Quote:
Originally Posted by gauravshinde
Excel sheet full of ratios has been my life for quite some time. Tried sailing on a few of those.
I would rank Saga 36- Biscay- CD36 - Rustler.
But then Rustlers finished so that is a consideration.
Finally, I am still attracted to the Westsail 32- Abhilash was in no.3 and closing on Mark Slats before getting dismasted. Not sure how that would have played out in the Atlantic going back north.
But Westsail is basically an Eric 32 so that is getting as close to RKJ's Suhaili as possible- or I convert the W32 to a ketch and make it a Suhaili replica just because Suhaili was made in my hometown and my first boat was made in the same yard as Suhaili.
Lots of decisions to be made. But I would like a faster, more balanced boat. Also I am on a budget so I will take whichever boat comes in good condition + good price |
I've got more than 10,000 miles in W32. Boats are fast on a reach in
trade wind conditions. They do take a bit of wind to sail to their optimum but those conditions are usually found in the areas that this race will frequent. We had a number of days with 175nm runs in the trades. The boats are not surfers but had a number of 150 nmpd runs DDW with the Yankee poled out. We had a limited sail
budget. Main, staysail, Yankee and reacher/Drifter off my previous boat with no
roller furling. Would've been nice to have had a larger
jib that we could furl down for windier conditions. As it was, could carry the Yankee with winds into the 20's on a reach. The boat needs the slot between the two headsails to sail at it's best. When I had to strike the Yankee boat speed was cut by a
knot or more.
Roller furling would make it easy to vary the size of the
jib. Would have a loose footed staysail cut to the maximum size that would fit. Tried an overlapping staysail which really helped lighter air performance to
weather. Unfortunately the sheet fouled the fwd lower
shroud when eased. Didn't have the energy to do the
rigging mod's to add a baby stay and ditch the fwd lowers so left it at home.
Modify the
bowsprit cranse iron so you can fly a
code zero and that will go a long way to erasing the light air deficit that all that wetted area makes. One thing they won't do is go hard on the wind in very light air with chop. The bluff bows just plow into the waves and stop forward progress. With enough wind it's not that big a thing and cracking off a bit solves the problem. We had to beat into 10k winds and lumpy seas for 5 days to lay the
Marquesas and managed to average 5k through the
water. Sometime after
hull #163 Westsail went to cast lead ballast which should help tame the hobby horse tendency in short steep seas by concentrating the ballast.
Had an
Aries Vane and it steered the boat perfectly in every condition we encountered. If the boat would move under sail, the Aries was driving. If you are going to have an Asym or other large headsail, a way to connect an
autopilot to the
self steering would be a plus for DDW
work. DDW is the worst point of sail for a vane as the boat can sail out from under the relative wind leaving the vane clueless as to wind direction.
Didn't pick up on the discussion about changing the
mast. If that is in relation to the Cape George 36 wouldn't be a great concern other than
maintenance. Wooden sticks are reputed more tolerant of
rigging mishaps than
aluminum. One of the reasons that Cecil Lange went with that hull form is that it sailed well in the light air conditions of the
PNW. The boat has a finer entry and less beam than the Eric/W32 so should go to
weather better. It also has a long 31.5'
water line. Would verify what they used for ballast. Concentrated ballast is way better for motion and sailing ability and lead can allow the most centered location of ballast.
(just a coincidence but who cares)
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