Moving up.....

 

latest race results from the Abstinenz crew:

In the regatta of this week we were met with a windforce of 14-22 knots. On the first upwind leg we had about 18-22 knots of wind and we took reef one and the selftacker (sheets in second lowest hole). It looked like to be a fair decision. A Hanse 315 with full main followed us but did not poit as high. When we reached the windward mark we reefed out and off we went on a reaching course. At the next mark we should have hoist the gennaker, but for some reason did'nt  . Still in front in our group at the next mark and going upwind again the wind had dropped to about 16 knots and Absitenz tacked beautyfully with full main and the selftacker, pointing the same high as a X-43. The 315 was left behind. At the downwind leg the gennaker/asymm. did it's job in the 14-16 knots of wind and doing about 170 dg. On the last upwind leg the wind was about 14 knots dropping to about 11-12 knots halfway and here we should have used the 130 % genua. We were underpowered and a totally kevlar equipped Bianca 107 just passed us, did some clever tacks and came in 1 minut before us.

We came in second in our group and are mooving up.....

Looking back we can conclude:
The standard selftacker is performing well (but not perfect) in windscale 16 knots+, but we should probably have the sheet in the middle hole in this windforce. 

The standard hallyards for fock/genua/main must be replaced with Dyneeme quality.

Though the X-99 is not in our group we outraced one of them in pure sailing time and thats a good feeling no matter how bad/good there crew are

 

The single line reefing system is operating nicely and fast.

 

We should not have considered hoisting the gennaker on the second reaching leg. Just do it!

 

The 130% genua is the optimum head sail for the 342 in windforce 5-14 knots.

Cheers
Steen & Anne

 

 

  

         

Excellent account of the race. Congrats on doing fairly well and getting better!!!

 

Steve

 

We're finding that in some conditions we can get as high as 29 degrees AWA but more typically 30 to 32.  We're still trying to figure out the exact combination of conditions and set up that allows us to achieve our best pointing as it does not always seem to be repeatable.  The "groove" seems to be very narrow!

 

Ed

when sailing upwind I find that around 30 degrees AWA gives the best VMG on my 315 with the jib. This is normally the same in different forces of wind.

When you are doing 6,2 knots, what will your VMG be?

I have raced a lot with a X-99, and when the VMG was at top, the normal speed was about 6knots.

 

Regds

Rune