Uneven Speed

So upwind its slower (obviously) but downwind in a blow is amazingly quick.

Because I started so late the Musto Skiffs caught me in the first beat and we all round the windward mark together.

Kites went up and as we all caught a huge gust we burned across the whole top of Queen Mary from right to left and gybed past the bund and down towards the clubhouse-ish to the leward mark.

By the time we all reached the leward mark I was approx 15-20 seconds behind the last skiff.

Now I reckon that is really good speed.....and it was really good fun keeping up with them.

Upwind of course they spanked me, but that is to be expected.

When I was near the K6 and went off on a broad 2 sail reach I left them standing.

I was really happy today.

:o)

Learning the hard way

Well today was up and down around 18knots and a tad chilly when racing had finished.

I had a bit of a cold and was feeling a bit below par, but soon forgot about it once sailing.

It was the Pursuit Race today running roughly the same format as the Bloody Mary.

So kind of important that I got to the start in time!

Unfortuneatly I had to launch to leward of the bund and sail round which made me reall late (gutted)

So with a handicap of 950 I was supposed to start at 12.32 but actually started at 12.40 ish with a K6.

This ruined my handicap chances completely, however I carried on for the practice.

I have realised that I have been making it quite hard for myself upwind, by not letting the traveller off enough.

Today I wacked it a long way off and was planing quickly to windward. Something I should have done weeks ago.

Happy Christmas

For all those of you who have shown an interest in my blog and future visitors.....

HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See you all at the Bloody Mary!

Maintenance

So far the only maintenance I have had to do is check the tightness of bolts for rudder pintels and replace the rope that Harken supply with their air blocks with a thicker mm on the block on the traveller.

Everyting else is working as new.

Christmas Handicap Race

brrrrr......that was cold, arrived to find all sheets frozen.

Although a fantatic sail, nice and sunny Force 2-3.

I have been sailing with the kicker just taking up the strain when I release the mainsheet tension for upwind sailing, this seems to work fine.

For downwind I found in the light stuff, just releasing the kicker a bit works better than keeping it on (a heavy wind setting)

So I was very pleased with my overall performance..... just over a minute behind the winning RS400 on the water, not too far away from the B14.

Also pleased to announce that I am able to hold off if not catch up leading RS400 and B14 on a reach with neither of us flying kites.
:o)

coming ashore in 20 knots +

As a single hander you do tend to wonder how you are going to manage coming ashore in a stonker.

The thoughts that went through my mind were to come ashore and hove to and jump out of boat but I was a tad worried about the carbon foils and the onshore Force 6 wind.

So I sailed around the bund and onto the lee shore.

Sailed up to the pontoon and stepped off having let off the kicker, mainsheet, downhaul and traveller.

The moment the traveller goes loose the D-One just sits very stable while you get the mainsail down.

Very well behaved I thought.

:o)

Sunday 6th 20+ knots

So the last thing that was bothering me was my ability to make the D-One go a bit top heavy in 20knots and above downwind.

It had to be something I was doing wrong, as others had not experienced it.

This is a technical boat no doubt, there is a lot of thought that has gone into this rig design, and it's down to me to get the best out of it, which I have so far, but the last thing that eluded me was the heavy wind downhill sailing.

Well today I have cracked it, I am very proud to say.

Where I have been used to the RS400 and letting kicker and downhaul off downwind, I have fallen into some bad habits with the D-One.

There is no doubt about it, there is a lot of mainsail to deal with and the brilliant thing about that is you have got a lot of range for going fast, but also get it wrong and prepare to be punished.

Today was 20 knots and above and I missed the start because of a bit of a queue to launch and me replacing the mainsheet for a longer one (10metres instead of 7)

When I got out the wind really turned itself up and it was survival weather, so I wasn't too bothered about racing.

My goal for today was to sort out the strong wind no kite stuff, and apply the kite after that.

Ok....my settings were....

Kicker = on enough to keep the boom level if I let any mainsheet off.
Downhaul = As much as possible and then a bit more.

I round the windward mark and here is the difference....

Don't let anything off apart from the mainsheet.... leave the downhaul on tight and go off onto a reach.
The bow lifts onto a plane and you can hoist the kite more than comfortably from the wing, arm over arm with the tiller hand.

Once the kite is up, you can let downhaul off, but I recommend leaving it on in the crazy windy stuff.

