UK-Cherub Forum
Cherub Chat => Sailing Stories => Topic started by: ross_burkin on March 15, 2009, 07:10:39 PM
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Seeing as we have Whitstable and Lymington files I though I'd start Grafham files. Fuzzy is currently sitting in the dinghy park 99% ready to go sailing. I just need bungs and a rudder pin (both getting sorted) and we're off! 'Taking Liberties' is also based at Grafham and a certain Strawberry covered boat will soon be joining us. LFC is there but I don't know about membership status. I'm looking forward to some serious blasting (and maybe a little racing ;D) in the coming months.
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Picture for y'all folk who may be interested. Main was missing two battens. One of which is at home, the other has gone walkies...
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Glad you finally got there Ross.
Did you see Libs? We're in the third block of boats from the Clubhouse, about halfway up from the water. Where's Fuzzy living?
We were up there yesterday and met up with Malcolm (of Little Fluffy Clouds) who did some quite spectacular capsizes while single-handing.
Looking forward to some blasting!
:)
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Hi Ross,
Look in the other batten pockets - it's quite common for people to take out the top two battens when rolling and stick them in other batten pockets along with the proper batten!
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Will do, thanks Will! Are you and Lucy coming up next weekend or are going to Whistable?
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Whitstable - if Lucy's knee-scrape is better after she feel off her bike..
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We're in the second block along. Rich can't count. LFC are fully paid up members.
This year is looking to be pretty ace.
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Will , if you need a crew on sat, I may be up for it as Dean currently has loads of coursework which he is trying to do before Rutland.
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Sounds good. Would you be happy to sail in Loco?
(rather takes the pressure off me to get all the jobs done before wednesday, when I have to go to Prague for work, back Friday night....)
W
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That would be great, we need to take her back to the club anyway, as Dean can't do Rutland and we have our club duty on the sunday. The race starts at 11 lets hope for weather like today with a nice force 4 ::)
I hope Lucy is not too injured?
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That is sounding a teeny bit like a plan - confirm by phone on Friday?
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O.K. I'll call on friday afternoon.
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Please text - I'll be in Prague.
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Today was the very definition of the phrase 'A baptism of fire'. We turned up expecting 10-13 knots but it was white caps most of the time! We finnished of a few things and launched. This is the first time either of us have sailed a proper boat in breeze since the nationals. The first capsize was a spectacular upwind pitchpole. These were full on arse over tit, down the mine style. This happened several times. We were trapezing quite far back so could this rig related or just terrible helming (I was pretty crap today!)?
The kite system borders useless (sorry Smilie!) so needs some refinement. The cuni and kicker systems need slight adjustment but they worked well. We lost a tiller extension but the boat it's self seems good and solid. Decks are easily damaged by trapeze hooks though :-\.
I'm really happy with the rig I have. The Fyfe was perfect for the conditions and predictably just looks 'right' with the C-tech when it has some wind in it. The opposite could be said for us today. We definitely didn't look 'right' and we're not perfect for the conditions! The less said about wind the better... The Batt jib is powerful!
I have a few modifications I want to do, mainly to make things more ergonomical and hopefully save a bit of weight. The first major upgrade is a T-foil but that will be a while yet. Once we can keep the thing upright in a bit of breeze.
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Breeze on. Stu and I are going sailing.
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I'm scared!!!
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This is our experience with the upwind pitchpole:
1) You are zooming along, perhaps a bit too footed off.
2) Then a little lull comes.
3) Helm bears away a bit.
4) Boat heels a bit.
5) Crew eases main a bit.
6) You are zooming along, perhaps a bit too footed off.
7) Then a little lull comes.
8) Helm bears away a bit.
9) Boat heels a bit.
10) Crew eases main a bit.
..repeat..
Soon enough you are absolutely caning along sort of close-reaching, when a violent pitchpole is a real possibility.
At the heart of the matter is the helm and crew agreeing about how flat is flat. If you attach your water bottle athwartships to the transom bar, you can use is at a spirit level, which gives you both something to look at. The water bottle should have a reasonable size bubble of air in it, obviously. There is a photo of us is Atum in Carnac 2006 I think with this configuration and the bubble can be seen.
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Our upwind pitchpoles are usually caused by some sudden deceleration (lull, bad steering, etc) causing me to fall off and swing into rich. We both swing forward and pull the boat over on top of us. Or something. That's a reasonable "well, what might have gone wrong there?" best guess.
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I really miss the trifle . It always followed the same routine:
1) Be going realy unreasonably fast.
2) Surface.
3) Wonder how you got there.
