Raft up

[John B]

Great weekend , we followed the classics fleet which split, the bigger boats making Ponui Island 20 or 25 miles east. The B div boats weren't able to make the headway in very light conditions so they all went elsewhere.
We'd been to a launching in town and started late but because the breeze came in late we weren't actually far behind.
Still , we were met with the sight of a pretty good raft up when we got there. 5 boats with ours soon to be added.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0212_1.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0214_1.jpg
Stevey boy pretending to do something with the anchor on Prize.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0227_1.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0215_1.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0225_1.jpg
The way we run our assn is to have Classics divisions through to 1950 and modern classics after that to a 30 yr old threshold.
So we had two modern classics with the Lidgard Paramour and our Riada both circa mid '70's bracketing the 1890's gaff Logans Thelma and Waitangi and with the Stewart designed K class Katrina and the 1923 Bailey Prize
Great evening with a lot of people floating around the different boats. Thelma and Waitangi need big crews.

[John B]

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0221_1.jpg

It blew up a bit last night but cleared by morning ,before the new breeze settled in.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0233_1-1.jpg
and then the breeze came in about 25 to 28 knots.Frisky. Gee we had a great sail back, hard on the wind and with the wind fluctuating through high 20's down to 20 or so at times.
wind against tide.. story of my life;) so we wore a few.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0234_1.jpg
ps Gareth, I tidied up those reefing lines straight after I took the photo.;)

[tattooed john]

John, you must be disappointed about how your life has turned out :). Thanks for the inspiriing pics and stories.

[Hwyl]

Photo number 2 grasps a great moment. The guy on the counter displaying that curious mixture of trepidation and confidence.

[bamamick]

I think that I have finally decided that if I had the chance to 'come back' that it would be as my friend John. But as John I would still have to see if I could get hold of one of those En Zed Dragons :)!

Mickey Lake

[Paul Pless]

LOL Mickey I hear you loud and clear. <insert green with envy smiley here>

[elf]

Boy, y'know. Life is just soooooo hard.

[John B]

Welll, we're on the end of season cram now. next weekend is Easter and then after that its kidsoccerhell for the next few months. I could get a bit pee'd off with the season creep going on here, in fact too late .. I already am. Winter sports should be in winter ,not start before summer has finished.Its theft.
Life ? yeah funny eh... but we don't do anything else . No holiday home or Fiji or Aussie trips like our mates, no plasma tv or fancy stereo. Its like deja vu all over again.

Bought that boat a year ago, can you believe that?
This was the same event we did then and for a while there we thought it was going to turn out the same way.. we got hammered on the way home in about 40 knots or so.We got so many green ones over the bow we thought we were still on Waione.

[John B]

sailing back..
Prize and Katrina comfy and quick under reduced canvas.( a bit of a lull)
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0246_1.jpg
edit.. just been sent a photo of the photo boat from Prize.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/upto16thmarch2008086_1.jpg


[http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0255_1.jpg
which was sensible( not shaking it out).. she breezed up again off Bucks beach
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/100_0258_1.jpg

Great weekend .

[StevenBauer]

Thanks, John, we had los of boats here this weekend but they were all in a 19th century factory building with a couple of feet of snow still on the ground.


Steven

[John B]

I saw the pics Steven, thanks for all of those.

a little bit of info on Prize..

Prize was named after one of the famous Q ships, HMS Prize, a submarine hunter in World War I.
Built of kauri she is one of only two built in New Zealand to the international eight-metre rule.
http://www.classicyacht.org.nz/infusions/vessel_register/vessel_register.php?detail_id=69

Katrina. You'll see she's actually 1957, but the class predates the 1950 threshold.
http://www.classicyacht.org.nz/infusions/vessel_register/vessel_register.php?detail_id=46

and Paramour ( she is actually 1975.. same year as Riada after all)

http://www.classicyacht.org.nz/infusions/vessel_register/vessel_register.php?detail_id=106

[The Bigfella]

John

Is that a really big radio aerial on the back, or did you lose a sail? I dunno much about these old fashioned sailing ship thingies:

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/upto16thmarch2008086_1.jpg

[John B]

Long way to fall when you make em lean over too much Ian. Funny, but that boat balances so well like that when the breeze is up . Very easy. I could have had full main but we were comfortable and fast as we were.
perhaps a bit under powered in the lulls....
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/misc%2008/upto16thmarch2008087_1.jpg
bags for sails doesn't help, but thats a problem for another year.

[Hwyl]

John

I dunno much about these old fashioned sailing ship thingies:



Not true, I think you may be revisiting your real passion soon, just gotta get that old stinkpot out of the way.

[John B]

How full do you think a short chord main like that should be Gareth? I'm developing this theory that they deliberately made the thing that way to get more power out of it. What do you think?
I can flatten the foot off a bit ( which I didn't do there) but it stays really full higher up no matter how much I pull and prod at it.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Whats the story with all the inflatables and no motors in the first pic?

Do you guys row them or something?

[Hwyl]

How full do you think a short chord main like that should be Gareth? I'm developing this theory that they deliberately made the thing that way to get more power out of it. What do you think?
I can flatten the foot off a bit ( which I didn't do there) but it stays really full higher up no matter how much I pull and prod at it.

