Last night was the first time to step the mast on the boat. Wow, this thing is big! With the keel and mast on, the boat goes from floor to ceiling in my garage!
If this is not faster (a LOT faster) than my Star45 and especially my Victoria, I am going to cry.
I was worried before the sail about the ability to tack. While sailing I was surprised at how well the boat tacked. If you hand any kind of speed going into the tack it just came right around.
I was also worried about the boat being way over powered with the A-rig, but this was not the case. It sailed well in the gusts and handled them nicely. An A+ rig is tempting at this point, but I think the desired low-wind performance will be had from fixing the excessive twist-off at the top of the main.
I re-cut the main last night so the sail better matches the bend in the mast (to help with the main twisting off at the top). I am currently adding the planned t-foil on the rudder to help with the nose-diving during gusts.
What exactly for the foils on the floats? Particularly what position on the floats? I have trunk built into each outer hull for a foil, but they are at 600mm back from the bow, and I am concerned that is too far back.
Since the first sail I have added a t-foil to the rudder, hopefully that helps also.
Hi David,
I found on my Triton II the foils leading edge should be at around 520mm from bow with an inclination of 45 degrees to get the boat on foils. (my foils are about 320mm long)
Asymmetric foils produce more lift to fly the boat, symmetric foils are great against pitch poling. You can find some pictures of the first US Triton II, sailing off Annapolis on my website gallery.
Have fun sailing your Tri.
I was out for the second sail on the boat. The t-foil helps for sure. The boat was much more pitch stable going upwind. Downwind it still wanted to dig the bows in the gusts, but the foil gave a little extra time to be able to react. Most of the time it was enough to save it. I might have to go bigger on the t-foil to help downwind.
Upwind I was able to have the center hull out of the water for 10+ seconds at a time, a lot better than what I could so on the first sail. I don’t know if that is due to the t-foil, the re-cut luff on the main, or me getting better at sailing this boat… Why ever it is, I like it!
All in all ot was a great sail. One note: t-foil rudder is great for collecting underwater weeds. I had to clear the rudder 6 or 7 times in an hour and a half of sailing.