Another What Boat Thread

Originally posted by fizzicist correct me if I'm wrong but you didn't have loads of vang on in a blow?

Well, to tell the truth I haven't been fiddling around with all those ropes
much, just tug them down enough to stop the boom coming adrift from
that pathetic locator thing. But I reckoned that any real pressure on it
would tighten up the leech, in windsurfing when it's windy you want that
to twist off at the top, the sail seems to do that better without any tension
on that thing.

Originally posted by Medway Maniac For vang read kicking strap. The rudder on a 3k shouldn't come up. Do you have the downhaul rigged 2:1 (as the standard boat)?

Er well, bit of an
oversight, forgot to put any downhaul on, only spotted it once having
jumped into the sail and ripped out the downhaul cringle we then had to
jury rig something to get us round.

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Sheet loads will be considerably lighter if you adopt the arrangement shown in the link I posted earlier, or add another block to the centre bridle and finish the sheet at the boom, i.e. make the purchase 5:1 instead of the standard 4:1. I used that before switching to an aft bridle.[/ P] If you had weather helm with no main drawing, the boat must have been heeled. A 3k needs to be sailed flat, esp. on the reach. All that said, it was an unusually strong wind - exactly when a 3k scores.

Link? sorry I hadn't seen that is it back earlier in this
thread.
we've established thanks to all your comments that we had the jib well
oversheeted for the conditions.

I like the sound of the aft bridle but for one thing, its where i swim back
into the boat I'm going to go look for that again see if i can't
muddle something together for tomorrows race.
Thanks for your patience.

Edited by Graemef

Originally posted by Graemef Originally posted by fizzicist correct me if I'm wrong but you didn't have loads of vang on in a blow? Well, to tell the truth I haven't been fiddling around with all those ropes much, just tug them down enough to stop the boom coming adrift from that pathetic locator thing. But I reckoned that any real pressure on it would tighten up the leech, in windsurfing when it's windy you want that to twist off at the top, the sail seems to do that better without any tension on that thing.

By pulling the kicker (vang) on, the mainsail flattens off, reducing the bagging affect of the sail allowing for the main to be more controlable and less unpredictable through gusts. The leech will tighten up as with the sail flattening off but to counteract this happening, apply downhaul to provide the twist as you mentioned is desirable when windsurfing in heavy conditions. Without "any tension", the sail will spill but will also fill as fore-mentioned in an unpredictable fashion which usually results in a swim. By tuning the boat by tightening the sail controls, you will get a feel of being able to control the spillage better, the boat will be more predictable and due to producing less drag, will be sailing quicker. We use the cunningham to spill a lot in heavier conditions and my crew once mentioned that they felt we lost at least a quarter of our power due to it which made the boat sailable in over 20knots in really gusty conditions. Not sure if losing a quarter of the power was true but it certainly made a big difference.

Originally posted by Graemef Originally posted by CT249 Are you vanging hard enough? If you're not carrying enough vang, you'll be using a lot of force to pull the boom down and take the twist out, which the vang should be doing. Hmm, used a boom vang years ago on old cyt sails to tighten the leech, cant quite make the connection to what bit would do that on this 3000? Originally posted by CT249 Of course, the basic problem is that ALL windsurfers are effete wimps who can't handle a real boat. True of 99% of shortboard windsurfers, the ones you see wearing neoprene boots, but I'm one of the dying breed of windsurfing hard men. The Racing Longboarder, we eventually will master this sitting down lark, but there's not a yottie alive could take us on and win a round robin which included a race on windsurfers. Not even if you dig up Geoff Carveth, somehow bring him back to life, dust him off, get some charisma fitted and let him loose on us. He'd still be toast for us to burn - again.

The other guys have explained the vang's importance, in windsurfing terms it has some of the same affects as a downhaul, forcing in the mast bend that flattens out the head and centre sections of the sail. The lighter mainsheet loads are a side benefit but an important one. The reduced depth in the head can actually lead to the head opening up, too.

Don't worry about me sl*gging off windsurfer sailors, I was taking the P 'cause we know each other from the Boards forum. Down here in Oz the yachty/longboard crossover still works well, the state Windsurfer One Design fleet includes the former 18' Skiff Worlds winner and runner-up, the guys who were 3rd in the doublehanded dinghy at the Youth Worlds, Olympic 470 reps, Laser Youth national champ, Laser and Radial champ, Tornado Europeans 1st or 2nd, Sydney-Hobart placegetters etc etc etc . We've even let a guy who has Basher's credentials into the windsurfing fleet, but unlike B. he's a very nice guy . Other longboarders include the 2 time world Contender champ, Kiwi America's Cup sailors, etc. So there's lots of yachties who can also be boardies.

The longboards are reviving again as a Youth class here and we're working with the dinghies rather than against them, using boards for cross-training 'cause it makes so much sense. Could work well in other places with the Kona, it's a damn good machine.



Edited by CT249

Allan, I'm not sure of the Uk situation but Mistral and the International Windsurfing Association have recently assured me via email that the IMCO longboard will still be strongly supported, as they have faith in longboards.

The Kona is a very interesting project from Exocet; a combination of slalom board and the original Windsurfer One Design in some ways. It really does work; maybe not quite as much an upwind machine as a Raceboard but so much faster to tack it's still fun on the beats, and it does seem to gybe like a slalom board.

Of course, all are merely pale imitations of the true Windsurfer.

http://windsurferonedesign.googlepages.com/home

Not exactly the fastest in a breeze, but the real thing! Great racing, super simple, super tough, super cheap, it's even super heavy.....not that I'm biased!




Edited by CT249

Originally posted by Graemef Someone explained the term vang on the beach today, its the kicking strap, why do y'all call the same thing two different names, isn't it confusing enough?

kicking strap is almost exclusively UK usage. Vang gets used overseas.