On my Classic Moth, I put the daggerboard down when going upwind, pull it up offwind. I might pull it up slightly going upwind in a breeze, but that's not very precise, just a yank before I go upwind. Sometimes in my dotage, I've completely blanked and forgotten to pull the board up until I'm half-way down the leeward leg.
Contrast that with the professional sailors, technologists, and builders on Team Groupama C-class catamaran (who just won the 2015 Little Cup, the Cup formerly known as the Little America's Cup). Groupama have so finely honed their foiling on their 2015 model C-class catamaran, competitors figure they now have a two year technology edge on the competition.
A very basic primer on how to control the foils on Groupama. There will be a quiz at the end of class. There will be bonus points if you can explain the function of the wooden wedge in the operation of these foils.
Daggerboard kant and rake systems on Groupama from Turtle Danger Productions on Vimeo.
Painting the Kurbmaster
5 hours ago
4 comments:
the wedge is used to block the board in position while explaining to journalist how it works
Not like there isn't enough to think about already.
It is amazing how quickly foiling seems to be happening. Admittedly the huge percentage of boats have no foils, but everything you read now is about foiling. What are the old farts to do? I guess one good answer would be to try it.
I always seem to run out of foil.....
The media hype is quite overblown and is due to the preponderance of coverage of professional racing. Foiling works on very high end (re. expensive), very efficient, very lightweight racing craft (Moths, C-class cats, A cats etc.) Most of us we aren't going to be bothered unless we specifically seek those classes out. All of my regattas this year in my Classic Moth have been in light air, short course venues (which is probably why, this year, we voted hydrofoils out of the Classic Moth class).
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