I went sailing today and wanted to let folks know the outcome. I was joined by another club member who kindly brought along an EC12 for me to play with while he maidened his Footy. Fun fun fun
I had the wind gauge with me too. Fairly steady 6-15 mph winds. Gusts to 20 mph. Wind direction was steady early on and became more variable as we sailed. 1/2-2 inch waves (trough to crest) on the lake, not bad considering the wind. I’ve seen worse on the lake with winds from another direction.
First, I wanted to sail the EC12 to figure out what boat behaviors are wind, wave and skipper related and which are possibly hull design or rig related. I’m still learning the whole sailing business. After watching the EC12 make the same sudden turns as winds shifted or idiot skipper hauled the sails to an unlikely trim, I have a much better understanding what does what. The EC12 just behaves on a different time scale and the skipper has a chance to react and correct for changing conditions. The Footys in the same situation will turn 130 degrees in half a hull length before you can blink. Twitchy little things.
Razor report - I had new sails from ScaleSailing installed on my boat. It points better and tacks better now too. Speed seems good. Sails nicely on all points. The maiden boat was a Razor design built from styrene. Very nicely made and sails well. The skipper made several adjustments to the battery location for balance and will probably split the 4 cells up since his sail servo is exactly where the batteries need to be. The 2 Razors are pretty even speed-wise. His is a little faster but I think his rig works better than mine. I have a few more improvements to make.
FatBob report - A broader bow flatbottomed design by Bill Hagerup that I tweaked slightly. The last time I sailed this boat I was very disappointed. It just could not sail upwind at all. I made some rig adjustments since then and gave it a try since the Razors had me in such a good mood. Well, it was working really well today. Points into the wind nicely, good speed, and had fast more stable on runs with the bouyant wide stance. It was keeping up with the Razors even handicapped by poor rigging and too thin sail material. Near the end of our sail, the winds were calmer and I started to have the same old pointing issues. It would slide sideways rather than tracking forward. Hmmm. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on as it looses its footing in the water. It think a rounder bottom would help but welcome ideas and theories from other members.
We found a 3rd skipper too, Some guy was testing his new little electric racer and we gave him a sailboat transmitter after his batteries died. We almost had all 3 Footys in the water but the new Razor’s hatch came loose and flooded the radio. Out of control Footy! Alert the Coast Guard! I was sailing the FatBob and managed to come along side and guide it back home. (no damage to either boat from this prolonged NASCAR type contact while under way :devil3: ) So here we were, 2 Footys and the EC12. Just pure fun. I will warn you though, the wake from the EC12 will wash over the deck of a Footy if you hit it wrong.