Run29 goes well in moderate winds...
we hit the course again today although the breeze felt a little soft.
It was worth it... but it also cost us. Overall I had a great run and hit 37 knots. In the medium strength winds and flat seas, sailrocket felt great. For the second run in a row I lost the mainsheet over the back and had it trail at high speed. By the time I got it back in I was well past the speed hut and decided not to go to skeg steering. I know it will be fine but it is a slight matter of confidence and that confidence will come with time in the cockpit. On the first run yesterday I did hit the beach. Not hard... but it was a control issue brought on by my start up procedure. I was probably only doing around 18-20 knots when I hit the soft shallow slope which absorbed the impact relatively progressively and gently. About ten minutes later we pushed off from the same spot and completed the run... and two more after that without incident.
The fact is that Sailrockets cockpit can get quite busy and I want certain reactions to be automatic. If a high speed roundup begins with an unfamiliar steering system then I need to be ready.
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Overall we seem to be at a pretty good stage with the boat. We are doing good controlled runs with the boat behaving in a predictable manner. The structure is in good shape and I'm getting comfortable in the cockpit. Hopefully the weather has settled somewhat and we can get in more runs on a regular basis. We seem to have solved the problem of the boat tracking sideways down the course and Sailrocket is now trying to turn away from the beach all the time when at speed. the high 30's seems very comfortable from my perspective and this allows me to focus on sailing in closer to the beach in flatter water. These higher speeds are no longer spikes in our performance... but the norm. A couple of local kite boarders chased me down the course the other day but once the 'rocket' lit up there really was no competition.
On the downside... whilst we are waiting for the data logger problem to be resolved, we have gone back to the ever reliable Tacktick system... and yesterday the wind wand broke free and came off the boat at speed! Fortunately we caught it on two cameras and were able to narrow it down to a GPS position. We will go out at low tide and see if we can't find it. There are a few cool things about Tacktick wireless instruments that should help us. We might be able to use the data display to locate the wherabouts of the wind wand. The wind angle should still be sending a signal... even underwater. Hopefully the display will pick this up when we get close and let us know that we are in the right area. Fingers crossed as this gear still provides vital data for the project even when not on the boat.
I believe that there will be more wind today, the boat is ready and rigged, so hopefully we can knock off a few more runs.
Cheers, Paul.
posted by Paul at 10:41 am
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