You dont have to have a larger head sail, if you have designed the boat to take a squaretop you would have worked out the balance for that rig anyway! Well anyway, my mini 40 has a pin head main, and the thing is damn near uncontrollable as soon as the wind goes near 10 knots. The next boat I build, which will most likely be a mini40, will carry a squaretop main, probally with a servo controlled kicker/vang.
Luff 'em & leave 'em.
Matt,
The common practice in other classes is to have the main sheet overcome the vang in the final movement of the servo. That way, you control the twist of the sail with the final fine tune of the sail servo. While there is nothing wrong with using a seperate servo for the vang, it is often easier to think about it as a final trim of the sail and thus you only have to worry about 2 controls while you are reacting to sudden puffs.
This should be something that you can implement right now on the boat you have already built. In fact it may be as simple as just easing the vang a small amount such that the vang goes limp when you are fully sheeted in. You may need to add a mainsheet post so that you can change the geometry of the sheet (pulling down relative to pulling toward centerline) for different conditions. Take a look at a well rigged IOM and you will see some pretty simple yet effective ideas on how to add a degree of control to your sail twist without adding complexity to yous sailing style…
Will Gorgen
Thats fine for a mono, but with a multi I feel it would be usefull to be able to control the twist at any sheeting angle, with fullsize cats you often set the mainsheet to get all the teltales streaming and the boat going fast, and then play the traveler more on reaches and runs to keep the apparent wind in the right place. In a perfect world I would make a traveler system, but an ajustable kicker seems to me much simpler, its just one servo, a bit of string and a sliding strut (push down vang) doing the same job. With this setup, dumping the main would be like dumping the traveler, wich is a quick way of killing power on the big boats if your getting scared!
Luff 'em & leave 'em.
Hooray ! Today the MultiONE hit the water at the pond !!! I am now a “multihuller” Ha Ha !
Winds today were about 12 mph, with some gusting. Very small whitecaps on the pond when I arrived, but by the time the boat was set up they had receeded a bit. Made a few last minute checks, got the camera out, checked the winch and rudder while on the stand and decided to give it a go.
Suddenly I was back to my big cat sailing days - remembering what a blast it was to scream across the water !
I placed it in the water with sheets completely out and sails luffing. Fortunately the wind was along the length of the pond, and I asked a friend from work to position himself on the opposite side. If something were to break - it would float towards him. Holding the mast I moved the rudder stick and a bit of sheet tension and all things looked fine. I did “chicken out” and decided to let the top of the main twist off to wherever it wanted to go. I have some preventer lines hooked up, but left them loose for the test sail.
As I stood there, I could feel her wanting to turn off the wind and take off. The sails were rattling and shaking, and I sheeted in slightly. With the sails about 1/4 in, I cranked the rudder over hard and let go of the mast tip. She sat there for a moment or two (seemed like hours) trying to decide whether to head up or fall off. Finally the wind caught her bow and pushed it down and away and she started to sail to the other side of the pond. I recovered my composure, and left the sails out 3/4 of the way, sheeting in just enough to get some forward motion, but not enough to have it dart away out of control. As she floated/sailed across the pond, I was watching too many things. Trying to determine waterline location, fore/aft trim, attitude going through the water and so forth. Well, because of that inattention, I soon found she was sailing at a deep reach and the sail was pinned against the leeward shroud - NOT where I wanted to be! Easing the rudder up wind a bit, she seemed to steer like a go-kart - very fast and precise - almost an oversteering condition.
The “T” foil on the rudder seemed to be working OK, keeping the stern planted but not squatting. The bows up slightly. The main boom is deck mounted and was flogging around as I tried to maintain forward speed - but not full speed. I don’t think I am going to need any kind of a vang unless itis really light wind. She made it across the pond at about “1/4 throttle” and fortunately a lull in the wind allowed me to gybe her around and head back to me. I sheeted in a bit more (about 1/2 way) and speed picked up quickly. I had left the cover off to the radio section, and with the hull shape, I was beginning to worry about picking up water from the bow wave. At the “1/2 throttle” position, her handling became even a bit touchier - and changing direction was made by thinking about it - certainly I don’t remember steering like that! After about three of four laps, all done by gybing, my friend asked when I was going to get some larger “gonads” and go for the speed I had hoped for.
I sheeted in a bit more - now about “3/4 throttle” and the boat really came to life. Not sure why, but the twitchy handling seemed to disappear, and even at this speed, the rudder foil didn’t seem to want to pull the stern down. I tried to tack at his side of the pond, and even thinking about it and trying to make a large arc, I came head to wind but I had released the sheets a bit too soon. I found out she backs up pretty quick too - but a bit of opposite rudder and the bow swung around and she was heading back toward me. At about this point, I decided what the heck, and sheeted her in all the way. The main sail with the full battens took on a nice shape, and it seemed like it almost “jumped” out of the water. I think at full in, I need to adjust the jib with a bit more slot. Even with the wind as strong as it was, I think she was still too tight and may have been backwinding the main. Hard to tell when using full battens, but I suspect there is a lot of speed in her once I get done tinkering and tuning. The floats, which I thought might be too narrow and small seemed up to the task, and twice on her trip across the pond, I saw a bit of her daggerboard. Since I wasn’t ready to fly hulls just yet. a simple correction with rudder stick toward the wind, brought her back down on the water. Of course, I had planned to pull her out at this point, but thought what the heck, and curved her into another try at a tack. Beautiful ! A gracefull curving turn, the sails bang over to the leeward side as I release the sheets, steering slightly down wind I started picking up speed, and then my thumbs took over from my mind as I continued to sheet in and head up to my course. Unfortunately, I did that a bit too fast and it was surprising how fast the multi came head-to-wind and just sat there ! Again a bit of rudder and oversheeting and she backed up, then took off again. I had worked upwind from both of us a bit and decided to gybe and try a run close to the opposite shore.