You will be able to tell yourself if things are a bit too much power.....then wack the downhaul on again if needs be.

Remember what is going on here.....the D-One design has given you a shed load of power and control...it's up to you to control it.

My mistake in previous outings in 20 knots + have been to let the mainsheet off and go downwind.....this is a mistake, unless you let the kicker completely off, which looks horrible.

So I was very very very happy today as I seemed to have tamed the beast in a blow.

When the kite went up, well.....it was amazing, truly amazing, I did laugh!

Then there was the drop......as I get quicker (thicker halyard will help) with the drop I shall leave it a bit later, but flippin heck the edge of Queen Mary reservoir appears quickly on a windy day.....and a lot of Lasers floating about waiting to be kebabbed!

So to sum up, as the wind gets up.....depower the thing.

As a point of interest, sailing upwind in a stonker is really comfortable, crack the traveller off and sit on the wings, plane to windward.

Today there was a moment when I thought I might try and ease the power in the mainsail upwind....as it was the wind was bending Lasers.....and when I wacked the downhaul on the whole boat slowed right down.....amazing control, use wisely.

Now you can understand the use of it downwind to control things......very very important....more so than any other boat I have sailed.

So the D-One has some strange characteristics, but once you know what you are doing with it, my goodness, its a damn fine craft....and OMG its fast.

:o)

P.S. no pictures cos the rescue boats were....rescuing.....oh....and a foiling moth snapped his foil!!!!....it was blowing dogs off chains!

Speed

Pretty pleased with the overall speed to be honest, really great fun.

Traveller downwind in a strong wind

I have been told to keep the traveller centreline for downwind stuff, but in a howler I eased it slightly and it seemed to help me during gybes.....so I wonder? keep kicker on but ease traveller in a howler....I will try that next.

Upwind pointing or footing

I found myself doing both, when the gusts go lighter I wanted to point really high, but you can feel when its not doing the speed any good, so you bare off a tad to get the speed up.

As the wind gets stronger I was easying the traveller bit by bit to get planing, while planing it felt fast and you can nudge yourself upwind to gain height.

Standard stuff really.

I love the traveller its great, so much control.

spinnaker halyard

I have decided to definately chnge the spinny halyard to a thicker diameter.

This is due to my grip, I think it will make things easier.

The only times it goes under tension is when the spinny first hits the mouth of the chute and also when pulling spinny down whilst capsized in the water.

Pulling from a funny angle from the wings boat on its side kite up felt a bit too thin to be a fast drop, so I need more grip.

Downwind with more kicker tension

So in the early race, before the storm hit, I was trying out sailing with a bit more kicker on downwind, this seemed to work well but as the wind got up I thought I ha better ease it for the gybe.

I am not sure if it was easing the kicker that did it, but I tipped it in on the gybe.....a huge gust hit me and that was it....I was gutted as I was doing really well against the 400's only the leading one was ahead of me.

As the wind gets up I have to bare away to go quite deep, as you would expect, but there came a time when the course dictated that I had to maintain my direction to get accross the finish line.

So here's the decision.....drop the kite and reach across the line or try and gain some height in the lull and leave the kite up hoping to fly it across the line....hmmm, I went for keeping the kite up.....

Flippin heck, the gust was a biggy and the lull was a smally so it was touch and go as to weather or not I wipe out the commitee boat...how many times have we all thought that?
Exciting stuff, having crossed the line it was a quick drop before I hit the dredger...wow that came up fast!

So to keep the line I was easing the kicker to control the gusts, trimming the spinny and occasionally letting a bit more mainsheet off to trim the boat, all from the comfort of the wings.

There comes a time when you can't let the main off any more otherwise it starts backwinding from the spinny airflow.

Really it would have been better to have kicker on tighter and more mainsheet on but I had to get to the line.

So to sum up, I think its' faster with more kicker tension on, but be prepared to "have to" let it off to steer certain courses, as it is soooooo powerful an adjustment, tight = lots and lots of power in the main, loose = depower and enable to go much deeper downwind.

Sunday Madness

Well Sunday was a tad on the mental side.
Goodness only knows how windy it got to inside the thunder and lightning and hale storm, suffice to say it was survival conditions.

So how did the D-One cope?
Quite well actually, although to get downwind I advise letting the kicker off otherwise you will struggle.

While I was returning to shore (quickly) I turned round to see Must skiffs that were in their element, they looked like darts, very fast.