Big air, Big seas on a reach

[Reid Smythe]

Unfortunately no pictures or video, but I had a wild ride yesterday.  Forecast was for around 12 with gusts to 15 and long period 7 ft swells.  After leaving the harbor and the lee of peninsula, wind picked up to upper-teens with gusts in the low 20's and sets of 3 short-period 10-12 footers.  I had 4 total on board (including me), all new to the viper and one essentially new to sailing (it was her third time out).  We ended up sailing out to the committee boat and deciding things were too rough (good decision: ended up being a good night to break stuff on the other boats) so we headed back in.

I ended up having to sail on a close reach out and back, and emptied my bag of tricks trying to depower the boat as I was on the bleeding edge of rounding up the entire time...going so far as to letting her gently luff up during the bigger gusts rather than stalling out the rudder and crashing.  Lots and lots of weather helm.

When we left the harbor there was light wind and, based on the forecast, I had the uppers set to 30, no tension on the lowers, no GNAV, very little outhaul and cunningham, fairly soft jib hal (tight enough to get rid of the speed wrinkles).  When the wind and waves kicked up, I put on lots of cunningham and outhaul, cranked on the jib hal tension and pulled on as much GNAV as I could. I did not touch the shroud tension.

I had the sails trimmed slight loose, but never completely luffed the main since I wasn't sure whether that point of sail presented any danger of mast inversion and felt like playing it safe.

So looking back I assume that putting on some more turns above base for the uppers would have helped as well as trying for more GNAV.  Any other way to make close reach sailing a little less exciting in those conditions?  Is the any danger of mast inversion under white-sails only when not sailing close hauled?

[Tim Carter]

Reid, base settings are for 10-14kts  Probably needed at least 6-8 full turns on.  Jib cars all the way back, need to agressively play the sheets to keep the boat on her feet and as flat as you can, try to have someone call the puffs rolling in.

Rag the main if if you need to, you will not invert the rig under whites in that amount of wind.

Did you get the boat set-up with a 16:1 gnav??

[Reid Smythe]

16:1 gnav is on and works great, forgot about the cars.  Very interesting sailing with waves that size near the beam, I had 2 people move off the rail into the middle of the boat as we rolled down the windward side of the wave to minimize our leeward heel, then hike hard as soon as the wind began pushing us back over to leeward.

The good news is everyone ended up having a good time.  Would have been fun to push on, though...the big boats in the fleet (J105, Sydney 38) were surfing back at ~14 knots.

[Drew Harper]

16:1 gnav is on and works great, forgot about the cars.  Very interesting sailing with waves that size near the beam, I had 2 people move off the rail into the middle of the boat as we rolled down the windward side of the wave to minimize our leeward heel, then hike hard as soon as the wind began pushing us back over to leeward.

The good news is everyone ended up having a good time.  Would have been fun to push on, though...the big boats in the fleet (J105, Sydney 38) were surfing back at ~14 knots.

Like Timbo said. Lots of CAPS though. In 20+ I sail at 38 on the loos. No worries and the rig the stability. Make sure you have your mast chalked (I use chalks instead of the line) to keep the headstay tight. Want to make sure the lowers have allowed the lower part of the mast to bend but need to come up tight when vanged and sheeted to help keep headstay tension. It's a bit of a fine line with the lowers.

On your way to the racecourse, don't hesitate to wind on or off the caps for the conditions on the start line.

Also if you ever are unsure about cap tension once you've set the kite, just oversheet main a bit...NEVER dump the vang when crashing and wail on the C-ham. It'll act like a backstay.

You did a great job with the active weight move. Helps a lot with the boat in the waves. You would have killed the Sydney and the J's sailing at 14....even under white sails you can surf a Viper at over 20.

[Reid Smythe]

Wind looks to be similar for this wednesday's race at the start, then moderating pretty quick (hopefully the swells'll be less than 12 feet...).  My intention is to start off with 38 on the caps and wind off/on as necessary.  Any good rule of thumb for adjusting the stock ronstan adjuster (http://www.ronstan.us/marine5/product.asp?ProdNo=RF2331 -ish)?  North specifies a base of 5 (bare deflection) and the jan2012 setup/tuning guide simply says snug (or minus 2 turns at +20 kts).  But really...there's snug and then there's snug and adjusting by turns doesn't really help if you can't turn to adjust!  From what you've all said, it seems that a little too loose is better than a little too tight, so I intend to go with that.