4) Get the mast pointing up insted of down.
4) On arrival at shore get congratulated on a spectacular pitch pole.
Hayley and I call this manouver "alien abduction".
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Our upwind pitchpoles are usually caused by some sudden deceleration (lull, bad steering, etc) causing me to fall off and swing into rich. We both swing forward and pull the boat over on top of us.
Big wet human Newton's cradle.
Looking forward to seeing you up at Grafham Ross.
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our experiences have been:
sudden lull or deceleration
helm looses footing and swings forward (crew leans in to avoid being hit by helm).
helm ends up on fore deck still hanging on to tiller extension. Capsize!
Once it ended with helm finding their way back to the stern and continue sailing.
Or one of the funniest was:
sudden lull
both helm and crew leave the side of the boat
continue to hang on to main and tiller extension and both get dragged along by the windward heeled but still sailing cherub.
New gust hits rig
helm and crew get lifted back into boat
boat capsizes.
Have done a similar loose footing and regain footing while crewing a 470.
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It was windy!
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;D
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Joseph and I borrowed Fuzzy today (thanks Ross) for a gentle potter around Grafham. After a bit of maintenance on Libs we launched Fuzzy into a pleasant offshore breeze, popped the kite, had a muppetry capsize (my fault), righted and re-launched and rapidly reached the far side of grafham. Then the wind died and we had a long beat back to the shore. After 30mins of beating we needed that downwind buzz back and popped the kite again over to the far side. Then it started to rain and we had a horrible beat home.
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We had a nice little sail today - was light, but great kite practice weather (for those of us that need it!)
Was great to see Stu and Ross out in Fuzzy as well.
:)
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Ouch.
Stu and I watched the weather all week and decided to go sailing yesterday (Friday). Champagne conditions. White caps in places and it dropped off a couple of knots later in the afternoon. The sun was out all day and the wind was enough to fully test us at times but not overwhelming. We sailed for about 5-6 hours and I'm now ruined but have to go to work! Going VERY fast at times and had quite a few 'in the zone moments'. We spanked a Spitfire down wind (they rinsed us up wind) which was later commented on in the changing rooms by one of the Spitfire sailors. RESULT. A couple of stories to come later.
Main issues:
1) The boat leaks like a sieve. We had to come in half way through the session to drain it.
2) Can't point at all. We have been tweaking and it's helped a lot but our upwind angle is shocking. I think it's due to not having a jib that fits properly and not having the rig set up by the Lee's or team Ronin!
3) I think I need some more mast rake but my shrouds are already at the bottom of the plates. This should counteract the heavy feel of the rudder upwind and aid pointing. Hopefully? It will also sort out the saggy luff of the kite.
4) The kite is a bit poo. It has no shoulder and all the power is at the foot which means the sheet loads are HUGE. I was struggling at times and I consider myself to be quite strong and have never had a problem with what other people have told me is high sheet loads.
5) Systems are VERY high friction apart from the kicker. Kite is horrible to drop and even worse to hoist, many problems with the kite yesterday. Down haul is very stiff. The jib sheet is also horrible to use and stupidly high friction.
6) Massive castle and the kicker makes for mid tack and gybe gymnastics. It really started to piss me off at times!
7) !!NEED GRIP!! Several capsizes yesterday due to either Stu or myself stacking it because we had no grip. I'm not using progrip because it's heavy and retains water. Kick bars will be installed at some point. Proper fruit loops are a must as well.
I think that's all. But ignoring all that, It goes into my top 5 sessions of all time!
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Definately a top sail. Infact, the best since New Zealand! Some serious Mach 10 moments.
And I'm doing it all again in Dan's boat today. How do we do 2day open meetings? Is this what getting old feels like?
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Ouch.
Stu and I watched the weather all week and decided to go sailing yesterday (Friday). Champagne conditions. White caps in places and it dropped off a couple of knots later in the afternoon. The sun was out all day and the wind was enough to fully test us at times but not overwhelming. We sailed for about 5-6 hours and I'm now ruined but have to go to work! Going VERY fast at times and had quite a few 'in the zone moments'. We spanked a Spitfire down wind (they rinsed us up wind) which was later commented on in the changing rooms by one of the Spitfire sailors. RESULT. A couple of stories to come later.
Main issues:
1) The boat leaks like a sieve. We had to come in half way through the session to drain it.
2) Can't point at all. We have been tweaking and it's helped a lot but our upwind angle is shocking. I think it's due to not having a jib that fits properly and not having the rig set up by the Lee's or team Ronin!
