(Picture – Geoff Carveth, Hayling Tide Ride 2009)
Yesterday was a beautiful session with around 10 – 14 knots and a fairly flat sea state. My plan was to throw in as many gybes as possible in an hour and a half and I did just that. It was great to see that the Hayling tide ride had paid off.. I dropped a single gybe and that was due to me throwing myself into it too early and finishing with a nosedive. The rest were nice clean foiling gybes. A lot on the inside were not full foiling as I came out on the new tack due the wind shadow but I was pleased with the rest of the manouvere.
Then today was a different story altogether. I got to the Yacht club and there was a dart 18 open meeting on and they were in full swing with winds gusting 6 and a steady force 5. I rigged up anyway as I was down there. Then the wind dropped off around 1pm and I thought I may as well go for it as there was plenty of rescue cover out there.
I launched in about 15 knots and a pretty big swell. (The darts that abandoned racing came in and warned me about the big seastate!)
Once I got out in to the swell it was definately pretty big but surprisingly ok. I dropped the ride height and tore off downwind and enjoyed some pretty impressive runs.
Then all hell broke loose as the wind came back with a vengance and stuck around 25mph with it peaking at 27mph! (see stats) Needless to say gybing was out of the question as I hung on. Spectacular pitchpoles we the order as I just couldn’t get the wand to respond quick enough to the waves. I managed a few more upwind runs and then finally decided to disengage the main foil and lowride back in before I broke something.
I was inspired to head out after seeing Geoff Carveth (pictured above) head out at Hayling and realised that I needed some Kahunas. Well I think the session today paid off as I now have no problem heading out in 20 mph winds. I guess as we kee pushing the envelope that wind speed will keep increasing.
Supermistress was brilliant and I’m pleased to report no breakages!
Is disconnecting the flap all you need to do to ensure lowriding in too much wind? Or do you tweak the rudder foil also?
Kirk
hi phil
ive been wondering for a while, what angle did you change the wings on your mistress to? are they flatter than say a bladerider? what is the actual height from the top of the hull to the top of the outer wing bar?
congrats on your progress, really interesting reading
nick
Hi Kirk,
No I just disconnected the main foil from the wand. This was just to stop the boat trying to foil at speed. The main reason was not so much the wind but the big seas. Because I haven’t got enough skill to foil in those conditions I thought it best to disengage. You can control the pitch further by sitting further back on the wing bar. (I was right at the back to stop any nosediving!)
Hi Nick,
I dropped mine to just a bit lower than a bladerider. I actually measured off a Velociraptor and then dropped them slightly further. I can measure them off the deck height and let you know next time I am sailing. Thanks for the nice comments!