Good gybe, sheeted in for a broad reach and downwind we went. I still didn’t like the twist off on the sail - almost upper 1/3 was not powered up, yet we were blasting along and I had long since forgotten about spray and water in the radio compartment! Sailing at this angle, the “T” foil worked a bit too good, and it was even possible to see the stern was squatting more than earlier. I used 3 degrees of negative angle on the foil and I guess it was a bit too much. I am now going to pull the rudder and fabricate one with perhaps 1 or 1 1/2 degrees of negative angle. In light air the bigger angle wasn’t too much of a problem, but downwind in the heavier air, and I think it developed a bit too much downforce. Back to the shop for that one.
OK - I was now below my point of sail on the side of the pond, so gave it a twitch on the rudder and sheeted in at the same time. Windward float high in the air, Main hull, rudder and daggerboard completly out of the water. The leeward float was carrying the entire weight of the boat on it’s side and of course the boat was sailing VERY slowly by now ! I am using a Hitec 815 with a double swing arm, and was very happy with the immedate and fast winch response, allowing a recovery - and with a big splash too. Two teens on bikes were sitting behind me, and all I heard from one was “WOOHAA - THAT was way too cool!” I was waiting for them to ask me to do it again - but no such request - thank goodness. The rest of the lap back to my launch point went without incident. I hollered for my co-worker to come back around as I was done for the day. Had the mast off and in the truck and platform in the back of the pickup and was writing notes about needed immediate improvements:
Have to move the sheeting angle to the jib.
Check and re-adjust slot between jib and main
Add twist preventers back to gaff boom at top of rig
Bring mast a bit further upright - the 13 degree rake was giving a bit too much weather helm
Build (or rebuild) a new rudder with a bit bigger profile and less foil angle of attack
Finish up and get a radio compartment cover on it (was just wet with spray - no standing bilge water.)
After those changes are made, I will give her another chance and then hopefully look for a monohull to see how well she points. I think the big deep main hull bow allows for upwind work and the boat “seems” to point OK. Need a boat to trial-sail against to find out for sure.
Oh - and will need to find another friend next time to go along. I killed this one when I found he stood on the other side during all this sailing with my camera hanging from his neck. He completely forgot to take photos or use the camera - as he was completely mesmerized by the first time out performance of this little boat. After I get some of these issues resolved I will try to get some photos on the water.
In the mean time all I can say is “WOW!” Too darn bad it’s dark outside. Just writing about it’s maiden sail has me waiting for daylight. Hmmm - maybe I can sneak off from work for a long lunch and head for the pond !
Dick…you are THE man…CONGRATUALTIONSSSSSS…now waiting my “WOW-did you see that”-Time
Wis
_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _
[:-jump] <font color=“purple”><font size=“2”>Hey Dick</font id=“size2”></font id=“purple”>[:-jump2]
Great piece of journalism, you had my thumbs following every move. Well done. Makes all the glued fingers and sanded hands worthwhile.
Next outing some <font color=“red”><font size=“2”>action</font id=“size2”></font id=“red”> pictures please.
Do it NOW before it`s too late.
Dick,
You’ve earned the “Testicular Fortitude Award” for flying the main hull with your hatch open… Not sure I would have risked trashing my electronics the first time out…
Now you need to find another boat or two to sail against.
Will Gorgen
A bit more time on the sticks, and I will be able to decide if any major changes need to be made. It’s morning and the wind is very light here today. After the first round of enthusiasm has worn off, and I can think more clearly, I do think three major changes needed are the jib slot vs. mast opening, and the change in the rudder. Also, I do need to finish up the hatch cover. In the future my luck may not hold.
I want to get it out in a bit lighter wind to see if tacking is an issue or not, and also see how high it points. There were times yesterday, when I know I was definitely out of my preferred wind range with the big rig (just shy of 1100 sq. inches of sail area) and so some of the performance “quirks” might be the result of trying to play survival. A smaller rig for high winds is definitely needed and a next step in development. I still don’t quite understand the twitchy steering - that was gone when fully sheeted, but was there when only partially sheeted. One thing I would have liked is to see the photos of the main when it was pegged to the shroud - particularly to see if it was bent forward and around the shroud a bit.
If this prototype seems to continue to handle well, I won’t hesitate to recommend building it for others. Drawings are free for cross-sections, and in winds from probably 6 mph up, I don’t think solid foam floats would be an issue. Definitely a quick and inexpensive way to construct a set of hulls.
Finally, I need to do a bit of work on the asthetics. It doesn’t look bad, but a little bit of fresh “make-up” on the girl will improve her looks tremendously! [:D]
Overall, I was pleased with the first sail. There is always some more fiddling to do, but it is all minor now, and with the pleasure of seeing ands sailing it, I can once again attest that regardless of what class of boat you build, there is a sense of pride when you see your ideas on the water. For me, building has again proven to be very rewarding. Perhaps, some foam hulls pre-shaped and glassed would encourage others to try a build.
Also - thanks to all for the encouragement and kind words. Much appreciated.
Nice one Dick! Wanna come over for a race?!
Luff 'em & leave 'em.
Would love to … but not sure when. I guess your trip here to sail the Aeroskiff is scrapped as well, so a trip to Florida for a meeting/race isn’t going to happen either. Oh well !
Maybe I can send it over and let one of the other guys have a go? Will have to look into that - but not for some time yet. Still detail sorting required as noted above.
Thanks for offer ! Maybe if I build a 2 Meter and come for a French race, I could stop by in the UK and … hmmmm!