Jimmy Cornell goes Electric, with a Cat

[Yihang]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rujj...nel=SailingUma

UMA is kinda screwed with an electric motor in the Fjords of Norway. Forced to sail when the weather is bad and stuck when the weather is nice but no wind....

40 tacks in 3miles....

[Matt Johnson]

When we hungout last year, I did warn them about the winds in the fjords.... heck, the entire Norway coast. The thought at the time was for them to get a portable gas generator for this part of the journey.

There's a reason the Viking boats had so many rowing positions .



Matt

Originally Posted by Yihang

UMA is kinda screwed with an electric motor in the Fjords of Norway. Forced to sail when the weather is bad and stuck when the weather is nice but no wind....

40 tacks in 3miles....

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

When we hungout last year, I did warn them about the winds in the fjords.... heck, the entire Norway coast. The thought at the time was for them to get a portable gas generator for this part of the journey.

There's a reason the Viking boats had so many rowing positions .



Matt

I follow Uma and watched this earlier today. 10 nms made good, 30 nms sailed, and 41 tacks in 8 hours. In the rain.

Lesson learned could be bring a generator. But I suspect it better describes why so many sailors migrate to a trawler.

Just sayin'

Peter
(ex Newport 30 owner)

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by mvweebles

I follow Uma and watched this earlier today. 10 nms made good, 30 nms sailed, and 41 tacks in 8 hours. In the rain.

Lesson learned could be bring a generator. But I suspect it better describes why so many sailors migrate to a trawler.

Just sayin'

Peter
(ex Newport 30 owner)

To be honest with you, that trip would have been a lot more fun (in fact it could have been a great sail with good wind and flat water) with a boat with great windward performance. Put the dingy on the foredeck, and dress warmly.

We sailed in places and conditions like that for years on the coast of Vancouver Island or inland in the fjiords there, and loved it. We had a diesel motor when we wanted it, good heat and lots of excellent sailing.

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by wingssail

To be honest with you, that trip would have been a lot more fun (in fact it could have been a great sail with good wind and flat water) with a boat with great windward performance. Put the dingy on the foredeck, and dress warmly.

We sailed in places and conditions like that for years on the coast of Vancouver Island or inland in the fjiords there, and loved it. We had a diesel motor when we wanted it, good heat and lots of excellent sailing.

+1 to a great sail

Their boat looks like it would be good to windward. Is the impact of towing the dinghy that huge?

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

+1 to a great sail



Their boat looks like it would be good to windward. Is the impact of towing the dinghy that huge?

Maybe also the prop regenerating?

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

+1 to a great sail

Their boat looks like it would be good to windward. Is the impact of towing the dinghy that huge?

Towing the dinghy on a long line adds drag and combined with solar panels on an arch, sprayhood, dodgers and all the other stuff we need to survive 50'N, takes its cumulative toll on speed and pointing ability.

We notice the the drag on ours if we tow on a long line. Instead we pull up the bow on to the pushpit rail if we are going to tow a short distance in calm weather. Anything more than a couple of miles and we take it apart. Its a small 2.7m flat bottomed dinghy so easy enough to lift on board by hand and squash flat.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

+1 to a great sail

Their boat looks like it would be good to windward. Is the impact of towing the dinghy that huge?

Their boat, a Pearson 36, should be a good windward boat. It is a fin keel skeg rudder of early IOR influenced design, yet the track on their plotter shows otherwise: tacking angles of something well over 90 degrees. Perhaps the sails are not great, probably there was in incoming tide in the fiord which makes the tacking angles look bad. I just don't know.

But it’s not the dingy. Towing a dingy IS a hindrance, but it is not huge.

When it comes to performance it is usually not one thing which causes a boat to perform badly, it is the accumulation of many smaller things. Cruisers add a lot of gear and make changes to enhance cruising, changes which affect the balance of the boat, add windage, put weight where it should not be, and then they say about each item, “It doesn’t make that much difference.”

But the total does make a difference.

Edit: It's not the sails. Re-looking at the video, the sails look good. Some performance lost by using a partially furled genoa, and, yes, it is not sheeted close to the shrouds, but in general they look like they have good sails well handled and well trimmed which you would expect since they have to sail everywhere.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Yihang

UMA is kinda screwed with an electric motor in the Fjords of Norway. Forced to sail when the weather is bad and stuck when the weather is nice but no wind....

40 tacks in 3miles....

Or was it filmed for the camera and nothing wrong with that, made a completely different video subject from the norm on a wet and windy afternoon. What else were they going to do?

Pete

[mglonnro]

Originally Posted by Yihang

UMA is kinda screwed with an electric motor in the Fjords of Norway. Forced to sail when the weather is bad and stuck when the weather is nice but no wind....

40 tacks in 3miles....

Watching that video... I suddenly became very fond of our self-tacking jib

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Watching that video... I suddenly became very fond of our self-tacking jib

Their tacking angles were atrocious. Would putting the dinghy on the foredeck or cabin top have helped, rather than dragging it?