Draycote goes to the dogs!

[Eggbert]

A pack of rabid dogs descended upon Draycote Water yesterday for a northern mini blast.  With windguru showing about 12 knts with stronger gusts I thought that it would be the perfect time to get my sister in a cherub. Unfortunatley I needed to do a few jobs first like make a lighting board and take my nephew to his swimming lesson so we eventually arrived at Draycote at about 2.  The water was very low with a large number of white horses and a  wind of about  17 knts and a large fleet of fireballs.  Met up with John H and Rohanna plus friends in the wet bar where they recounted tales of massive speed.  Needless to say I was a bit apprehensive about the conditions with a novice crew but had a bite to eat got rigged up and changed and eventually went out in a bit less wind.  Must say my sister did really well  got out on the wire although I kept hold of the main  a bit of two sail reaching and gybeing and we went for a kite hoist  and  blasted off across the lake only problem was the gybes bummer it every time we struggled to get the main across and when it went everything just powered up and binned us in everytime . So I must be doing something stone cause we had the same trouble at the Nationals. Mean while John Rohanna and Cheese were looking fantastic and making the fireballs look like they were going backwards but I'm sure he can write about that himself.  Any advice about kite gybes would be much appreciated.

[simon_jones]

Practise practise and more practise, on a serious note I am by no means the expert as we still swim loads, however you need to really commit
to keeping the speed in the boat. If you are going fast enough the rig will not load up when you go through, when you get it right the boom just floats across.

[Phil Alderson]

Sounds like a fun sail

as Simon said keep the speed on going into the gybe, it keeps the load on the rig down. After the main is across you can take your time runing deep getting things sorted before you hot up again.

Think about a gybing strop on the mainsheet, or just grabing the boom to pull it across.

At a training weekend a few years ago some MPS guys were talking about how for a "safe" gybe they would let the main right out to the shroud. I tried this in the afternoon and went in on every gybe, I changed back to keeping the main over the quater going into the gybe and things got better again

It can sometimes help to keep the kite strapped in on the old side through the gybe, it will back and can stop the boat screwing into the wind. Then let the old sheet go with the new one tight and the kite will fill without flapping.

[roland_trim]

Most people try to do it slowly when they get scared . This is another way of ending up with two unsatisfied, wet, customers. If needed get both of you ready and safely back on the floor, then heat it up slowly and approach the complicated manoeuvre steadily. Although less fun than just  trying to "stick one in", this is more likely to provide a return for your efforts . Telling your partner to "pull like mad" can also help.

Peter Barton's training technique was simple - helm get your ar5e to to far side ASAP.

If you find you are rounding up straight after the gybe a few things that could help:
1) Let of a little kicker before the gybe (note - specific to the 97 rig on that boat, probably a bad idea on an 05 square top).
2) Get the crew to grab the new sheet on the way in off the wire. This way the kite sheet is being pulled in as they cross the boat.
3) Get the crew to sheet in like their life depends on it during the gybe, once through and you're sat down then you can blow it off again. This is slow but ensures the nose stays pointing downwind!
4) Others will be able to draw you the "S" shape you are looking to steer in the gybe. The apparent wind will really play with your head though. If possible I'd get John to helm you through a couple in your boat?

But Simon is right, swim lots and eventually you'll find the way... Did your sister get the bug?

[john_hamilton]

well it was pretty amazing wind, not too gusty or fluckey, but in the the general windspeed, we could crank it upwind flat wiring with the main pinned in some fair speed there. We also decided to turn the t foil upside down, having heard many tales of the fun it ensured.
 WOW
downwind she is a whole new boat, the top speed limit just dissapears.

anyway, rohana is starting to get good, soon hopefully shell be sailing with her squaddie friends, then maybe some new faces will appear, and my stabvle will go from two boats to one

[Tim Noyce]

t foil upside down, having heard many tales of the fun it ensured.
 WOW

Welcome to the world of the T-spoiler... aka, the future :-D

[john_hamilton]

its so much easier to land with too!!