Some height, Finally!

Another couple of hours this afternoon in a nice breeze of 10-20 (with some higher gusts.)  The addition of the new wand makes all the difference in the world. No hull slap and some nice height. I had put some marks on the struts at 8 and 16 inches above the horizontal. With the wand adjustment today I was consistently sailing (in flat water) with the top line a couple of inches above the water -- so the horizontals were about 14" below the surface. Not M2 range but a whole lot better than I was able to achieve with the wippy wand. Both the mainfoil and the rudder horizontal were at the same depth, and the boat felt good.  Thanks to Bruce for the suggestion of long and stiff; it seemed to work great. I have another four inches I can extend the wand and I thought about experimenting, but I wanted to get some measurements first. 

I have to agree with Chris' recent post about trying to keep the wand paddle on the surface. Things did feel a little wonky when the wand was completely clear of the water, and often a sudden crash resulted. The breeze was real puffy (there were moments when I wish I had the mini-rig, maybe gusts to 25??)  and I had a couple of instances where the rudder stalled and the boat just wouldn't come up in the slight lull. I'm going have to try sitting inboard a bit off the wind when it's honking.  I also found that what works well in flat water doesn't when it gets bouncy. When I snuck around the tip of the spit there were waves rolling in from the Chesapeake on the order of 2-3 feet.  I'm working on a ride height adjuster and hope to get it installed in the next week or so.

I had tightened up the worm gear as best I could. The addition of the stainless plate below the gudgeon helped remove some slop there. Of course, with everything beefed up the weak link had to appear somewhere else. And sure enough, the rudder horizontal was loose when I came back in. It's a good thing I didn't loose it! So, some more boatwork this evening. I hope to sail in some fresh water on Sunday - the Chowan River where my in-laws have a vacation cabin.  If this breeze holds it will be nice to sail where there's no salt and sand...

Getting Rid of Slop

I've dissassembled the worm gear trying to figure out where the extra play is coming from.  My best guess is that the primary culprit is the kludgy swivel shackle (a Ronstan part.)  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to reduce the play here. I wonder what other home builders are using for the swivel... any suggestions???

Another problem has been the lower gudgeon. I'm using some G10 glass laminate with about eight layers of carbon cloth on the bottom side. The 1/4" hole drilled through this composite plate just seems to slowly enlarge. To hopefully get a bit more life (and reduced wear) I'm fastening onto the bottom of the laminated gudgeon a stainless steel plate from a old tang that has a machined 1/4" aperture. There seems to be just enough play to accommodate a few degrees of misalignment as the AoA is adjusted.

On a related note, I got some 10mm OD carbon tube from Goodwinds.com and I find that my existing wand from FC is way whippier than it needs to be. I don't know the specifics at to wall thickness and construction  (although the new tube seems just a hair thicker), but using the flex-in-the-hands test, it's appreciably stiffer. So, a new paddle on a new stiffer tube should help immensely. If things kick by this afternoon (perhaps with some heat gun assistance) I'll try it out this evening (the forecast is still calls for 10-15 kts out of the north!)

Tight is Right

One memory of the Gorge Worlds was Bora pounding his board into the well with a rubber mallet. Yes, the M2 has tight fitting components, one of the reason they're so fast. Amac gave me some ideas on making the hull opening match the strut and when I returned home I had followed them to create a somewhat tight opening. But after sailing off the beach for the past month (sand is a pain!!!) I found there was increasing slop. So I removed the well cassette and rebuilt it to create a tighter fit. The mallet wasn't required, but the board doesn't slide in and out easily. Even with some McLube, it's a challenge to put in and out. I believe that tight is good.

At any rate I got in another couple of hours of sailing this morning in a healthy breeze.  After diddling around Willoughby Bay for a bit I took a trip across the harbor to Hampton. Interesting with the north breeze and the strong current in the channel. Waves were in the 2 foot range and the board/wand/height adjustment seemed to work fine.

Now the problem is with the rudder system. There's way too much slop, so much that I'm going to have to disassemble the works and try to tighten things up.  Bill made a comment that jibing is next to impossible with a sloppy rudder system And there's so many places that play can crop up, from the pin on the gantry, to the tiller/rudder head connection (I've long discarded the rudder cassette idea), to the internal worm drive.  My rudder problems were exasperated when the gantry exploded at the Gorge last year. Who remembers sailing/swimming the boat in rudderless?

