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  • in reply to: Handicap #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

    in reply to: Handicap #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

    in reply to: Handicap #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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