Fastest dinghy?

As the US and Euros know, Australia is well known for its widy conditions and Aussie sailors are proven heavy weather experts......

Chris, I think you will find our club stops racing at 22.5 knot avereage over a 2 minute period (gusts can be upto 40% stronger).  This is because of either our clubs or our insurance company restrictions.

Many larger regattas such as your Sail Melbourne have been know to race beond this.  At Sail Sydeny 2003 we had 36 knots average with gusts to 42 measured at the airport.  We still raced and their were dinghies scattered all over the course.  We were the only mad dogs to throw up our kite in the Tornado fleet that day with the exeption of Macca who cartwheeled before he had a chance to set and ended his day.  On the last downwind we too went for a swim which ended our day (broken tiller extension) .  No Ts showed up for the last race.

Whilst we proved you could sail in these conditions and with the kite, It was not racing and was very uncomfortable.  I and many others felt that the race commitee should have pulled the pin early in the day.   Also 22.5 knots sounds a reasonable limit and I don't care what anybody says........  It is plenty of breeze for any cat or dinghy.

If you have no regard for your boat and you saftey, sure you can sail in 30 to 35 +.  But the smart sailors stay on the beach.  We are also dealing with $$$$$$ boats and are serious about our racing.  We don't plan to do anything likely to risk ourselves and equiptment but rather race another day.

Buy the way, we are allot qicker in 22.5 knots than in 35.

I don't think you have higher winds than we do; very well-travelled guys like Ian Bruce and Bruce Kirby (Laser designers as you'd know), Paul Bieker (Int. 14 guru) etc etc etc  have said that we actually have considerably MORE wind down here.

Bethwaite (who was IIRC OLympic meteorologist in '76 and '80, northern hemisphere Games) says we have more wind (ie summer average peak of 12-14 v 8 in Europe and the USA or so IIRC, that's about double the force), so do the Olympic sailors (like our Olympic coaches who are often ex-Euros).

But I do wonder if maybe our cats have become too oriented towards performance in medium conditions and therefore break too easily. I find it strange that the Taipan 4.9 (28' high wing mast, twin traps etc) has the same hounds shackle as the Tasar which has vastly less rig loading. That's just an example of a component that seems under-sized on the Aussie cat.

I don't think Aussie catters can be scared of high wind - I assume there was wind in Garda for the F18 worlds and look at how the Aussies went there. As I said, last time I went out on a cat when a cat race was cancelled I had the crew who was 6th or something in the F18 worlds, ahead of all the Poms. Is he really going to be more scared of a breeze than the average UK sailor? It seems a bit unlikely. Look at Aussie results in Tornadoes - Bundy and Forbes and (expat) Boothie are in front in a breeze. So there's something else happening - either a different way of assessing wind, different sea conditions, or ??????????? I dunno.


Edited by Chris 249

Originally posted by Scooby_simon Chris,   So what was the Gusting wind and what was the 'true' wind at Sail Melborne ? I was just using it as an example.  We usually use the max gusts (over a given period - usually the time it takes to eat a bacon sarnie and drink a cup of tea or coffee) to control when we stop sailing.

I don't know, I did Sail Sydney only.

I was just using what happens here with our reasonably good cat fleet, as an example that maybe there are not more cats that are suitable for high winds than dinghies. But your cats (Dart etc) are often different perhaps; heavier than ours, smaller rigs than the heavy US boats.

I used to have the image of cat sailors as high-wind hoons. I was surprised when I started  cat sailing at how early they stopped racing. At the Taipan nats Liam Goodall (6th or something F 18 worlds) crewed for me when we went out after racing had been cancelled, crashed lightly once (just messing around) and found it was what we would call comfortable. The fleet standard wasn't too bad, including F 18 and A class world champs.

I wonder whether the cats here have perhaps gone for medium-wind speed to the stage where they are too flighty to be solid and comfortable in the big stuff.

I suppose the only way we'd really know who stopped first is to make a long-term analysis of mixed regattas??? Dunno.


Edited by Chris 249

The problem with doing that at Grafham Simon is that normally the clubhouse is on the sheltered shore...where is all looks relatively calm....

Which is why I/we use the gusts, also if it is looking marginal, I will drive around the other side of the lake and have a look.

 

I have some other metrics I use,

1, if (as you say) it's SW, it is always worth a walk down to the cat field (were a happy bunch and welcome visitors) and look around Perry head and check what 'Perry bay' looks like in front of the fishing lodge

2, if it's S or SE I'll go around the other side for sure if it looks dodgy.

3, if the whole lake looks white from upwind then it is prolly time for another game today.

Chris,

 

So what was the Gusting wind and what was the 'true' wind at Sail Melborne ?

I was just using it as an example.  We usually use the max gusts (over a given period - usually the time it takes to eat a bacon sarnie and drink a cup of tea or coffee) to control when we stop sailing.