Im not actually on the same lap as matt...
1. out of control approaching the bottom mark. i was on the same lap as the scows.
2. at least i missed them.well I finised two races, and in one of them i beat another boat.
Had a couple of teething problems as you do when your that unprepared at a regatta.
Saturday was a bit of a write-off, as it was squalling through at 20-30kts as predicted. there was one boat in a fleet of 11 which did not sustain any damage, and that was Matt with his bladerider. He sailed the boat pretty damn well for the conditions. The sheer variety of damage seen on the rigging lawn after racing was abandoned was impressive even for a moth regatta. I lost my rig, and in the process busted a panel in my pretty shagged sail. (fixed with gaffa tape) The foils were fine, but they were probably to blame for the whole 'losing the rig' caper in the first place.
I have somehow managed to stuff up the angle of atack of the centreboard, i think. There isn't enough +ve angle, which meant i wasn't getting up and foiling at the kind of low speeds i should be able to. I will fix it by increasing its forward rake, which in the long run isn't a bad thing. This means i need to modify my centreboard case thing.
The rudder adjustment systems is shit. needs a better sollution.
Both ball joints failed on saturday, and though i tried to fix them with 5 minute epoxy, they were too loaded up and snapped again within minutes. So i sailed Sunday with no flaps at all, and it was predictably hard to foil and hairy once up. I have a new 'bladerider inspired' sollution, which should work or at least look a bit pro. Means ill have to go back to stainless rod for pushrods instead of fibreglass. no big deal.
Anyway, for the next month or so I've got a bit on at uni, probably not much will happen on the boat. After that ill sort out a new mast and sail, and get to work on the few things to tune before i go sailing agian.
2 comments:
Bad luck Nick! What happened with your rig?
Stainless rod seems to be the way to go for the pushrods, most BRs are changing theirs over from glass as they're not quite stiff enough and can buckle sideways under axial compression, which adds slop where you don't want it.
With the rudder, you seriously do need a twist adjuster of some description. If you can't get a bladerider or fastacraft one, suggest you look through some of scott babbage's photos from the 2003 Lake Alexandrina nationals, Brett Burville had a pretty neat and cheap one on Sideshow Bob, basically worked like a twist grip gear change on a mountain bike.
With the ball joints, suggest you invest in/make some "barrel nuts" - basically short pieces of S/S rod with a tapped hole in them which sit inside either some plastic or stainless tube of slightly bigger ID than the rod's OD. They can be laminated into the flap very solidly and do a good job in allowing for rotation at the flap. More importantly they're pretty hard to break and give a nice solid connection to the flap - none of this resin, smoke and mirrors BS.
Cheers
Emo
hey mate. all of that is exactly what i did. the nuts are stainless 3/16th rod, tapped and screwed onto the 2.5mm s/s pushrod. its just carboned in with some wax around it. i made a twist adjuster out of a skin fitting, works well so far. and you can get the tiller extension off. looks like shit but.
cheers
nick
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