Ptuj race report

On the 21. of June i gave a second go to organizing a national class regatta.
The race was a sucess, 11 competitors present, wind was good, and river flow made racing interesting but not hindered.
Me and my father took the top two spots sailing evolution and fila. Niko was third.

Full report soon

Rogla race report

The past weekend i was in charge to organize the third stage of the nationalchampionship series in the F5g sailboat class.
Earlier this year i made sure that we were allowed to use a small lake on top of Pohorje, a mountain nearby.
This lake is right next to a hotel resort and ski slopes. The location is at about 1520m above sea level, the water is clean, cold. It is often windy there.
This saturday was sunny, the wind was not exactly what i hoped for, but was good for sailing, gusty from3-above10 knots.
With help from a friend we set up the course, it was a classic "stick" and not the usually sailed triangle.
Luka, an experienced sailor and sailing judge did not manage to finish his new boat until the race and offered to judge the regatta and take care of the results.
Only 9 competitors entered the race, i was hoping for more, but for a first time on this location it is ok.
We started racing at about 12.20.

The starting line was set quite well, the left side was a little bit favoraised, but it lead ashore, where there was less wind. It was well possible to "win" an upwind leg by starting on either side which i proved along the day.

The boat with no number is my fathers old bot, similar to #165, it has a Fila b-rigg and is sailed by another friend who has decided that he will also compete in the naional championship series

there was no wave and fila is very fast in such conditions

A  strong left shift gave me the lead to the first mark in this race

Father brought his hobbyking wind tunnel, we had to remove one section of the wood fence, there is no gate to the lake

father was sailing evolution, having all sorts of problems i never encountered before

alinghi #68 was aiming for a spot in the top three

there were some borin luls

in this race the right side of the course was more promising

The friend who sailed the boat with no numbers was doing really well, aspecially considering that his boat was made mostly of spare parts! He was was always in the top 3-4 upwind, but dobnwind he was lacking sail area.

some people also came to watch

me, giving the jib more twist, the friend is watching closely

This beautiful colin archer was present, it can move under its own sail power, but has a propeler for help

leading the way around the bottom mark.

Left shift gain, a quick tack to make sure i am above everyone

after all 8 races were completed a navigational race was sailed, 4 started ,two finished

I really did not want to go somewhere and buy medals for the race, yes they would be metal, but also they would be small and the budget did not alow spending much money

i got around to designing my own medals in solidworks and printing them out in two parts
They are also bigger than bought ones, and are special!

Overall the race went well, the max number of races was sailed(8) + navigation, Everyone seemed happy.
The stick course was IMO much beter than the triangle, making upwind and downwind tactics possible.
The starting procedures were flawless, with the help of Nikos megafone.
The presence of a judge made the races even a bit more interesting.
A traditional pohorje plate menu was served at a local restaurant.

The results:

red are the discards

For the next time i wish we could get more competitors, i know that there are about 20 competitive and active F5g sailors in Sloveina, it would be nice to see all of them present at races.




Again Fila dominated the race.
A sharp start in all of the races gave me an early advantage.
My speed was very good again, and so was the angle, as a result i was first to turn the windward mark.
Downwind it was just a matter of spotting the incoming gusts and moving slightly to the side from which the gust came.

The reason for a sixth place finish is that the jib twist line caught the spreader and i could not manouver for about 30sec.
More photos sholud emerge shortly.

Videos at: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheZdaemi/videos

Another unfinished boat found!

The other day i was digging through some stuff laying around the atic.
To find this:

A nearly finished hull, the fifth and final boat from the afterlife project.
more: http://footyslo.blogspot.com/search/label/afterlife%20project

This is the first f5g boat i designed completely by myself.
It is a lightair boat. 4years ago when designing it a prismatic coefficient of 0.42 seemed good for light air, the reason for such a low CP is that the front 8cm of waterline are concave! i tried to keep the boundary layer flow laminar as far back as possible.
The goal for the project was to test unariggs on f5g boats:

And to get good results at Koseze, the pond with no wind.

I never won a Koseze race with such a boat, but i learned a great deal about una-riggs!
more on that soon.


The above hull is identical to Blulife, the deck and layout are also very similar. The differene is that this hull has a badly alligned keelbox, so that will need fixing. Mast hole and rudder post are already in place.

At the moment it weighs 240g, once the deck is trimmed, masking tape removed and hooks are added i expect the hull to weigh less than 250g
This is a light hull considering it is all fiberglass.

The boat will be build with a 4500cm2 rigg, true to the blulife rigg, Fila spec. rudder and a bullb that will be shifted slightly further aft than on Blulife.

The boats name will be Life Afterlife.

