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The tandem island is my first sailing vessel, and it has proven to be a ton of fun. My wife and I are 2 months into sailing the ICW, and the only thing I’d really want to change is trying to find a way to get more speed. Under pedal power, we typically are around 2.5 to 3.5 knots (depending on the current). I’m a strong cyclist, so a bit surprised that we don’t go faster; in our Seaward Passat tandem kayak, we could do 4 knots pretty consistently. We do have it loaded with about 30 pounds more camping gear versus our Passat. Interestingly, I find that if we are going 3 knots with me pedaling an (estimated) 180 watts… when I sprint up to (also estimated from cycling) 500 watts… we maybe speed up to 3.2 knots… meaning I’m not very motivated to pedal hard! Can anyone think of how I can make the boat faster while pedaling? We are using turbo fins, and it surprised me that adding more power adds almost no extra speed.
My second question is how to add more speed when sailing light winds. My wife and I are pretty satisfied with the 7 knots we achieve in 20 knot winds while close hauled, and we touched 8 knots on a beam reach… however in winds less than 8 knots, it’s really just about pedaling.
I see that boats like the Weta and Windrider 17 achieve speeds of 18 knots… is that because of the hull shape, the extra sail area, or something else? It can’t be the weight because the TI is lighter than either. I’ve thought about adding sail area to increase the speed in light air; but it seems uncommon to do this. In particular, we’d like the extra help while close hauled. Again, I’m not trying to go over 8 knots… just trying to spend more time in the 4-5 knot range like we did on our kayak. Any ideas? Thanks!
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