3) I think I need some more mast rake but my shrouds are already at the bottom of the plates. This should counteract the heavy feel of the rudder upwind and aid pointing. Hopefully? It will also sort out the saggy luff of the kite.
4) The kite is a bit poo. It has no shoulder and all the power is at the foot which means the sheet loads are HUGE. I was struggling at times and I consider myself to be quite strong and have never had a problem with what other people have told me is high sheet loads.
5) Systems are VERY high friction apart from the kicker. Kite is horrible to drop and even worse to hoist, many problems with the kite yesterday. Down haul is very stiff. The jib sheet is also horrible to use and stupidly high friction.
6) Massive castle and the kicker makes for mid tack and gybe gymnastics. It really started to piss me off at times!
7) !!NEED GRIP!! Several capsizes yesterday due to either Stu or myself stacking it because we had no grip. I'm not using progrip because it's heavy and retains water. Kick bars will be installed at some point. Proper fruit loops are a must as well.
I think that's all. But ignoring all that, It goes into my top 5 sessions of all time!
Ross, I have had most of those problems today as well as totaling the boat! It is now in dire need of repair due to trapeze hook incidents involving my (cherub virgin) crew. I'm sure both our boats can get it sorted. The speed of sound kite run made it all worth while though!
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Adem (crewing at the time) put his knee though the side tank due to insane acceleration. It's on the FS boat page. If it's just a trap hook though the tank, duck tape it and deal with it until you have a real opportunity to sort it out. It's not worth garaging the boat. Anything under 14 knots feels a bit tame once you've had a proper send. So keep sailing!
We caught some insane gusts at King George which almost certainly put us in excess of 20 knots on several occasions. We managed 19.7 in a tired Laser 3K and it was slow compared to some of the light speed moments in FS.
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Well done Joe and crew for getting supersonic.
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On Fuzzy I've noticed all 3 windward tell tails on the jib point upwards at about 45degrees to horizontal. All the leeward ones fly horizontally. Is this an indication of a setup issue or is it normal? I've never noticed it on a boat before.
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>3 windward tell tails on the jib point upwards at about 45degrees to horizontal
Its not unusual... especially if the boat isn't as flat as it ought to be!
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the holy grail. :)
If all three windward jib teltales are 45 dgrees up from the horizontal it means you have the correct amount of twist up the jib. It also means that you are as close to the wind without loosing power for that jib sheet position.
if you increase the amount of twist and let the top open up the top teltale will lift more or the sail will back reducing the power from the sail. This is all set by the sheeting angle at the clew or (the relative height of the sail up the luff wire to the jib sheet fair lead).
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Stu and I (Ross typing) have woken up to torrential rain with sailing kit hanging on the line, and already 19 mph blowing at Grafham with some more to come. After a very manly breakfast of cooked meat with cooked meat along with a splattering of hash browns and I think we'll be ready to go peacefully.
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took suicide to grafham... 25knts range of wind
capsised 6 or so times in the 2 hour 30min blast, getting air downwind! :P flying upwind
hull: still fine
spars: fine
foils: fine
helm/crew: dead but grinning
sails : redeyes in past life
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Cheers for the sail at grafham yesterday i had a blast of fun ::)
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Spreaders all OK?
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spreaders are all OK, have never sailed with such a stiff mast!! the rig didn't flex off once in any of the huge gusts to hit us
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It's set up for heavier sailors than you James! :D
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You just need to pull on the cunningham more than you think would be an appropriate amount. We found that the same goes for light wind too, to get the battens across lots of cunningham helps in that situation too.
Glad you had fun though, suicide is a real hoot to sail when the wind is up a bit, and quite comfy when its not!
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Is anyone fancy joining us at Grafham this weekend?
We hope to have the upgraded self tacker in place for an early afternoon sail - some company (especially a member ::) ) would be grand.
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I'll be up there in the f18 on sunday. We'll be racing but game for a blast around before/after :)
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Is anyone fancy joining us at Grafham this weekend?
We hope to have the upgraded self tacker in place for an early afternoon sail - some company (especially a member ::) ) would be grand.
Roland. I have a double stacker and a boat wanting to be sailed sitting on my drive. My parents are convieniently going to grafham for my bro in the hobie dragoon squad saturday and sunday.
I think something can be salvaged here.
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H has a dinner in Cambridge on Saturday evening, so we are modifying the plans to a Saturday session with Exultant.
Adem are you looking for a crew ?
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Hmmm, it now looks like work is going to get in the way of a sail. This is a pig as I've been dreaming of my new tacking routine all week ;I(