GPS plots over 22 Kts

Overpowered tight(ish) reach, Kite down. As you can see from the short plot, headings were not constant for long as it was gusty and shifty F5-7. Sea state was "Grafham chop" at about a foot or so - Short square waves that eat you if you are not carefull. Off out for a sail soon, so I'll see what I can do. Agree that 10 seconds is a good basis for "Agreed speed" for any want of a better word.

Got to the club just as a squal went thru. Talked to the coxwain who said "it's been like this all day".

While I was with him it was registering a steady 30kts, with gusts up to 35.

No yotting as it was onshore and not easy to launch and recover. Try again next week.

Think the 300 oppies will have fun this weekend as it's not scheduled to drop much all weekend

During the first day of the Steeplechase a couple of weeks ago we logged 23 mph on our gps. It was blowing over 20mph and we were at a beam reach in the bays double trapped on our SC-20 short rig. What a blast, we were screaming. There were boats in front of us so I am sure they were logging higher.

Once we got into the ocean it was way too choppy to create any good speed.

Scooby,

I thought you were being a bit "optimistic" when I read you were going sailing this morning, I had booked the day off to go out on my new boat, took a walk down to the seashore to see what looked like perfect conditions, 10-15mph with a flat sea due to the NNE Wind. However when I got home and checked the shipping forecast a Gale warning F6-F8 sent me back to work to save the day off for a better day.

From my office window I can see I made the right choice.

Gareth
www.fourhulls.com

Yes it was windy, but totally sailable If I could have (sensibly) got out and back - Had the kite up in the same sort of winds on sunday but it was along the lake so making launch and recovery much easier.

Problem was that it was just about dead onshote which makes it a little difficult managing the boat and the trolly on its/your own. It's then really difficult when you come in as I do not want to leave a boat to drift onto the beach while I get the trolly.

Why don't you just pull it up the beach and then go and get the trolley? are the hulls that fragile? What boat do you sail?

Last weekend (7/5/5) during the Round IJsselmeer race in The Netherlands I clocked a speed of 17.1kts (20mph/31kph). Wind conditions where NW F6-F7 with nasty short steep waves. My boat is a Hobie FX-One, during the topspeed I was sailing with just the mainsail with an AWA of +/-120°.

Topspeeds are always a bit doubtfull but exporting the GPS track to Excel showed I have 13 occurences of 16kts (without the spi), which accounts for a total of 180 meters or 00:01:07 minutes. So, if 16 knots is a "normal" speed I would say that the 17 knot topspeed is very real. I'm convinced if I wasnt sailing in survival mode 😉 20kts+ is possible.

Anyway, an hour later after I pitchpoled, poked some battens through the main, and blew the spi panels apart (Yes the glue let go!) I abandoned the race. When I came ashore someone measured 30kts+ of wind, only 17 out of 65 cats made it to the finish. Texel is easy compared to this 😉
(ps.Wouter, will you be there next year? 😉 )

Complete GPS track available upon request...
(Garmin's Foretrex 201 rocks!)

Inter 17. The beach is mud / stone so really do not want to dit this.

Well I got out today (this evening) about 300 km to the east of you and boy it was "hanging on" weather. I was hoping for flat water because of the eaterly winds we had the last days but is just swing N to NW this afternoon and it had quickly build up a seastate that had us going up and done like climbing Everest.

Good fun though. Water is still bloody cold though. We;ve had day temperature below 10 degrees Celsius for the last 3 weeks. Normal temp would be 16 to 17 degrees celsius. On average we are about 8 to 10 degree to low for the time of year. it is pretty strange to fire up the heater and dig your winter coat up from the closet in halve may.

No GPS recording today, I was taking my new crew out and I already had enough to worry about. So I left my GPS on the shore. With the seastate I don't think I would have broken my own record anyway. It was way to rough for that

Wouter

Top speed or 10 second average ?

Rules to this "high score' game are simple. You need to provide a GPS track plot and track with your post and it must be AT LEAST a 10 second (averaged) leg. Momentary and GPS display top speeds don't count. These are just to undependable. Leave your GPS unit outdoors stationary and it will show speeds upward to 5 km/hour speeds due to measurement in consistancies.

Personally I value 500 mtr = 50 seconds averages the highest.

Wouter

Tony,

Can you proces your track data so it averages the speeds over 10 second intervals (even 30 second intervals).

I think that 17.1 knots topspeed for the duration of 1 second and 29 ft = 8.8 mtr is a bit short. Natural inaccuracy looks like a likely cause for this reading especially since 1 sec before you were doing 14 kn and 1 second after you were doing 13 kn. I feel it is unlikely that you can both accelerate from 14 to 17 and decellerate from 17 to 13 in the time span of 1 second. When looking at the spread of data in the provide track log this 17.1 kn speed really looks like an suspective outlier. It looks like you average about 13.5 kn over roughly 500 mtr.

Ofcourse the name of this "high score" game is best average over at least 10 seconds.

180 mtr / 1 min 7 second = on average 2.686 mtr/sec = 5,2 knots. Either you've made a typo or these 13 occurences are highly suspect.

I fully agree that 16 to 17 knots is a speed that most catamarans must be able to achieve in the right conditions. The newer cats even rather easily. However 20+ kn has proven to be very illusive. At least when looking at either 500 mtr legs or 10 seconds sustained speed. Many feel that these 4 to 3 knots is only a small gap to bridge but reality is showing that this 17 % to 25 % speed increase is rather large.

Of course the problem several us are finding is the seastate (survival mode as you call it) For 20+ we really need windforce 5 or more with very flat water. This is actually a rare combination of conditions. I'm looking for a good summer day with a very calm morning and a good heavy thermal wind that quickly builds from the land after noon. Not too gusty. So probably one only has an hour or so when the winds pick up to make the record. After that the water gets choppy and the gusts come through big and heavy.

I'm sorry to hear that !

[qoute]
(ps.Wouter, will you be there next year? 😉 )

Was looking to be there this year but I didn't want to do it solo. Just took my new crew out today. Little lady of 55 kg with a big heart and guts that is the envy of many guys. Was bloody windy today as you most likely know. If she stays than I'm considering doing this race next year.

Did you participate in the voorjaarsbokaal at Almeerderstrand this year Tony ? If so than I know who you are.

Ain't that the truth !

Hey guys ? Any US or Aussie sailors in for a "best GPS average over 10 seconds" high score game ?

Wouter

OK, I'm thinking of introducing this "self policed" speed contest over on the Y+Y forum so the 1/2 boat sailors can get involved, but can anyone think of any more rules to add over and above :

1, Must be a GPS plot posted showing:

2, Graphic of the plot(s) in question.
3, To qualify the plot must be more than 10 seconds in duration

Basically as I have above.

Comments ?