Projection 762 Help please?

We are considering doing the whole of burham week as we already have accommodation available. i'll have a word with the crew.

Our engine is a 4hp suzuki and its fine on flat water but any rough weather stops the boat dead!!! it weighs about 22kg and we are thinking of getting a 8hp tohatsu as they only weigh 26kg (long shaft). we really need it for the delivery trips when the wind is in your face, the tide is falling and you need to get through the Swin Spitway!

By adding 50kg of lead forward of the keel and maybe moving the outboards permanent position to the centre of the boat, the waterline length may change up to 10-15cm. This would have no affect on performance as you just move bodies aft. (You can see this by simply getting somone to stand towards the bow.) Only time you may notice this change would be in large waves and heavy winds. But you could account for this by putting your extra sails under the transom. Its just a thought to get around the IRC handicap problem.

Simon

It's a shame the two small concentrations of Projections are so geographically remote - Cornwall & Kent.  Having spent 10 hours towing one down from the Medway to Falmouth last year, I'm not sure whether I currently have the motivation to repeat the experience just yet.  The obvious halfway point, by sea, would be the Solent, but I guess most of us would opt to trail, so the gains are limited.

For those who haven't tried it, Cornwall is great in August, so perhaps others might follow the lead of Brys who has suggested attending Falmouth Week 07 - I'm sure the local boats can help with the logistics and craning/mooring charges are sensibly priced.  The conditions last year were fantastic see photos @ www.photolounge.co.uk [search Falmouthweek 2006]

Not too sure about Simon's suggestion of adding weight in front of the keel.  I can't see how this would significantly reduce the waterline length and I expect you would encounter real challenges handling the boat downwind in a blow.

An extra 100-200kgs by way of a torpedo on the bottom of the keel would be really interesting from a rating perspective and you only need look at the Corby 25 for evidence of the rating formula benefiting higher ballast/stability yachts.  However, boats would need higher winds to plane downwind and the gains of beinf able to carry #1 genoa for slightly longer, combined with overall stiffness upwind might not give sufficient payback.

It would be really interesting to establish whether a Projection @ 1500kgs, with 140% Genoa and 45sqm kite could bring the rating down to  around to 958-960, which I believe would be on a par with a Platu 25 and a bit closer to a Corby 25 (940-945). 

An interesting experiment for an owner who works in the industry?

My brother and i own 'Nemo 7612' and as mentioned earlier we will be racing in the IRC events this year, namely, Felixstowe (27/28 May), Burnham on Crouch (10/11 June), Medway (15/16July), Ramsgate (12/13 August) and Dabchicks at West Mersey (9/10 September).

I think a meeting with a few projections would be a great chance to have some almost one design racing. Where would we all get together? Personally, i do not wish to tow the boat due to lifting costs and hassle, but a reasonable trip by water is ok. If Brys wishes to give us a few times and places which may be possible, everyone can then reply as to whether they could attend. 

Just to give more details on the 762 rating: Nemo is currently rated at 0.969 but before the season she is to be weighed and her sails measured. Similar to most the projections, her spinnaker is measured at 40.55m2.

Talking with a few local designers we have found that the boats perform best on irc with smaller headsails, larger kites with smaller spin poles. We have also discussed the adding of weight infront of the keel to reduce the waterline. (the boat seems to be the 'wrong side' of a certain value of length to displacement, and therefore the added weight will reduce the rating with reference to any loss of performance). We have been racing with a crew of 4/5 lightweight people and found that we have had to sail mainly with the number 3 most of the year. When we purchase new sails they will most likely include a reduced overlap number 1 and a larger kite with broader shoulders.

Simon

Thanks for that info Nigel . Your info is useful to me only having had my boat a short time .

What sort of engine did you ( or anyone else out there ) use ? I'm currently using a new Honda 2.3  4 stroke which seems fine as we are racing on the river at present , we can get 5.5 knots in a good blow , flatish water , however we will be back on the North sea come springtime and I wonder if it will cope in a big sea , it does seem reasonably powerful however .

I looked at an early boat before I bought mine , the deck seemed to have more flex , all the stanchions had stress marks round them , there were some terrible looking cracks in the area near where the log goes thro hull , I suspect early boats were  a little thin on GRP ? Could be wrong here though , maybe She was just an abused example ?

I'm going to fit new chainplates in the spring , hope the present ones hold up , we seem to be getting so much more wind than normal this winter .

Our new Hyde 45 m kite seems pretty good , may try an assy , need a longer pole though , was your assy around 45m ? J80's have a 65 m.

Thanks ,

Doug  GBR 7632R .

Hello Projection 762 owners

I owned a 762 - GBR7636 'Crikey' for a couple of seasons with a bit of success. I thoroughly enjoyed the boat and really only changed to get some accomodation. Having optimised the boat pretty thoroughly and working in the industry I think that I have  a reasonable idea how to optimise speed v IRC rating.

I always felt that the boat was slightly under rigged and therefore used max size mainsail and 150% (+/-) No1.

When we bought the boat it had what was described as a 'class spinnaker' - almost as wide as it was high and it was pretty hopeless. In conjuction with Parker and Kay (Quantum) we developed a smaller but more efficient symetric spinnaker and an assymetric of the same size flown off the pole. These covered all of the otions for round the cans racing and proved to be really quick.

We also learned:-

1. Get the boat weighed - without floorboards, cushions, (use a rechareable 12v fire alarm battery that fits in one hand from RS components).

2. The m shaped chainplates break with disatrous consequences - change or modify them.

3. The Harken  swivel jammers bent - get an engineer to re-inforce them.

4. We had some tiller/tiller head issues that were fixed by a local engineer - I cannot remember the details

5. We fitted a brace to the stanchions at the fwd end of the cockpit as a lardy crew member always used to grab the stanchion and popped it into the deck

Happy to help anyone if I can

Happy sailing.

Nigel