allboats

lake cootharaba is getting a bit too shallow. the long walk out to the middle to get on is getting too long. and then you get the boat up and get on and you're sitting on the foils on the bottom, i ended up just sitting  back dragging them through the mud until i was up and going, then trying pretty hard no to crash. and repeating this procedure after every tack.

aside from that the boat went well, and improved over the weekend. in 10 - 12 or more it goes fine around the course. in less than that i can foil on reaches and sometimes upwind but not really downwind, and i cant point. since the setup is getting close to good, i'm starting to blame weight, 'square foil drag' and 'fat ass hull drag'. these are things that wont be fixed with tuning, though i plan to make a few changes to minimise 'odd shaped gantry drag' and 'poor sailor finesse drag'. also im getting the pocket in the sail adjusted to my mast, which may hopefully pull some draught back in the sail to line up with my aft centreboard case. i think that may give me some more height upwind. 

anyway that said i had moments of glory; like picking through a fleet of A calss and nacra 5.8 cats on a reach in 10 kts. or beating sharpies and MGs around the track in breeze, despite my shit upwinds.

on the way home some tired dude ran up the back of the trailer in traffic on the highway, doing about 20ks and we were stopped. missed the gantry (that hangs 600mm over the back of the trailer) by centimetres, broke some lights and stuf on the trailer and sheered the bolts connecting the hitch on. so while his car got put on a tow truck with some pretty severe facial modification we sat on the side of the highway wondering how we were going to get 3 M12s to get the trailer back together and get home. anyway long story short his dad rolled up to take him home, turned out he worked with my dad, (brisbane is small) so they went off on a mission to get bolts leaving me and the tired dude who'd just nearly written off my boat to make small talk for an hour on the side of the highway. fun times.

sailing

went out for a sail in gusty 15 kts with Rod from the gold coast. the boat went ok, though the flap response is still not adequate despite all the improvments. i need another change of wand to a bladerider style thing with a substantial flat bit on the end, that will pull it back propperly. also the straight wand is the way to go.
had a go on Rod's bladerider, and doesn't that make it obvious that my boat is underperforming! you just sheet on, point it, it pops up to the right height and accellerates endlessly, without spontaneously launching out of the water, tipping over sideways or sinking back down. i think i hit over 20 on his velocitek, though it may have been lying. the linkages on his boat were working overtime, while mine were kinda stopped, lethargic. it was interesting to see my boat being sailed well by someone else also, and i know a couple of things. it can go quick upwind when sailed propperly, though probably not in less than 15 kts. It looks really bulky when foiling compared to all the other boats. its like the fat kid.
resolve to put it on a diet. failing that a new hull/wings.
new bladerider sail is an improvment, needs slight luff adjustment.