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!