Quote:
Originally Posted by Nordic cat
How do you tack by the way? Do you lock the leeward boom before going around, and thus let the now windward sail push you around?
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Hi Alan,
Have now returned from my weekend of
racing the Radical Bay 8000
- 70 miles feeder
race on Friday (no
wind to Bft2 beam reach)
- 25 miles double S-shaped bay
race with lots of tacking,
wind 15 - 40 kts on Saturday.
What I can now tell you about tacking this
boat is
1) In wind under 20kts-ish just before commencing the tack release the windward sheet totally and tack on the leeward sail. Wait for the (new) windward sail to fill and push the bows around, then slowly sheet in the leeward sail and off you go. Only in really flat conditions would we play around with the daggerboards to assist the tacking effort.
Results 10/10
2) In wind in the 20-25-ish kts we have a problem! Depending on wave action we cannot tack and have to gybe.
Results 4/10
3) In winds of approx. 30kts and more we cannot tack nor gybe!!
When tackinh the
boat would stall 10 degrees from the turn, even sailing backwards did not
work to push the bows through the wind.
Attempting a gybe, the pressure on the rudders was incredible, could run down-wind but not turn further to the leeward side. Ended up
anchoring in 40kts of wind on a lee shore! (Can really recommend the
Fortress anchor
!). And managed to break the
mast / gooseneck boom connection due to a gybe which went wrong.
This weekend's experience has put a big damper on my otherwise positive aspects of this rig design!
Regards
Roger