Well I am not too proud to admit that I think I have been making mistakes here and I have found the best way to sail this beautiful boat downwind in a serious blow.
In all other boats, especially the RS400, the first thing to do when bearing away in a blow is to let the kicker off....so I had been doing this naturally in the D-One however as the winds get stronger there is a temptation to carry on doing this and to make things worse by letting the traveller off, thinking this will help....
It does not help at all, in fact all that does is show more of the sail area to the wind and increase the likely hood of the hull wanting to bury the bow, which doesn't feel nice at all (although the hull doesn't actually go under, it just feels slow)
The D-One appears to be exactly the opposite and I have found the best way to bear away in a blow is to have a lot of kicker on and centre the mainsheet traveller before bearing off, this way you skim off onto a reach, hoist the kite from hiking position on the wings and then you will go deep when the kite is up, this way you remain on the plane, with mainsheet tension, and kicker keeping the correct mast bend and therefore mainsail shape, and completely solves the "bow down effect" on a bear off.
Easy!
:o)
Having said all that, in the ligher stuff you can afford to bare away with the mainsheet not centered if you want as the forces on the main are less.
Also my previous comments about sailing in lighter airs with less kicker to get correct slot still stand, it's just in the stronger stuff you have to change your game plan to accomodate the sail area to wind strength issue.
So you get the best controls for the both winds!
I certainly see the benefits of a traveller system....I liked it on the Tasar, but this rig is something else, a joy to work with.
No comments:
Post a Comment