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An interesting NSW states
Posted 8 months, 12 days ago
An interesting NSW states
So my preparation for the NSW State titles was far from ideal, adding insult to injury I damaged my man foils T-join just as I was coming to shore on the final day of practice. This necessitated an evening session with the grinder and a boatload of carbon on one side of the join to put the whole thing back together. Friday afternoon produced what were interesting conditions, with 20Kt winds and 1.5-2m waves. I rigged up whilst the invitation race was happening with the intention to head out for heat 1. As I was at the shoreline both Les (who was in with a destroyed gantry on his borrowed Bladerider), and Grant both advised that I shouldn't be heading out given my lack of foiling experience. So I rolled the boat back up the beach, to be greeted by Dave who had sheared a 1/4" gantry bolt clean in half, and had jogged the 5KM back along the beach to get his trolley. Luka decided to sit the whole afternoon out, not wanting to destroy his borrowed main foil as it wouldn't be covered by insurance. It seemed like all the scows that went out for the invitation race came in, just as Kylie went out for heat 1, to chock up a win as the fastest scow. Saturday saw the first day where I actually hit the water. The swell had reduced to 1.5M, with the wind still gusting to 20 Knots. After a deliberate late start in heat one I headed upwind, much happier with my pointing ability whilst foiling now I can pull on a lot more vang. Note to self, correct vang setting equals correct upwind VMG. I started out trying to keep the boat as flat as possible, and that didn't work. The best results I had was to keep a lot of nose up attitude, hence a lot of main foil AOA, then point as high as required to get the hiking balance right. That worked a lot better and I started making places upwind, only to throw it all away when I rounded the top mark and capsized. Heat 3 was more of the same, and I must say that overall I was quite happy with my results as I managed to survive with a minimum of capsizes I think only one per race, although I was deliberately trying to sail as slowly as possible whilst foiling downwind. My downwind angles still suck, especially on the "square runs". I keep finding myself in this can't foil, sitting in the middle of the boat position. I obviously am still sailing too low, and I guess that downwind speed will only come with more practice. The breeze died for the afternoon heats, and with essentially no results on the board, I decided to go for a high risk, all or nothing move off to the shore looking for a lift and more pressure as the wind funnelled through the point. This worked and whilst Phil was leading, I managed to round the top mark as the second St. George sailor ahead of Luka, Dave, Grant. I slowly lost places downwind (as I always seem to do in the light stuff), but was still pretty happy with the result as I was ahead of Luka on merit when he decided he had had enough. I tried the same trick twice again in heat 4, however there was not enough pressure compared to the middle and I ended up last of the finishers. That was the end of the regatta for me, as I didn't head out on Sunday.
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