Grafham files

[Stuberry]

I'm scared!!!

[Will_Lee]

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.
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. 

[joe_moore]

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.

[roland_trim]

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".

[rich_cunneen]

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.

[phil_kirk]

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.

[Stuberry]

It was windy!

[roland_trim]

 

[Stuberry]

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.

[rich_cunneen]

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.

[ross_burkin]

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!

[Stuberry]

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?

[Banshee Ambulance]

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!

[ross_burkin]

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.

[phil_kirk]

Well done Joe and crew for getting supersonic.