Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sailing the Laser
The weather here has been perfect for sailing every day the last week, sunny, and windy! Sunday I sailed the club Laser for the sprint series, which are lots of short races. The wind was looking pretty tame when I was rigging the boat, so I used the full rig. On the water, of course, the wind quickly picked up and soon was a bit too much for me (weight issues). Upwind was very slow because I constantly had to spill wind, and together with some pathetic starts meant I was never really competitive. The course involve two marks, fairly close together, which had to be rounded, twice. So lots of carnage at the top mark. Fun stuff :-)
During lunch I changed rig to a radial sail, wich is slightly smaller. It helped a lot! I could keep up upwind, and as my starts got better I managed a first and second placing! The wind kept increasing and the number of boats on the water slowly dropped as people gave up. (This also made starting easier!). There were mostly lasers on the water and it was great to sail with direct competition rather than on handicap, which I usually do. Tactics, strategy and of course boat handling are so much more important and make racing much more satisfying. I was a bit worn out from the sailing, had to hike fully the whole upwind and there are no cleats, so good exercise there! Can’t wait till next week.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Second Sail
Took the “mystery boat”, which now goes by the name Walvis (dutch for whale), out for another sail. The morning race had little or no wind most of the time. I came very much last. After the race we stayed on the lake just messing around, some wind finally arrived. Wow what a difference! The sail sets nicely and the boat sails great. I’d say the speed is somewhere between a starling and an optimist. The narrow hull makes it a very responsive boat, any increase in wind is immediately noticed. I think I’m not going to install hiking straps though, because the lack of them makes the boat very comfortable to lie down in :-)
We take this boat on the roofrack of the car. There’s always plenty of people at the sailing club on sundays so unloading isn’t a problem. Walvis is also very quick to rig, probably similar to a laser (once I change the halliard a bit anyway).
Monday, September 7, 2009
The Mystery boat — Launched!!!
A few months ago I bought a little sailing boat for a bargain. It was in need of some tender loving care, which in my case always takes longer than it should. Anyway, I put in inspection ports, did some fibreglassing and little repairs and made a mast (from bamboo). Then I went sailing!
There really wasn’t any wind, unfortunately. I did do some racing and came fully last, which was as expected. An interesting feature of this boat is that it’s only 0.9m wide. That’s pretty skinny. Add to that the deeply V’d bottom and you get a very weight sensitive boat (the pc version of tippy). A lot of fun though and I realy like the lateen sail. Not very common here in NZ. Now for some pictures:
Sorry about the dirty sail. I’m lazy, what can I say. (There are some detail shots here.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Windsurfer pics
Here are a few of the pictures I made of my windsurfing rig. It was getting a bit dark so expect some better ones soon. I’m also working on a page for the main website, so stay tuned.
A front view of the rig lying flat on the grass.
Samuel holding the sail up (the camera thinks it’s too dark though!).
A closeup of the front of the wishbone/boom.
Anyone can do it :-)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Woohoo, test sail!
Well I finished the windsurfer rig, and took it out for a spin today. We never realised how windy it was until we got to the lake! Good thing it’s a pretty small sail.
Everything held and the sail performed great. Me, not so much :-) Windsurfing is hard. I got a couple of good runs, one time a seriously fast reach. Very exciting, and then you fall off. I found out I can’t sail downwind at all in this kind of wind. So I just go on a reach/upwind sort of thing, fall off, sit on the board letting it drift downwind some. And then sail back again.
Did I mention the water is freezing cold? It is.
There was one unfortunate mishap. I suddenly couldn’t sail the thing anymore. So I drifted in to shore. Turns out the tail fin broke off :-( Completely gone. It floats so I’m hoping it will turn up. That was the end of windsurfing for today.