IOM; A new A-rig

After reading up on the latest widgets and thoughts on IOM rigs, I decided to build a new A-rig for my Tempest IOM Juno. My old rig was getting on, but I'll keep it for those borderline A-B rig days.

One thing I wanted in this rig was an adjustable gooseneck axis, as covered in detail by Lester Gilbert. Essentially, changing the aspect of the gooseneck relative to the mast by shimming the bottom (or top) in and out, you can adjust (slightly) the leech of the mainsail to optimize performance. After some research, I purchased a very nice adjustable, ball-raced, variable geometry  gooseneck from the folks at Radio Sailing Shop, along with a standard rig kit. The installed gooseneck looks as follows:

Carbon fiber, ball-raced, variable geometry gooseneck. 

A screw (seen above on the bottom mast band, facing aft) allows adjustment of the gooseneck, seen here in "neutral". The mast, incidentally, is 11.1 mm, with some forward pre-bend.

I also wanted this new rig to employ a jackline, rather than simply attach the sail with tied off rings as I had done previously. Again, Lester Gilbert has a good explanation of the advantages of this system. Essentially, the leech of the sail stays aft of the mast rather than rotating around if simply tied off in rings. After discussing this with several local skippers, I ran a wire from the masthead, through a pocket in the mainsail leech, to a loop at the bottom, and bowsied it off around the gooseneck. This way the jackline tension can be adjusted, and I am told it is important not to run with the tension to tight, it can be deceptively slack to be effective. A few pictures of this attachment:

Jackline attachment with yellow shrink-wrap, at the masthead wire.

Jackline, bent into a loop and bowsied around the gooseneck.

The new sails for this rig, come from Power Sails, and had the luff pocket already added. I like these sails very much thus far, and they have four small cut-outs to allow the jackline to be fastened to the mast with a loop of line. Also visible in the picture above is the auto-easing Cunningham, once again based on work by Lester.

I find it easier to adjust the jib line and jib luff tension at the top, so simple bowsie attachments for these adjustments here:

Following some advice from Radio Sailing Shop's Building Guide, the shrouds attach at a central point on the front of the mast, and otherwise have simple chainplate attachments:

All in all I am very satisfied with the finished product, though I need to make a final jib sheet attachment, I just tied if off for the test sail. I may lower the jib a bit as well.

A few photos of Juno testing in 10 mph, she went very well, and the gooseneck adjustment definitely helped downwind performance!

Sailing along, sails full and drawing some power.

Tacking onto starboard...

A nice study, the sails full and powered up for light air.

Before an adjustment, leech of the main was bleeding out some pressure.

Please post your comments, observations, and thoughts below! I'm particularly interested on any comments on the sail shapes above.

TRYC; some RG-65 practice on January 18, 2013

A couple of us went down to the club and sailed RG-65's Saturday...well Eric's RG-65's really,  his new boat, his Wahoo, his old boat he sold, his DragonForce, and Rich's white DragonForce. It started very windy but eventually dropped to a comfortable A-rig conditions, Eric sailed his blue Wahoo with a B-rig and Rich tried out a DragonForce B as well. I sailed Eric's DragonForce with an A-rig and was massively overpowered, though I am impressed with that boats ability to keep on it's feet in heavy air.

Eric brought his latest creation, a red boat whose name escapes me, but showed some interesting new features. It is clearly optimized for heavy air, a new boat for the Championship in April perhaps? We'll see...

Rich's boat had the servo drum screw head shear off, leaving the damaged screw stuck in the winch. Probably will require a complete replacement. I don't know if the DragonForce rules require identical servo replacements or not, but that's what it will take. Anyone who does know can post a response in the comments. The DragonForce is a very nice boat, especially for under $200, but problems like this are likely from time to time given the cost, and mass manufacture, it's not a custom built racing machine like most IOM's...a terrific fun boat, more akin to a Timex than a Rolex.

Took a few photo's and hustling to get one of Roo and I's boats ready for the points regatta...

TRYC IOM Series; January 4, 2014

The TRYC kicked off its IOM Points series on Saturday, January 4th, in a real White Rock howler; winds consistently over 20mph, and clocking up to 30 on a few occasions. Heavy waves and rollers added to the challenging environment, but 10 races were run and some good racing ensued.

Some encouraging signs from a club perspective; ten races saw five different skippers notch first place finishes, and the racing and points were very close; the spread from second place to seventh was only six points. I finished third with one first, one second, and two thirds. I had one collision related breakdown which required a winch respoooling and DNS'd me two races, but was over all happy with my sailing.

Buying the Juno has probably been the best move I've made in the last five years of sailing, she's fast and controllable in heavy weather, and still quick enough in light air. Also, thankfully, she's proving to be mechanically reliable, which may be a first for me (knock on wood). In today's weather I sailed every race but one in C-rig, it was a touch slower going downwind, but faster going up, and much easier to tack. After sailing well with the B-rig last time, I've lost some tune on it, so I'll need to get it dialed back in. Haven't used the A-rig in a while, but she went fast when I did.

With the Blowout coming up, I enjoyed the heavy weather practice. One thing I tried was staying more in the center of the course, while the extra tacks can be slower (and risky in these winds) they invariably paid off as I was able to cut boats off and consolidate gains...After re-reading Dennis Conner's "Sail like a Champion" again, I'm much happier with this technique and feel like I'm hitting the lay line in the right place for a change (usually I'm too far out). Starts went well too.

Here's some pictures from the day, I used the video to make a quickie Blow-Out trailer which I'll post up shortly. Once again, I used my iPhone 5 with telephoto lens:

Juno (#36) runs up the line during the pre-start, as Chuck's Lintel heads downwind.

