Forbes.

Agree with Rolf,

1, Lightest winds: it is best deep and not try to fly the hull
2, Light winds: is best to go wild and pop the hull go for it with the crew on the lea hull
3, Moderate to fresh: get out on the wire and make some spray !!!!
4, Strong : when you need both hulls in the water to prevent pitch-poling / too rough for wiring

now the difficult bit in the transition from 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 4

Yes, the difficult aspect is indeed to decide when to do what. Only experience helps there, but in general I have found it pays to wait as long as prudent before you move up.
Eg. forcing the boat up on one hull when there's really not enough wind for it, is slow. The same for going really deep becouse your are overpowered..

We usually determine whether or not we need to trapeze based on what the competition is doing. So far, I've found that trapezing, even in heavy air, really doesn't get you to the mark any faster. Your VMG stays about the same if you're going higher and faster or lower and slower - as long as you can achieve proper flow over the sails. HOWEVER, if someone is trying to attack you from behind by sailing a higher line and over your course, you need to get someone on the wire to defend. Likewise, if someone ahead is on the wire and sailing a higher line you have to choose if, at the given moment, sailing lower than them is an advantage (usually is for a short while), get on the wire to match their angle, or gybe away. We usually do not trapeze with the chute up unless the situation demands it like heading to a reaching mark or under hard attack from behind.

Eileen is on the wire as soon as we can do it and rarely comes in when the wind it too much unless we are on a very short leg.

Reason: It is much easier for her to sheet using her legs and arms. On the tramp she uses mostly arms.

In heavy wind she has a choice of two places we have installed footstraps also a chicken line. In really heavy wind we want her on the back ones (transom) and a hook on a line from the rear crossbar attached to the handle of the trapeze, NOT THE HARNESS. When she is ready we call it "locked and loaded". That is her "okay" for me to drive the boat as hard as I would like. With her back there we have stuffed the bow and come right back out. What a rush! If she falls forward she will only go about 2 feet in front of the rear Xbar but she is up again in about a second. Amazing!

Later,
Dan

I like the idea of attaching the chicken lines to the trap, not the harness. How did you go about that?

Pictures would be nice, as well.

I have made an illustration for the Chicken Line. Hope it makes sense to you. click on the small picture to see the explainations.

I did not explain how the line is attached to the hull. I put a loop of spectra tied in a big knot trough a hole that I drilled in the rear deck of the boat. Pull the loop from the inside out (using strong thread) and you will have a loop on the top to tied the line to. Make sure to dab some silicone on there first. I used a washer to distribute load. Easy huh?

Later,
Dan

My system is similar up to the point where it connects to the trapeze handle. At that point, I used to run it to cleats on the spreader bar of my harness, but don't like it because if I had to get out in a hurry.

So if yours is connected directly to the trap handle, is it going to snap the plastic piece in the middle if you really yank on it (say, when your boat stuffs with the spin up)? I had heard that they may not be able to handle that sort of load.

Also, how are you able to adjust them fore and aft along the chicken wire? Can you do it while you're on the wire?

I'm thinking there may be a solution in the rock climbing discipline.

Most of the time the chicken wire is keeping me from flying forward during a stuff, so maybe using some sort of repelling knot or device that would allow me to slide aft, but not forward (unless I manually did it)...

Please believe me when I say that we have really stuffed it hard at times. I would say about a dozen. Eileen has hit the side of the boat so hard that she thought she might have damaged some ribs. Of course she is padded with the lifejacket but they were still very hard knocks. She did not I am happy to report get hurt.

If there ever was a time that she thought we had to go in do to hurting herself I would not hesitate a bit. She has been a real trooper in conditions that have sent more than 1/2 the fleet to the shore. She is not a whiner. She is a winner though!

That said...if the handle broke after all this time it would be okay with me. It has taken much abuse, it would get replaced by the the same thing. I am hoping that we can figure out the quick release thingy (new ISAF rule) soon so we can get back to it.

Later,
Dan

For the offshore distance stuff - we do use a climber's knot that can slide up and down a chicken line that runs between the beams with the slack taken up by a bunji. It slides if you grab the not itself but when pulled from the end of the loop it grabs hold firmly and will not slip. We changed our hook-up to the chicken line to a small loop of line (again that's secured to the fore/aft line by the climbers knot) that simply catches around a small plastic ball that's on a short tail tied to the spreader bar. It's a little tough to get it secured at first but it comes out very very easily if needed.

Jake,
Just curious about this climber's knot.
Would you have a diagram or a link to a diagram.
Thanks,
Phill

There are generally two kinds of these knots used in climbing. One (the prusik) locks both ways under load, while the other one only locks one way..

They are both generally used while abseiling (rapelling) as a security measure, but can also be used to ascend on ropes in a tight spot..

We used two prusik's as adjustable jib cars on our first Tornado. We was afraid using tracks would have ripped off the deck, so we used a 10mm static rope tensioned tightly from the rearbeam to frontbeam, and secured the jib-block to a prusik sliding on this rope. Worked relatively well.
http://www.iland.net/~jbritton/Friction%20Hitches.html#Blake's%20Hitch

I used a prusik during the Tybee on my Chicken line. The line that I used to tie the prusik to was a bit "knobby". It never slipped by accident and was still easy to slide when needed.

Mike Hill
www.stlouiscats.com

Same here - it's the Prusik we have used and it served us well.

make sure you use a stout line on the spreader bar.

Trey ripped 2 of them in half during the Tybee.

How did you secure the chicken line to the boat? Did you drill a hole in the rudder pintle?

And what size chicken line (along the length of the boat) did you use? How about the line size for the prussik?

Use 3/16" or 1/4" for all parts, and I tied the back of our chicken lines off to a foot strap on the very rear of the deck. I guess you could tie it the the rudder mount (upper of course).