Well, there's been a new complication to my boat situation--I went out yesterday with a few of my buddies (about 600 pounds crew weight total), and it was one of the best sailing days I've ever had! I've never gone out with that many people on my boat before, and with all that weight on the windward hull, my 5.7 absolutely flew around the lake.
It was a very different sailing experience having that many people out. Obviously, it's different than solo, but it was also quite different from sailing with two people. With two people, you're just chillin, and sailing in a very controlled manner, at least for me. With 4 people, we found ourselves "fighting" for a place on the hull, or trapeze, trying not to slide down tramp into the water, which was really very fun.
Granted, I rarely have that many people out with me, but it was so fun that I'm starting to look more fondly on the idea of keeping my 5.7 and getting a set of smaller sails for when I'm solo. That way I can still take lots of people out when I have the opportunity.
edited by: rhuntbach, May 15, 2009 - 03:51 PM
The main on a Nacra 5.7 is 176 square feet. This is only 4 square feet more than the Nacra 5.5 that I solo all the time. You can probably depower the rig enough to be able to solo the 5.7 with just the current main.
yeah, work on mastering the boat you've got in ALL conditions before rushing off to new equipment
the fastest people in the real world are generally the ones who have HUGE experience on their boats
and they are also generally the most relaxed while doing it as they've discovered all the little tricks needed for their boat in their conditions
old is gold and new is no clue
edited by: erice, May 15, 2009 - 06:41 PM
You're right, the sail area on my 5.7 really isn't that big, and I can definitely depower the rig enough to solo. Sailing a depowered rig just isn't much fun, in my opinion.
During the summer, the lake I sail at almost never sees a day where the wind doesn't top 20mph; and during the spring and fall, it rarely sees a day that doesn't top 25mph. With my small size, and my 5.7's tall mast, I have to start depowering the rig at a measly 15mps of wind when I'm solo. So, a good portion of the time, I'm sailing a very depowered 5.7 around the lake, which I don't think is very fun.
I'd much rather have a rig that's small enough, and/or short enough, that I can haul the sail in to a good half propeller shape, and USE that great wind to go fast! 😀 I'm thinking a smaller set of sails will let me do this. What do you think?
erice, thanks for the tip on using the traveler when tacking. That's so obvious now that I think about it, but I'd never thought to do that before.
Ryan: I have to depower at about the same wind speeds and am still able to haul the sheet in and get a good sail shape. I use the downhaul, mast rake and mast rotation to reduce power. This lets you sail it like a less powerful boat without being short on power when there is less wind.
I only know how to depower using the mainsheet, the traveler, and the rotator. How do you use the downhaul and mast rake to depower?
AFAIK you can only use the downhaul to depower if you've got a modern rig built for mast prebend etc.
i couldn't work out why everyone was saying to depower with downhaul but it just wouldn't help on my boat, turns out my boat was too old to respond to downhaul
so how to tell, (again this is only AFAIK so please correct if wrong)
downhaul depower boat
- swept and adjustable spreaders on the diamond wires
- many times purchase on the downhaul, like 10 to 1, or even 16 to 1, usually double sided so it can be adjusted from either side of the mast
- sail beefed up with many layers of cloth around downhaul eyelet to take the 200-300lb? loads
non-downhaul depower boat
- straight or no spreaders
- very little purchase in downhaul system, 3 to 1 etc. and only adjustable on 1 side
- sail with only 1 or 2 extra layers of cloth around downhaul eyelet as loads less than 100lbs
mast rake depower obviously can't be done while sailing, must be done on the beach before going out and generally needs 2 people so not really a soloing depower option.
more you rake the mast back the further back the sail's center of effort gets. this means when screaming along on a reach with hulls at terminal velocity that the rig is less likely to bury the bows and trip them over into a pitchpole
mast rake very important on boardless boats as it also loads the rudders into partial daggerboards and helps boat point higher, (hobie redesigned the stays and blocks of the h16 to allow for more mast rake in 1984? when the aussies started cleaning up the world's with hugely raked masts in the big winds)
taking the jib off my 5.2 cuts the sail area from 19.2m2 to 15.5m2. sailing uni also seems to make mast rotation and traveller position adjustments more effective
ie when uni i don't have to bother with the jib anymore but i have to spend more time adjusting mast rotation and traveller position for each point of sail. of course that means intentionally mis-tuning them helps kill the performance and makes the boat more manageable in a big blow, (would really like to try a roller furling jib for the best of both worlds, anyone an old h18 system they will send overseas?)
what has prevented me from sailing uni in big winds more was i couldn't guarantee my tacks, and on a small gusty lake with many shore obstructions i needed to
blowing the traveller instead of the mainsheet, as i duck under the boom, has really helped here
it's faster than releasing the mainsheet and the rig seems to pivot on the hulls easier. that means the hulls can better use their boat speed inertia to get well across the eye of the wind during the tack and not weathercock into irons. once i'm safely under the boom and the hulls have crossed well past the wind it's also quicker to pull in the traveller to center, but heavier so get it right back to center before heading off to gain speed
usually i know it's safe to start pulling in the traveller after i hear the big lash as the mast slams from 1 mast rotation limit to the other
edited by: erice, May 16, 2009 - 09:16 PM
so how to tell, (again this is only AFAIK so please correct if wrong)
All sounds correct to me...
Just some expanded explanations:
downhaul makes the top of the mast bend and allows wind to fall off the sail...
outhaul flattens the lower part of the sail (removing some of the pocket) and will also allow air to "fall off". It also changes your DRAFT but that is a whole different theory...
Mast rake will also effectively reduce some sail area by the fact that some of the wind comes down on an angle.. and hits and bounces off the water (hitting your sail from below). so if your main is raked more.. there is less of it way up top (where more of the power is generated).
Rake is not an "on the fly" adjustment but can easly be done prior to stepping the mast.. and with help can be pretty easy to do ont the beach.. you should try different settings (while keeping EVERYTHING else you can unchanged).
the only thing i would add is that downhaul and outhaul are micro tuners... by them self the difference is almost not noticable... but in combonation with eachother, mast rotation... travler positions (both jib and main)... they can all add up to some de-powering..
i wouldn't discount getting another set of sails if you find a good pair ...
edited by: andrewscott, Jun 09, 2009 - 05:29 PM
I am still learning what is the right rake for different conditions on my boat. Unfortunately I learned a couple of weeks ago that too much rake is preferable to too little. The whole boat rotated around the port bow (again) and, thanks to my footstrap, I got to fall a long way before I finally hit the water.