dwight916 wrote:
From the America's Cup 2010 Race 1 Summary: (Oracle Trimaran beat Alinghi Catamaran)
"even when sailing bare-headed after the Americans dropped their jib and showed less drag, greater speed."
Has anyone tried this with a Hobie?
Would this be an advantage for a Hobie 20? Tiger? Wild Cat?
With a Hobie 20 with the big main, I could see how in a heavier wind furling the jib may actually help but with the size of our jibs, the drag may be worse with it furled.
Oracle also stalled above the start line just before the Gun- Makes me feel better for these pros doing what happened to me a few times last year in light winds.
Full Report is here:
http://www.cupinfo.com/en/americas-cup- ... report.phpI’ve thought about this on the 16 before and I think it probably has the potential to be faster in windy conditions. At 25 knots, for example, you are just trying to get rid of the jib by traveling it out. If you could actually get it down I think it would be faster due to reduced drag, as you pointed out. This is all assuming you don’t rake the mast too much. Basically you would need to put the jib halyard down at the tack and pull the mast forward (or have a very short forestay). So this gets you going faster upwind, until you have to tack. You will probably be five boat lengths slower in each tack (if not more). You will also give up some down wind unless it’s about 25 knots sustained. In this condition you would be sailing so low that the jib is basically behind the main anyway.
I was thinking I should have tried this at the last Madcatter but without the jib the boat may just be too hard to control to make it work. What I am thinking about is putting reefing points in one of my main sails. That may have won the last Madcatter.
BTW: I'm so happy that the 16 class still runs races when it's nuking.