Mauricio's Skiff Eater (#19) on the far right, looks like Chuck is close to coming down on Chandler's Pikanto (#68) to leeward, but there's still a touch of room...no collision ensued.

Chuck a bit early on the line, but a nice study of his Lintel in B-rig.

Room is always more expansive in C-rig conditions, when it's not collisions ensue; Rich's Yankee Clipper failed a port clearing and took quite a whack...no hull damage but its thick paint came off in chunks from the stresses.

Eric heading uphill with his Lintel (#41) in B-rig, Rich trailing in his C...

Powerful gust flattens Rich in C-rig as Eric starts a tack...he didn't make that one!

A nice study of Juno off to a good start in her C-rig. Note how close this start is!

Juno goes airborne in a roller up to leeward, Eric and Chandler touch behind her...

A nice study of Chandler's Pikanto at speed with her B-rig, Rich just behind.

Eric catches up with me at the windward mark, note the difference in the sail settings between his B and my C. He went wide, and I cut inside...

...but with the wind dropping the B-rig on his boat powered him passed me.

Another tight start, showing the wind and water to good effect! Mauricio (#19) was early, so Eric and I had a VERY narrow lead at start...I won this race by catching Eric near the leeward mark on the second beat.

Concluding with a nice photo of Juno powered-up shortly after a start!

2014 TRYC IOM Blow-Out, a Trailer to get you motivated!

Big winds and water at White Rock Lake today, the home of the famous "Blow-Out" Regatta. Took some video of the racing and cobbled together a quick video trailer via iMovie to help people get psyched-up for this event (which is heavily attended and doesn't need promotion, but it looks cool...). Make sure you set Youtube to 1080HD and enjoy...

DragonForce RG-65 Match Racing at Corinthian Sailing Club, TRYC

To kick-off the new year, the Trinity River Yacht Club hosted a round-robin Match race with two DragonForce RG-65's, which the club is adopting as an entry level boat (along with RG-65's broadly and IOM's). These new boats are quite the rage, and seem an excellent ready-to-sail buy at below $200 (and increasingly hard to find as orders remain high!)

This was a good test, the boats were match raced by varying skill levels in a stiff breeze with typical White Rock rollers...winds started about 18-20 and peaked at 28mph. The boats took it extremely well, no breakdowns, minimal interior wetness, and quite raceable and maneuverable. With winds continuing to build, the semi-finals were carried over with the seeding being Brig North 6-1, Eric Rosenbaum and Chris Cafiero 5-2, and Chuck LeMahieu 4-3. Two or three races were within a boat length!

My Experience: Sailing small boats in high winds means it is invariably better to foot and keep moving for speed; pinching quickly leads to stalling usually and a difficult recovery...I had two good port tack starts by disengaging the start and running to the port corner, both led to victories. One win was helped when Maurico hit the downwind mark while rounding in a gust. Best race was against Chuck LeMahieu, a "Founder's Match" as we started the club 17 years ago...I went after him aggressively on port, and he seemed a bit surprised. Held a very narrow lead the whole race and finished ahead by about a boat length, whew!

Years of wrestling tender Victoria's in high wind and water was clearly helpful to me. The boats took it very well, and I was impressed by their ability to tack in wind and swell...I could (barely) tack in 28mph, but found it generally hopeless going downwind in the A-rig at those speeds, and repeatedly pitched and rolled. I would imaging with B and C rigs the boats would have handled it nicely however. Good boats!

Video (iPhone 5 with tripod) of Brig and Chandler racing, about 18-20 in A-rigs...

...and Chandler besting Maurico...

Pictures taken on iPhone 5 with telephoto attachment...

Practice sailing, November 30, 2013

Practice sailing with the TRYC at the Corinthian Sailing Club today, winds started about 11mph and built to a steady 15, with gusts in the low 20's. RG-65's and IOM's raced on a staggered start on a long course. 

Roo and I brought out IOM's to practice for the next week's LUF Cup. Here he sails his IOM Tenacious:

Tenacious is an old Byerley designed Forte, and pretty good in a breeze. Unfortunately, we need to engineer some some more rudder throw into her, as she was a bit tough to turn in the upper A-rig conditions. Roo sailed her pretty well nonetheless, and sneaked in a win when his two comrades fouled each other at the reach mark, or as he says, "a win is a win Dad!" Sailing my boat later, he creditably sailed to two seconds, good job!

Brought my Tempest, Juno out and enjoyed a pretty good day in the upper A-rig, with two 1st, and the rest seconds. 

Juno is a pretty balanced, mid-range boat and went very well today against a Lintel and a Britpop. With the big gusts I went ahead and set my close-haul a touch looser, with some twist at the main top to help dump the over-powering gusts, and she ran fast and hands free on the beats. At Eric Rosenbaum's suggestion I added a touch more topping lift to add some similar curve-off in the jib. That proved to be a good suggestion, and after that I just enjoyed a rare (for me!) treat; concentrating on my actual racing and strategy rather than the boat itself. Chuck and Wolfie provided good racing competition and it was a pretty good day. 

Roo shot some video, its a bit shaky but here it is:

You can see Wolfie's yellow Britpop port tack Chuck (red Lintel) and I (white Tempest) shortly after the start, and a tight race to the mark. Chuck and I roll over Wolfie downwind, and we jockey tightly around the mark with Chuck in the lead, and me close behind. I break tacks with Chuck beating to the finish, he covers, almost too loosely. I make up some ground but he wins by a few boat lengths. A close race all the way, and typical of the day!