"That Little Boat Hauls Ass"

Today I got in another three hours in a real puffy (6-10, gusts to 15) breeze. Again hot and humid with a heat index of 110. A couple of changes seemed to work well. The inboard leads for the front of the hiking strap worked well. I just carboned on a couple of shackles to the wing bar then wrapped the wetted out epoxy with vinyl tape.

The new wand block was an improvement (less hull slap) but still not quiet. Maybe a different paddle shape at the tip? The wand itself seems standard - it was what John is using with the FC boats. Maybe I need to tweak the pivot bolt angle...

This time of year, especially on the weekends, the tourists and fishermen are out in droves. The parking lot at the ramp was chock-a-block with boat trailers. So I had plenty of flybys with lots of folks looking on. As I was sailing around jetskis, a Hobie 16, an Opti, and some folks swimming off anchored boats I got lots of thumbs up and hoots and hollars. On the way home, about a mile from the ramp, I was stopped at a traffic light an a couple of guys in a pick up truck pulled up besides me. I guess either they were on the water or lived in a beach cottage and saw me sailing. At any rate, they made the title comment.

Sweet.

Jelly Monsters

 Yesterday was a hot one.  With air temps in the mid nineties and high humidity (heat index of 105) we had the typical pre-frontal gusty southwesterlies.  So even though it was hot, I was itching to get some time in the breeze (8-20 kts with big shifts). Launching at 1:00 p.m., I didn't come back to the beach until 7:00. This morning I'm a bit brusied and battered. A couple of items of note:

(1) the new wand pivot needs reworking. I'll have to make a new one since the hole containing the wand was too vertical causing lots of hull slap (so much it was wearing the paint away!)

(2) I'm not convinced that extreme rake (a la Bora) is the way to go. I'm having trouble bearing away after the tack, so the next time out I'll try some slightly longer shroud adjusters.

(3) I'm finding that my hiking straps are just too far outboard at the front end. There's too much chafing on my shin and not enough on the top of my feet. So another change will be to fit a second lead further inboard for the hiking straps.

(4) Three year old gloves lose their protection at the second finger joint. Six hours in gusty winds resulted in a few open blisters. New, longer fingered gloves are on the to-buy list (any recommendations?)  I also now appreciate seeing Amac's mainsheet in Weymouth practically worn to a frazzle at the ratchet. It takes LOTS of sawing the sheet to get the boat upwind effectively in gusty and shifty winds.

(5) The stiffer wand seemed to help, but I can't tell for sure until I tweak the angle to prevent the slapping.  I just glued on a half round tube to the fiberglass batten that John supplied.

(6) Bing translations of blog comments still leave a lot to be desired. So "來幫推 你個blog影d相真係好靚,係我至愛" translates as "To help push you a blog shadow d-nice, really good to love me?"  Go figure....

(7) Running into a Moon Jelly at speed is a strange sensation. Not the plastic bag feel, not the solid object crunch, just a noticible "thud" with a very slight slowing.  With the bay water temp at 82 degrees I'm sailing without a wetsuit (and have the bruises to show it) so am very aware of the plates and stinger nettles that seem to bloom this time of year. All the more encouragement to stay upright! 

Buttery Silk

I got in another couple of hours again today, with a couple of trips across the harbor for probably 20 miles total distance. Slowly the biceps and hand grips are getting into sailing shape.  A slight boat mod following Bruce's suggestion was to lengthen and stiffen the wand, looking for more height. In a breeze of about 10 kts (no whitecaps) I pulled off my first "perfect" jibe -- everything happened just like it was supposed to: no extreme force changes, sail gently coming across, height maintained throughout the turn, and an exit with speed onto the new heading. Why can't it be like that all the time? It did give me something to shoot for -- a feeling of buttery silk.

This afternoon I'm changing out the wand pivot from the Fastacraft aluminum to a homemade plastic block trying to increase the bearing area and reduce wand chatter and vibration. How it works will be in tomorrow's report.

A Happy Family Sail

  
    Susan and I went for a two hour sail this evening - I was in Try-Foil and Susan was in Aftermath. Breeze was about 10 kts. A good time was had by both of us. The builder (me) was satisfied. Maybe soon Susan will want to try the foils under her boat.  At any rate, we got back home around 7:30 and just felt happy ;-)