For blocking, should I just drop in blocks after setting cap tension to fill the gap between the forward edge of the partners and the mast, then pull the mast against the blocks w/ the line?  Or should I try to jam in an additional block to provide some aft-force on the mast?  The guides all talk about using blocks to restrict pre-bend, but I haven't seen a good way to quantify how much pre-bend you get under certain settings (aside from when the tuning guide states how much there is).

[Drew Harper]

Wind looks to be similar for this wednesday's race at the start, then moderating pretty quick (hopefully the swells'll be less than 12 feet...).  My intention is to start off with 38 on the caps and wind off/on as necessary.  Any good rule of thumb for adjusting the stock ronstan adjuster (http://www.ronstan.us/marine5/product.asp?ProdNo=RF2331 -ish)?  North specifies a base of 5 (bare deflection) and the jan2012 setup/tuning guide simply says snug (or minus 2 turns at +20 kts).  But really...there's snug and then there's snug and adjusting by turns doesn't really help if you can't turn to adjust!  From what you've all said, it seems that a little too loose is better than a little too tight, so I intend to go with that.

For blocking, should I just drop in blocks after setting cap tension to fill the gap between the forward edge of the partners and the mast, then pull the mast against the blocks w/ the line?  Or should I try to jam in an additional block to provide some aft-force on the mast?  The guides all talk about using blocks to restrict pre-bend, but I haven't seen a good way to quantify how much pre-bend you get under certain settings (aside from when the tuning guide states how much there is).

In big air you're trying to stop the mast from moving about too much for and aft but still allow for bend to depower the main.

The lowers set the limit for midmast bend and the blocking for lower mast bend.

The nice thing about the lowers on Ronstan plates is it is SUPER easy to repeat the location. I like that. It's tough to change pins in a seaway though. You want the lowers to come tight as you get 75-80% of full GNAV and Mainsheet....ish.

The blocking should simply restrict the mast moving forward with sheet and GNAV. Just fill in the gap after winding on caps instead of forcing the lower mast straight. This will help keep the headstay nice and tight, which you DESPERATELY want in big air. Sloppy headstay is very tough to trim to and your jib trimmer should be the strongest person on the boat. When a puff comes, you're natural tendency is to ease the main...remember, the main is your backstay. When you ease it, two things happen, you lose headstay tension and you lose height on the point of sail. When you get hit by a puff, have your Jib trimmer ease the jib to the puff which allows you to head up in the temporary lift, keeping the boat on her feet and elevating your course. If it's a huge puff, you will have to ease the main a bit, but in general...jib first, then main. When the wind eases a bit, trim in as a team and you'll find you've slipped a bit to weather...a good thing indeed.

[Reid Smythe]

Great fun last night.  Wind was too much for the shields and they called it for that class, so we had a bunch of people standing on the deck of the club drinking while calling us crazy for going out while we rigged the boat (high teens sustained, low twenties gusts, waves were around 6 ft).  Didn't get out in time for the race start, but we had a great time just reaching around under whites.  Completely different crew from last week...one guy who had a little experience on hobies and the club's junior's coach (who was in her element).

That was the wettest, wildest ride I've been on in a while until someone decided to put the wind switch in 'off'.  I even ended up putting some more names on my waiting for a ride list by the end of the night.

[Ted Green]

Right on Reid...I must say I like this category the most in the forum. Im looking forward to putting some worthy stuff in this thread.

[Drew Harper]

Great fun last night.  Wind was too much for the shields and they called it for that class, so we had a bunch of people standing on the deck of the club drinking while calling us crazy for going out while we rigged the boat (high teens sustained, low twenties gusts, waves were around 6 ft).  Didn't get out in time for the race start, but we had a great time just reaching around under whites.  Completely different crew from last week...one guy who had a little experience on hobies and the club's junior's coach (who was in her element).

That was the wettest, wildest ride I've been on in a while until someone decided to put the wind switch in 'off'.  I even ended up putting some more names on my waiting for a ride list by the end of the night.

AWESOME Reid!!