Bill,
I’ll be there! As mentioned yesterday, I’ll also bring boats for Jim (the Micron on channel 81) and Herb. Right now, I have Herb and me penciled in for the Razor3 and Cobra3 (both on 2.4), but that could change when the Cobra4 hits the water!
Scott
Thanks to all who came to NH to make this a fun event. I really enjoyed the day, and hope you did, too. We had a good number of spectators, too, because of a timely article in the local paper. Thanks to reporter Adam for that.
Very close racing, especially for the top 3 places. This was our third Regional since the Footy class was recognized, and I’m very pleased to see that the competition is getting better every year. The boats are much improved, and now capable of racing well in all conditions.
Today we had 3 National Champions from other classes racing Footys. I think that speaks well for the maturing of the class, too. As you might expect, they were the guys to beat…but we couldn’t!
Jim Linville finished third sailing a Micron, with 34 points. That was probably because Sheila caught him over early twice! Scott Spacie (reigning Footy National Champ) sailing a Cobra3, and Herb Dreher sailing a Razor3, were tied with 24 points. I checked to see who had the most firsts, but they were tied on those. I checked seconds next, but they were tied on those, too. And they were tied with the same number of thirds, too! I’ve never seen anywhere near this close a finish. Herb carried the day, though, beating Scott for the Championship because he had a fourth place finish that was the tie breaker. That’s close racing!
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the participants. Special thanks to those (like my wife, Sheila) who helped make it a fun event.
Sheila took some pics, so I’ll try to post them tomorrow. I’m tired, now.
Bill,
Thanks to you and Sheila for a great regatta!
As you said, each year the fleet gets bigger, faster, and more able to handle the conditions. Even though the fleet split itself into an ‘A’ fleet and a ‘B’ fleet, there was good competition throughout with lots of boat-for-boat battles going on in the challenging conditions.
It must have been particularly gratifying for you to have two of your designs, the Cobra 3 and the Razor 3, competing all day for the lead.
Many thanks to Bill and his wife for an excellent well-run regatta. In the true Footy spirit, he mentioned at the outset there would be no protests. Nevertheless, nobody abused the rules.
It was interesting to see the wide variety of boats. But I believe that skill is still the primary factor. Jim Linville was sailing a 12 inch fat hull, and was going just as fast as the 2 diagonal hulls that finished first and second. I was very pleased with the performance of my own new diagonal boat (a modified Bob-About 2), but disappointed in the skipper, who did too many 360’s and missed the far mark multiple times.
As always, you learn something every time you sail. In my own case, I learned that sailing in a strong chop is much different than sailing at our local small pond. I also learned that the silvery tell-tales that work so well on still water become invisible against a strong chop.
As you can see from Bill’s pictures, the chop has a wavelength very close to the length of the Footy. This produced very strong pitching oscillations of all the boats. I thought that this was caused primarily by exciting the natural 1-second oscillation of the keel pendulum; however, I tested the damping coefficient of my boat, and found that the oscillation damps out very quickly. A one-inch depression of the bow will damp out to only 1/4 inch at the next cycle. So it appears that the pitching may just be the natural response of a very short hull, with only a slight amplificatin from the natural frequency of the pendulum.
Can you add sail numbers to the results? I can see what look like 3 of Scott’s boats but I’m not sure who’s sailing them. Did Jim sail the M sail again? No hurry.
It was a well run contest and I had a blast. Everyone took all my missteps in stride and I appreciate that. I was just happy to finish my first contest. The other one I entered I had to drop out after round 3 with a dead boat.
Hey John,
I was sailing #27 which was the Cobra3 that I sailed at the Nationals. It was unchanged except that it had 3XAAA lithiums. Herb was sailing #25 which was the all wood Razor3 that I built for the Wooden Boat show at Mystic. The number might be familiar since they were the sails I had used at Raleigh. I had always thought of it as a smooth water boat, but Herb showed that it could go in a steep chop too. Jim was sailing the modified Micron2 “m” that he had sailed at the Nationals. It too was the same except for the light batteries. It is registered as #26 except that I called it something different since all the other rigs are interchangeable except those and I didn’t want to get them mixed up. He now owns that boat.
I have two foam Cobra4’s, one of which will take over #26, but they are not ready for prime time yet.
Scott