The bastard 'beast within' re-emerges!!!
Well we nailed the weather window and the tide window. We got onto a picture perfect speed-strip... and proceeded to tie ourselves in a big knot. A handling error occured once the rig was raised and the bastard boat decided to tack!!! Once you lose a little bit of control with this wing it's all over. You might as well just let it go, sit back and enjoy the show. First she tacked and the rig backed hard against the shrouds. The lower flap snapped clean off and blew into the water. Sailrocket then sat at a wierd angle with the back of the wing feathered into the wind. We all waited for the gybe. The trouble was that she was still tethered to the ground anchor and I was worried that she would take off at a stupid speed until the anchor would take up... God knows what would happen then.
The gybe came and the wing spun around past perpendicular to the boat. She stopped at around 100 degrees when the strut limited her movement. We couldn't spin the boat around and she sat stable side on to the 18-20 knot wind. I tried a number of things but she wouldn't budge. It was pretty tense as I waited for something to give and for it all to come raining down.
Nothing gave. I tried to pull the wing around with the mainsheet but she still wouldn't move.
The beam buckled.
Des was yelling out, 'What do we do'? My answer was' Err... I don't F%&*+*G know'!!! I managed to spin the wing by grabbing the bottom rib and eventually we spun Sailrocket back into the wind and lowered the beast of a wing down.
More swearing on my behalf. Very frustrtated as yet another awesome day goes wasted. Christ... The Macquarrie Innovation guys would sell their grandmothers for these sorts of days and here we are wasting one after another as this wing kicks our backsides time after time.
A part of me wouldn't mind seeing it destroyed once and for all.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful piece of design and construction... but it is a bitch to handle.
A clean sheet of paper would not be a bad thing.
I clearly saw the beam buckle but could find no damage. Helena recovered the flap and it was also undamaged. The wing was unharmed.
We nursed it back to shore in the building wind. I performed a strength test on the beam by sitting four guys in the middle of it and it passed.
The wing is inside.
I don't know how once again it all survived. It seems to be playing with us.
Des reckons this boat is just too stressful... and he took us straight to the bar afterwards.
So tomorrow morning we will rig up once more and do a full inspection.
The funny thing is that I never put the tip caps on the wing in case we had a situation like this. I was happy that this was behind us, put them on... and promptly trashed one of them.
We discussed it in depth in the bar (over coffee's... seriously) and I could only put it all down to 'user error'. We had made a mistake in handling the boat during the rig-up and it got away on us. The person who holds the nose of the boat is the most important person during this phase and should be co-ordinating everyone else. A lack of communication will lead to two people fighting each other and losing the 'feel' of what the actual boat wants to do.
I suspect this is what happened. So the answer will lie in technique.
Aye yi yi.
Well it's honking outside now so I'm going to enjoy the simple life of windsurfing.
I'm pretty gutted about today. If it's not one thing it's the bastard other.
Sometimes it all feels so close... and others...
Cheers, Paul.
The gybe came and the wing spun around past perpendicular to the boat. She stopped at around 100 degrees when the strut limited her movement. We couldn't spin the boat around and she sat stable side on to the 18-20 knot wind. I tried a number of things but she wouldn't budge. It was pretty tense as I waited for something to give and for it all to come raining down.
Nothing gave. I tried to pull the wing around with the mainsheet but she still wouldn't move.
The beam buckled.
Des was yelling out, 'What do we do'? My answer was' Err... I don't F%&*+*G know'!!! I managed to spin the wing by grabbing the bottom rib and eventually we spun Sailrocket back into the wind and lowered the beast of a wing down.
More swearing on my behalf. Very frustrtated as yet another awesome day goes wasted. Christ... The Macquarrie Innovation guys would sell their grandmothers for these sorts of days and here we are wasting one after another as this wing kicks our backsides time after time.
A part of me wouldn't mind seeing it destroyed once and for all.
Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful piece of design and construction... but it is a bitch to handle.
A clean sheet of paper would not be a bad thing.
I clearly saw the beam buckle but could find no damage. Helena recovered the flap and it was also undamaged. The wing was unharmed.
We nursed it back to shore in the building wind. I performed a strength test on the beam by sitting four guys in the middle of it and it passed.
The wing is inside.
I don't know how once again it all survived. It seems to be playing with us.
Des reckons this boat is just too stressful... and he took us straight to the bar afterwards.
So tomorrow morning we will rig up once more and do a full inspection.
The funny thing is that I never put the tip caps on the wing in case we had a situation like this. I was happy that this was behind us, put them on... and promptly trashed one of them.
We discussed it in depth in the bar (over coffee's... seriously) and I could only put it all down to 'user error'. We had made a mistake in handling the boat during the rig-up and it got away on us. The person who holds the nose of the boat is the most important person during this phase and should be co-ordinating everyone else. A lack of communication will lead to two people fighting each other and losing the 'feel' of what the actual boat wants to do.
I suspect this is what happened. So the answer will lie in technique.
Aye yi yi.
Well it's honking outside now so I'm going to enjoy the simple life of windsurfing.
I'm pretty gutted about today. If it's not one thing it's the bastard other.
Sometimes it all feels so close... and others...
Cheers, Paul.
posted by Paul at 4:12 pm
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