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    • #185
      wetaz904
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      Yeah, Bethwaite is heavy going at times! I have the older High Performance Sailing and recently bought Fast Handling Technique.

      In HPS Chap 16, Quest for Speed, p. 185 Bethwaite details his research with a trimaran type format. Interestingly he says, “I had tried all the other hull platform and rig setups, and had concluded from bitter experience that this relatively conventional trimaran setup was superior in the practical world of real unsteady wind and often big waves to all of the others. It was practical, controllable and fast.”

      He also mentions they are tremendous fun.

      So something of a recommendation for the Weta style configuration.

      Perhaps a short summary of FHT would be “loose the cleat”, i.e., in gusts, ease and squeeze.

    • #184
      Wetabix
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      My maths was of course wrong!- if you turn off 30 degrees from dead downwind you need to sail 14% faster to break even and if you turn off 45 degrees you need to sail 30% faster. Thus in the example I quoted where I was doing 2.8kts DDW, by turning up 30 degrees I would need to sail 3.2 knots to break even. I was actually getting 3.5 at times so maybe a small gain. Had I pointed up to 45 degrees off the DDW course I would have needed to sail at 3.64 kts to break even, which might just have been possible; but no big gain – Vmg would still have been a painful 2.8kts (give or take).

      I agree that loosening the gennaker halyard helps – I have a special tackle and cleat arrangement to enable fine control of the halyard tension.

      When you’ve read Asymmetric Sailing (which is not all that helpful IMHO) read Higher Performance Sailing. Do it half a chapter at a time and absorb every word!

      Rgds

      George Morris

    • #181
      wetaz904
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      Hi George,

      Thanks for your reply. I think your post is pretty much on the mark.
      Pretty new to asymmetric sailing so it is all trial and error at them moment. Thanks for the maths!

      I got myself a copy of Asymmetric Sailing – it suggests loosening the gennaker halyard and then attempt to swing the gennaker more to windward so it acts more conventionally. I’ll give it a try. As a lake sailor we get plenty of light wind days to try these things out! The modest sailplan works against us in the light wind.

      Cheers,

    • #180
      Wetabix
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      The Weta is not at its best in 6 knots but it ought to be coming alive by the time it gets up to 12. I am no expert, but my feeling on downwind technique in light winds (refined with reference to a SpeedPuck playback) is that in light winds pointing as deep as you can with the sails drawing is the way to go. Goose-winging can work. Yesterday I was sailing in about 6 kts and getting a dead downwind(DDW) speed of about 2.8. By ‘heating up’ I got up to 3.5kts but the Vmg was the same. I think the maths goes like this – if you head off the ‘rhum line’ (actually, the direct track) by 30 degrees you will have to sail a distance equivalent to half your speed to get back to the mark after you gybe. Simplified, this means that if you head up 30 degrees, you have to double your speed to gain. This can probably work in waves or in stronger winds but in 6 kts (which is 3kts apparent) you probably won’t double your speed by heading off 30 degrees. Yeah, by heading up hard you MAY be able to generate some apparent wind but you must then soak and my guess is that it doesn’t pay except perhaps in the hands of a very experienced asymmetric sailor. Sailing downwind in these conditions is boring and a pain but patience is, I believe, the way. Your catamaran competitors just sitting there and pointing at the mark were probably doing the right thing.

      Rgds

      George Morris
      Weta 117
      Scotland

    • #179
      wetaz904
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      In recent races at Canberra the wind has been light-moderate 6-12 knots. There has been a 14ft Windrush and a similar Nacra sailing recently so it has given me something to gauge my performance in the Weta against. The Weta definitely does better upwind in these conditions. I just cannot find a way to get any comparative speed happening downwind.

      All the cats do is point to the mark and wait! In sub-planning conditions the Weta is around Laser performance downwind. Any clues for downwind performance in these conditions?

    • #164
      wetaz904
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      For racer’s info, at Canberra Yacht Club I have been allocated to the multi-hull division with a handicap of 86. Be interesting to see the data at the end of the season. No 14ft cats, so don’t expect to have too much company!

    • #153
      miranda21
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      Hi Guys, check out this poll on the yahoo forum – http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Weta-Trimarans/polls/poll/13194212 it seems that the handicap question is coming for a few people.

      Cheers,

      Miranda

    • #128
      Wetabix
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      Wikipedia is wrong – the current RYA Portsmouth Number for the Weta is 950 and is likely to go to 960 in March.

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