Are you talking about when it's reefed, I was thinking how good your reef looked. Friends have been using spectra as reefing lines and reef tack downhauls (instead of putting the cringle in the hook, they haul the main up a bit then crank the luff down). Using spectra also means you can get the reefing clew really close to the boom, I see you have lots of mainsheet tension on there,and that Raida mostly relies on the sheet for twist control, you'd have to let the boom up a bit (an aside, I mostly sail with hydraulic vangs / kicking straps, I have real difficulty explaining to even fairly good crews, how important it's deployment is in reefing)

Do you have checkstays, a way of getting rid of fullness up high is to let the mast bend a bit (with obvious downsides), then there's luff tension.

I think all in all you're asking too much, the sail looks really good for a white sail.
Enjoy it

[John B]

I've never sailed with such a high aspect sail before so its a new curve learning wise ,Gareth.
Whenever I look up I see a really deep sail and that doesn't seem right to me. I just wonder if its normal to cut a lot of shape into that sort of sail. I can actually flatten the foot off ok either whole sail or reefed but it still keeps the deep shape from say a third on up.
re trim, yeah .. very easy to close off the leech if you oversheet again because of the high aspect/short boom,a small trim can shut the thing down, so I've been playing a bit more with the traveller and just trying to watch those top battens.
Interesting about the tack downhaul for reefing.. works like a cunningham eh.
No the mast is a telephone pole and no checks.Big section with 14 mm wire holding it up!

[Noah]

The sail doesn't look bad to me, and it could be cut a bit deep for more power I suppose.

How is your rig set up? Can you put more pre-bend into it which might flatten the sail?

If I had to comment I would say that the genoa you had up is the ugly sail - lots of draft foward. In those winds you want something much flatter than that.

[John B]

That sail is a bag of %#@! all right but its all I really have in the right size range right now Noah. I have a #4 and a #2 genoa. That #3 is a great size as a working and cruising sail but its 20 years old I think.Its not even worth investing a UV strip so we take it down when we leave the boat on the marina.
The #2 is Ok and we use that as our biggest sail but its no good when two handed.
I have the rig where I want it and although I've resolved to wind a bit more backstay on , I won't be getting anything significant in the way of prebend.It really is a telephone pole .. big section.
The next sail will be another #3 , only 100% and fairly flat . I think that will really make a big difference. Other priorities right now though.. you know what its like.:rolleyes:

No I'm just curious as to thinking about short footed mainsails like that. I might play with the battens as well and see if I can't get a bit of shape taken out of it that way.

[Noah]

Sorry for the comments on the headsail...I have some ****ters myself - hopefully a nice #1 (155%) is in the cards for this summer.

If you battens are really jammed in there tight (sometimes they are adjustable) they may be forcing the draft in the sail. Or you could go with stiffer battens that might help flatten it.

My mast is pretty flexible, so we can control main shape fairly easily, but I still wish I had a new main.

[John B]

Here you go ,the sort of pic you don't get too often eh :D
Hesitant to post it because we were doing so much wrong but wth, I can take it.
In our defence we were pinching to make a stake mark about 75 metres in front with a fleet off to our stbd and a few boats under us which have just tacked away....so thats why she's been a bit enthusiastically overtrimmed.
Anyway ,you can see that draft in the main. Even when I haul outhaul on its still present top 2/3.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/Waione_photos/coastal%20classic%2007/r2sb22_1.jpg

[Zane Lewis]

That last pics the one to give to the sail maker.
Here the genoa looks OK'ish if sheeted a little wide. Thats a problem we have with extural chain plates.

Have to agree re the main. Down on the boom the max draft looks way aft and it really does show the fullness. Does it stay full in a lighter breeze? Somehow I don't see that playing with batterns will fix it. Stiffer batterns with give you that staved cow rib look and soft ones won't keep the sail tight. So given she's a mast head rig with limited room to play, it looks like a trip to the sail maker to get a little out on every seam. Or just wait until santa can find room in his bag for a new one.

And speaking of them went to my sail maker today and saw the sail plans for 2 nice gaff cutters up on the wall.
Zane

[martin schulz]

wow...envy-attack...

grrrummmble...except those yoghurt-cups...

[TimH]

you guys have too much fun down there.

[Steveh]

Wow that is deep John.

Nice avitar :-)

[John B]

Its a shocker isn't it. I've been having some sucess with batten tension but yup, looks like a dollar problem to me.Several thousands of.

[Hwyl]

Cut a chunk out of the luff , or get Todd to look at the pictures

[John B]

I'll be giving it my sailmaker over winter Gareth. But yes, I'd like to hear Todds view.

[dhic001]

Whats the story with all the inflatables and no motors in the first pic?

Do you guys row them or something?

I've not seen them being rowed, but they certainly aren't good things to tow with an outboard on the back, which is why I guess they don't have them fitted. Pity all these guys are using such nasty tenders, a few nice clinker dingy's wouldn't be a bad thing, and then the pictures would look far better.

[John B]

Its a race fleet ,30 miles from home.The tenders are for safety purposes and they're carried on deck while racing.Its a requirement to have a suitable dinghy on a passage race.
I doubt if they carry outboards for them Paul. Maybe they do on the bigger boats.