I am sailing at last............took the beast out and put her through her paces yesterday.............light winds in the morning and then maybe 16 mph later on.........................was surprised at the difficulty going upwind even in the stiffer wind....................didn't put rubber cove base on the rudder but don't think it could make that much difference.........................the channels here are a little narrow (everything is fairly shallow) so it made it hard to tack and make much headway against the current and wind...............seemed to have trouble completing a tack without stalling.........................down wind it was all totally predictable...............the river is very wide and we drug the rudder fairly often if we ventured out of the channel,it responded very well,kicking up a little but before anything drastic and telling me to get back where we belonged..all in all a great day........I'm sure we'll get better at this ...............any boat we met gave us an honorable mention on the design..........everyone loves the look.......................anyway thanks for all the help  bruce
Bruce - that's great that you've managed to get back out on the water. I'm hoping to do the same in the next week or two.
With regards to your tacking issue - which I also had but probably for different reasons here are a couple of hints I've received from other people that I hope to put into practice:
Quote:Sounds like you had an interesting maiden voyage. These boats are very dependable tackers if you follow a few simple rules:Â usually they have no problem, but if you're having troubles, pull in on the mainsail as you start the turn, while letting out on the jib. Then as you're through the eye of the wind, pull in on the jib and let out on the main until you're moving on the next tack. That's how to do quick tacks. Remember that these boats are sailed more like HobieCats than regular keel boats. Don't pull too far in one the sails until you've got some speed off the wind. Then, once the dynamic lift gets a grip, you can pull up into the wind. Weekenders will never point their nose as close to the wind as a keelboat, -but you're actual course-made can be very respectable to windward. (In other words, they crab to windward once underway).
Another skipper suggested that when going up into the tack, as the boat comes to a halt, to throw the tiller over the other way, push the boom over and allow the boat to go backwards slightly and into the new tack.
Both things that I'm looking forward to trying.
I would get rid of that club on the jib and rig it properly once you're comfortable with the boat. Not only will it tack better, but it will sail to windward better, and will permit some manoeuvres that are impossible with the clubfoot, like laying a-hull, and sailing backwards. I hate to boast but my weekender is stock below the waterline, does not have that strip between the keel and the rudder box, and she snips through the eye of the wind without a second thought. I think having a proper shaped sail is essential to good windward handling too.
thanks for the input guys.........I think I'm just not used to going against the tide as well as the wind..............the club foot does restrict the sails ability to bring the nose around and it seems small compared to the oversized one I was used to on my tri................the sails had good shape,if I do say so myself, followed the polysail plans to the letter and darted them well................I'll get out there and give it hell with the current and wind in a variety of directions and strengths and figure this thing out...............I'm also not used to narrow channels in big bodies of water....forcing me to go in one direction only.............the tide flies here......I've been a california lake sailor in the past and it didn't matter which way I pointed,only had the wind to deal with.........also,upon looking at some of the pics I noticed that maybe the mast isn't quite straight at the hinge,not forward quite enough.............I was noticing very little weather helm so maybe a combination of set up and tidal incompetence was the dilemma............I appreciate the the feed back..bruce
Greetings Bruce,
There are people like the Army Corps of Engineers, Fisheries Depart, etc., who are interested in the flow rates of the water entering and leaving Bogue Inlet as the water flows past Swansboro and Emerald Isle and have actually put flow meters in the water to measure the velocity of the flood and ebb tides as the river and ocean slosh around in the channel. Depending on exactly when and where you sail in the channel, the tidal flow can be as high as 2.34 mph, and is generally asymmetrical with the ebb flow 50% greater than the flood tide as the river actually flows into the ocean.
A Weekender has a waterline length of about 15ft, Take the square root of this and multiply by 1.33 and you get a theoretical hull speed of a whopping 5 knots, or 6 mph. Sail directly upwind at hull speed and your velocity made good drops to just 4.2 mph. Add an ebb tide in the center of the channel, and your velocity made good drops to 1.8 mph. If the wind is light and you cannot manage hull speed (bow wave flows from bow to transom in a single arc), then you might even be sailing backwards over the ground.
You might want to get acquainted with the tide tables in your area.
Cheers,
Tom
thanks tom, I have to launch 2hrs or so either side of high tide to use our dock........which gives me 4 hours or so to sail and if I go out under the bridge at swansboro it ends up being against the tide both ways.........( of course when the weather cools off we can stay out an entire tide cycle ).....if we go up river its with us both ways..............planning on running back and forth on the inside of emerald isle in the icw to beaufort and morehead city from swansboro..........lots of islands to beach at,places to spend the night,etc......... a lot to learn about this coastal sailing...............I've got the time...........................life is good           bruce