More&more people, finally........Evolutions maiden flight!

Yesterday, there were three bats on the pond, My father, the friend, and me.
The wind was about 5-6 knots, then it died and then went up to about 3 knots again.

Enough to sail a bit before the race next weekend.

Fila and blue life were going great.

The highlight of the day was getting evolution waterbourne 

I put the electronics in trimmed the sails(damn the new sails trimm well) and of she was

In the light wind the boat just flies, sailing at the same speed as fila, but accelerating much much faster, due to less weight(1615g)

 

Boats ligned up, evolution is sailing with an aluminu keel which flexes alot, a carbon finn will replace it in the coming days.

Here is fila geared up for sailing

Evolution has the finn far back, electronics in the bow, this results in an itneresting handling, and what was seen on this day a very fast boat out of the box.

In the last photo volume distribution can be seen through the hull curve. Evolution has the peak below the mast, thats were volume is, this keeps the bow up, despite the wide stern. Giving the boat lively handling, reducing the need for a big rudder. This is EXACTLY the effect i was looking for when building evolution :)
The need for a big rudder is further reduced by the small distance between the keel fin and rudder.
This makes a boat that turns easily, and feels nimble, great for crowded racecourses.
Evolution is also ready to recieve a forward rudder(5cm in front of the mast), the front rudder might resolve possible directional stability issues, when under power in hegher winds.
The white rudder is very old, and has a 24% chord thickness ratio. I hasn't been used for 2 or 3 years, but showed great results in light air!

My father will sail Evolution on bled,  there are no numbers for the boat yet, but we are looking at 89 or 86.

The goal for this week is to put all the boats in the water atleast two more times.
-to build a carbon fin for evolution
-fix leaks on evolution
-fix play in Fila's rudder linkage

First championship race is in one week

This year i am birnging a friend to the races, he is showing interest for sailing for the past few years.
This year when he was offered to sail bluelife #88 in the national championship series he jumped on it.

He allready knows how to sail, but competition sailing is something else, so the goal for the first race on bled, which is on the 19th in Bled, is that he finishes every race.

Here are some pictures of sailing together, starting with the rabbit method.

Both boats are as fast as they were last year.

Fila is faster, but blulife is a great boat to start with, and is in an elemnt of its own  in very light winds.

Lookingforward to the next weekend, i will sail Fila, the goal is definately to win. :D

Blulife in shape for model olympics

Yesterday I took Blulife out for a sail, to check if everything works.
The modelympics are comming up: http://www.mzdtk-lj.si/olimpiada.htm

Me and my father are planning on taking part, there are three sailing events, marathon(who completes the most laps around a triangle in 3 hours is the winner), Matchrace(no defenders, just elimination) and a classic race(I hope it is counting for the national championships)
We will let out the Marathon as I have to do work for school.

Anyway the boat is going strong, dispite a mishap, in wich both(the fore and the aft) rudders were broken, now it is sailing with only the aft rudder.
The light wind enabeld me to set the rigg up. The sails still have a nice shape.
The optimal setup is a small amount of lee helm, wich requires corrections with the rudder, lifting the bow. This is somewhat controversial(aspecially for light air), but it was the fastest setup i found on the races last year, and two years ago when i designed this boat i liked a lee tendency.

The boat heels even in 3-5knots of wind, but it was designed for drifters, typically seen on ponds like koseze where the model olympics will take part

The vang is set very tight, to flatten the main, and sink the stern, the ce leads clr by some 16% so dispite the flat main the lee-helm remains.
This boat has a problem tho. When heeled the center line of the weted surface moves to the side, worsening the attack angle of the rudder and keel fin,thats why it doesn't perform upwind when the wind picks up.

the hull has a depession near the bow, to keep the half entrance angle very small, the prismatic coefficient of the boat is below .5, in an effort to reduce drag, in the drifters.

Here is a clip another one will come soon.

Bow rudder

Here is a photo of  "Blulife". my own design, 1260g, light air boat, competing in our national class, skippered by my father. Carrying its 4500sqcms of sail make it very competitive, but since i am working on a catnig keel twin rudder boat is this the first boat i have sailed with two rudders, just to get a feel for such a configuration.

Since i had a chance i had to try out the forward rudder only option:

Here is a quick clip:
http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z368/spadefooty/9AFFB674-C0C1-4359-80B4-493E496CD2E3-12284-00000CB9BC4A9660_zpsb057ecce.mp4

In this cofiguration the boat sails well, turns and changes direction sharply.
But for regata use the clr should be recesed further aft becouse it doesn't accelerate as easily as one would want and that would lead to problems on the line and in the chop.