[Public-List] Upwind musings....

[Gordon Laco]

Hello friends - 

We¹re having a good season racing under PHRF here on Georgian Bay and had an
interesting experience racing in heavy air last Wednesday.

It was blowing close to 30kts so I sailed with my little high clewed jib and
a reefed main... We went like a train upwind although were hurting for
horsepower off the wind.  An interesting revelation upwind was that the high
clewed jib does not over lap at all, and even though I rigged it¹s sheets
outside the shrouds as normal, we were able to sheet it much closer than the
140 and we sailed powerfully more than five degrees higher when beating.

This was thought provoking because SURPRISE is not really very good at all
upwind in our mixed boat fleet with regard to pointing.  This made me think
about how the spreaders limit the sheeting angle up high, and this made me
think about how over the years I have seen two distinct heights for
spreaders in Alberg 30¹s.

Ours are somewhat higher than half way up.... Others, like SEABERRY who we
are alongside every spring and fall are about half way or a little lower.
SEABERRY¹s spreader height seems to be the more common variety.   Lower
spreaders allow the upper part of the genoa to be sheeted closer, improving
pointing and this makes me wish I had them.

Honestly it occurred to me when I was building my new spreaders two winters
ago to make them a few inches shorter in order to get the same angle up high
as the lower spreader boats... But doing that without checking the
Association felt like bad pool so I didn¹t.

Has anyone else puzzled over this one?  (And I should add before I get
attacked re the shroud angle engineering issue... Even a much tighter angle
between the mast and upper shrouds is well within modern tolerances, even
discounting the much heavier mast section and wire diameter we use compared
to new boats.)

Standing by for your thoughts...

Gord #426 SURPRISE