my iom having a hardtime

RedWitch (9mb)

Time for rig B…

Anyone who would like to can feel free to disagree . … as I do not have TONS of IOM experience. These statements come from sailing a very narrow US one meter with an A rig well up into B rig cross over.

I personally believe that you should be able to sail in these condtions with your A rig. Flatten the sails a hair more and more importantly, when preparing to crack off and head down wind, make sure you spend a second or so broad reaching first to get the boat up to speed, then smoothly turn down wind while cracking off on the sails. When you nose dive in this video, you try to head down with very little boat speed. Make sense? I know for a fact that my US one meter would have cartwheeled here, however, if I carved a smoother corner with some speed, I would have had little to no problem.

just my 2 cents.

~tb

sure i could have flatten my sails a bit more…not much though…sure i really didnt try to turn smoothly…but hey, it was way worth to see her sub marining, nose diving and more! had a great time!!

:wink: Of course you can sail your A rig in these conditions, but why?
Experience shows us that in the conditions as illustrated, a B rig equipped IOM would be just as fast around a course as this over canvased example.
The B rig would be better behaved, less likely to be damaged and providing the breeze was reasonably constant downwind, just as fast. :bouncy:
Broaching near the bottom mark and watching the whole fleet sail by is a most frustrating exercise.:timebomb2:
OK different designs will vary the moment of decision, but my advise is ;:smgreen:
“change down and keep control of your boat and the rest of the fleet.”

Ian,
I dont disagree with you here. . . but I think the thing we both have to acknowledge is that it is actually rather difficult to get a good grasp on the real conditions from this video clip. We really need more information to put this in perspective and effectively answer the question such as:

  1. was this small clip shot at the max wind speed in a puff? a lull? or the nominal wind condition for the day? past 20 minutes? following 20 minutes?

  2. how big is the body of water? Are we sailing at the windward, or leward end of it. (trying to relate the size of chop to the real wind speed).

  3. how does the wind look on the rest of the course? Is there a leg along the shore line in a continual lull (very true of my home sailing location . . . this is where you get HAMMERED if you go down to that minature IOM B rig).

I guess I would refine my prior post and say that it is my beliefe that wis should be able to sail this rig, quite effectively in these crossover conditions. By this I mean no nose-dives when going down wind, and minimal “rail in the water” going up. Most of the “good” skippers I sail with seem to be able to carry rigs MUCH further into the overlap range than most. I think it is partly this skill that sets them apart from the rest when the pressure comes in. Sure, you have to know when to say you are too far into the overlap range, and that is dependant on the 3 questions above.

Maybe someone like lester will chime in. . . as he has more experience in his pinky toe nail in this area than I have all together!

once again, just my 2 cents. . . take it at what its worth.

-Todd

sorry to interrupt, but the video was just intented to provide some “fun”. Nothing more, nothing less!

Of course feel free to discuss how-far an A rig should be able to go…I WILL listen!!!

In an IOM, it is B Rig. You may have put the vid up for fun Wis, but it actually serves a very useful purpose.

It may be swings and roundabouts but easily overall a B Rig will save time around a course in this sort of breeze. That’s what they are for.

NL

that I knew, but wanted to see if the A rig could handle it! was almost ok, just downwind!

Not to hijack an IOM thread, but this is similar to what I have been preaching about the F-48 multihulls for the past years.

NOTHING requires a person to sail with the top rig at 1400 square inches, but if/when they do, and the boat capsizes (no lead keel to bring it back up), why is it the boat design or type that is at fault, and why must the multihull carry the stigma of a boat that capsizes or turtles?

Isn’t it the fault of the skipper - and not the boat?

Not to point fingers here, but “IF” Wis had sailed with maximum sail area, and “IF” Wis had pitchpoled, and “IF” Wis didn’t have lead to help the boat correct itself - how many times would we have to listen to some people say … “See IOM’s are unstable and tip over!” Well heck ya - and a car that crashes into a tree because the driver is drunk - is it the fault of the car or the driver? :mischievo

It is great that one can sail in winds that might be too much for a specific sized rig, and even better if the boat has a lead keel for a training wheel so it will eventually be back upright - but nothing requires one to sail in these winds - or with maximum sail area. Just a friendly reminder that most multihull capsizes are the fault of the driver, not the design of the boat.

That said, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Guess I’m having a hard time, cannot download the video.

save link as

Got it, I don’t have wind like that around here!

spring & summer A rig,
autumn & winter B rig,

June…Z rig (lots of typhoons!!)…not sail-able!

Todd, you are of course correct in your your analysis of the whole track and not just the bit we can see in Wis`s video.:graduate:
The decision to change rigs is one of the things that can be so frustrating at a major regatta.
How many times have you changed rigs only to find that the breeze did not continue to increase as predicted, or conversly, that light patch was just a pause before it started to blow like a banshee.:heks:

With the AC15 class we have taken the decision away from the individual and the race officer after consultation with the skippers makes the call.
It works for that class because we are mainly match racing.:flirt:

Call me old fashioned. Or is that new? Hmmm. I want jib and main furlers standard on IOMs. LOL

NL