Foiling fun for all and a carbon cook up
After two club races it was time for rides for Steve and me on the foiling R. Breeze was around 12kts by the time we got to have a go. The on the water swaps are always fun, Steve went first and crewed for Sean and really seemed to enjoy himself.
Then Dan jumped back on and Sean swapped with me. After swimming between the boats the first thing I noticed as I clambered on board was how much more stable the boat feels. The horizontal foils really improve the low speed stability and the usual tendency of the boat to fall in to windward, as you climb on, is significantly reduced.
We got up on foils pretty easily and sailed up the harbour. Before the first tack Dan impressed upon me that I wasn't to shove the helm across too hard. It's surprising how little helm you need, the boat is stable and tacks very easily. We worked our way up the harbour throwing in another few tacks. The boat has incredible pace, even with me still trying to get the hang of sailing smoothly with the boat heeled well to windward on the foils.
On the wind its really noticeable how much stronger the apparent wind feels. Its a long way forward and pretty much straight in your face.
Next fun bit was bearing off, which wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. Going downwind under kite was incredibly fast and Dan was happy to try a gybe or two, which were surprisingly easy and went well. The most difficult part downwind was during the kite hoists and drops. The boat isn't moving as quickly because the crew is inboard and so you're steering much lower. Dan was keen for another quick lap, so we rounded up and beat back up to the container terminal and did a few more gybes on the
way down before dropping the the kite just below the club start box. We did another couple of two sail gybes before sailing in to the slip.
An R on foils is a great machine. It requires more concentration and more care, but its surprisingly stable, and above all that its just great fun ;-)
Thanks to Sean and Dan for their generosity in letting us have a go. And for making us both look good.
Fleet foil building programme
In other news Dave and I have got the prepreg oven completed. We've completed a test run and made some carbon plate for hydrofoil mounts and bell crank etc. The temperature ramped up nicely. And at the curing temperature was stable and even across the 1.9m by 1.5m oven. The vacuum table in the oven is large enough to do 3 moulds at a time, so we can complete a set in 3 cycles. Thanks to Doug for sorting and cutting the insulation and getting the materials, Dave for his great job on the welding and metal work and Malcolm for setting up the temperature microcontroller and providing probes, which have all worked flawlessly. Although it's taken a while, we now have a robust vacuum oven setup. Foil production can begin in earnest and the target is two more boats on the water before the end of the season.