Have any of the teams who raced 4-up at a big event liked it? Thought it was a net gain? Or does that 4th just get in the way or make it more difficult to have all the crew wight in sync?
Usually my crew is three 180lb guys, but for an upcoming race I'd be about 475 and am wondering if it's worth adding a nimble 4th person on board.
Fletcher,
I've only really sailed my boat at Charleston this year, so I can't say I have a ton of experience. That said, I did race with 4 on the boat for a total weight of 600 lbs, and overall I think it was worth it to have the extra weight.
Upwind the extra crew member really helped keep the boat driving--At 15 knots, I thought our speed was at least equal to quite a few good boats upwind, but as the wind velocities crept up to 22-25kts I really started to notice our speed over most boats with three.
We needed this extra speed to make up a few boats due to 4 broaches downwind (including running over the kite once and going swimming twice)... We weren't as active and in-sync as we should have been after gybes in keeping the boat flat with our weight. This is the big area where having the crew on the same page really helps... I felt tacks went well, just the gybe weight placement was tough with 4...Next time this is going to be my big focus..
It's definitely not worth sailing at 475 lbs if you're trying to do well -- that is too light upwind in anything more than 8-10 kts, though it can be incredibly fast in less than that. We sail 4 up, though the 4th is a 60-lb 10-year old, so it's not 4 normal sized humans. If you have a 4th who is much lighter than everyone else, it's fun to put that person in a squirrel role and do all the things that you'd never do otherwise, like getting that spin sheet that is dragging to leeward, or fine tuning the cunningham upwind if you haven't led it to the rail. There are a number of other teams who have had success sailing 4-up -- Argo sailed that way for much of 2012.
We generally sail at 510. We sailed last years LBRW at 600. We were blisteringly fast uphill, but painfully slow in the 14 TWS downhill. By the time it hits 18+ TWS you're fine though.
If everyone was telling the truth, we were 615 this weekend. So probably more like 630. Day 1 in that 14 knot range Drew mentioned we were fine upwind, as fast as anyone. But we felt like the boat was sailing in puddin' after we turned the corner. First to last on several legs.
When it built we were fine.
So I agree with Drew -> lightning strike me now.
Don't forget to weigh your boat, and do whatever you can legally to get it to min. There may be some boats out there that are better than 100 lbs over due to extra something or perhaps wet core's. You're much better off sailing all up with crew at 1350 (600 crew / 750 boat) VS 1350 (500 crew, 850 boat)
It's probably around here somewhere, but is that 750 the ready to sail weight with mast/sheets/boom/sails/rudder etc... onboard? I always had in mind the 750 was just boat+keel.
Ya, 2.3 says boat ready to sail with all your lines(spin, jib and mainsheet). No sails, tools, paddle, life jackets ect.