Nice Sail Today - held my own with some larger boats

[jschrade]

Winds 10-15 knots from the East and took a ran from Clearwater up to Hurricane Pass, ran into some larger 30 to 30+ (one was a C&C 30) boats and ran back down with them. I had full sail up and running in close the coast like this can create some pretty good gusts. This made keeping the boat at max speed meant some pretty serious heeling and a lot of work.

I didn't get smoked and when reaching actually could run at the same speed and in spurts a little faster. The challenge is when we starting turning towards the wind to head in - then they were clearly faster. Dropped my sails fired up the motor and beat them by a larger margin to the marina.

My peak speed was 6.7 knots and was averaged just under 6 knots - not bad. It a pretty nice day when 5.5 knots is your low speed on this boat!


Jim

[ROAD Soldier]

Yep that is always fun.

[magnetic]

The challenge is when we starting turning towards the wind to head in - then they were clearly faster

he was pretty darned slow if he couldn't keep up 5.5 knots into the wind though

[ROAD Soldier]

5.5MPH is pretty fast considering the real sailboats next to me are only doing 5.0MPH.

[jschrade]

Note that I was not reefed and had all of the 150 Genoa out. That made for some exciting sailing in the gusts when coming closer to the wind. What I really needed was a short reef and a standard jib. Note the 30 foot C&C was reefed and still seemed to have some of the overpowering/heeling issues I was having. As mentioned, they were more consistent in their attack upwind while I was getting a thrill ride. It was sort of like sailing my Hobie 16.

Heaving-To is probably the coolest maneuver in the world as amidst all this wind I was able to heave-to and my boat was as quiet and still in the water as you could ever want while I secure the mainsail. If you single hand, you must know this maneuver.

I don't doubt Road Warrior one little bit on his speed. His rig is far superior to mine and that speed is not all that far off of what many of us have hit up wind. Just putting a jib on mine would have positioned me much better in this game.

I have given some thought to putting up another furler with a standard jib on it but will likely go for the spinnaker first given that winds are typically around 10 knots here and I suspect it would really enhance going downwind as the raked spreaders completely ruin using the main.

Jim

[magnetic]

does anyone have any STIX stiffness data for the Mac?

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/enewsl ... rboat.aspx

http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/ebb/tech_8_pt2.html

[ROAD Soldier]

does anyone have any STIX stiffness data for the Mac?

http://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/enewsl ... rboat.aspx

http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/ebb/tech_8_pt2.html

I don't know what the temperature of the water is around Hong Kong, but if there isn't a huge chance of hyperthermia why don't you take your boat out and find out first hand. Books on sailing are awesome and theories on different sailboat designs vary on what the designer thinks is important, but none of them will tell you more than first hand sailing. You can read about sailing a boat or flying an airplane all you want, which does have its place, but the feel you get from any one of those is unique to itself and what theories in what book will become apparent very quickly on which one applies or is most important to your particular boat.

[magnetic]

thanks for that kind advice. I am presently in London and getting to the boat takes slightly longer than usual, what with it being 7,500 miles away and all. I envy your encylopaedic knowledge, which puts me in mind of The Bourne Identity, where he wakes up to discover that he is fluent in a number of foreign languages - unlike you, I need to actually set foot on a boat before being able to pontificate about its relative sailing characteristics, and that's why - being constrained for both time and opportunities & all - I have to fall back on test reports, magazine articles and flim-flam published by charlatan organisations such as the RYA.

[ROAD Soldier]

It's encyclopaedic not encylopaedic. Which I am sure you just made a typo like I do all the time. Now for its meaning: en•cy•clo•pe•dic ( n-s kl -p d k). adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an encyclopedia. 2. Embracing many subjects; comprehensive: "an ignorance ...
This could be a double edge sword complement or insult. I wonder which one it is?

[magnetic]

thanks for that clarification. So, does it mean his boat goes faster than the others, or not?

[ROAD Soldier]

Hum I don't see that question being asked in this topic I think you are confusing it with a different one you have recently replied to. However since you brought it up if he does buy a spinnaker and uses it in 10KT winds going on a run and emptying his ballast like some really daring people do then yes he could go faster than even that C&C 30. However jschrade needs to talk to people here that have done it. I have not because of two reasons I am usually sailing solo in big water of the Chesapeake Bay and we do have Bull Sharks.

[magnetic]

there's a hint in the title - "Held my own with some larger boats" There! Did you see it?

OK, let's try again. Are you sitting comfortably? Further down his original post he writes

I didn't get smoked and when reaching actually could run at the same speed and in spurts a little faster. The challenge is when we starting turning towards the wind to head in - then they were clearly faster.

What I think he is talking about is the performance of his boat relative to the other boats. I suspect you have an opinion on this - especially his last sentence. Would you like to share that opinion with us? - you know, the one about the boat sailing into the wind, not the encyclopaedia one

[ROAD Soldier]

Sure depending on the mods he makes he can turn that statement "clearly faster" into just slightly faster. Then when he turns to a new heading it could be "Dang look at all those boats behind me".

[Catigale]

Too many variables IMHO. A decent skipper in a power sailor won't keep up with a decent skipper in a 30 CC for very long, though, especially on the wind

[ROAD Soldier]

Too many variables IMHO. A decent skipper in a power sailor won't keep up with a decent skipper in a 30 CC for very long, though, especially on the wind

You are correct 95% of the time the C&C 30 will slaughter the Mac. However that 5% is where the fun of never letting them forget begins.