Tips for heavy air sailing?

[Ike van Cruyningen]

I am looking for some tips from more experienced sailors on heavy air sailing (25kts+).

Three questions:

1) How do you tack in stronger winds? The bigger boats in our race seemed to have the momentum to go through head to wind and come out the other side. When I sailed dinghies as a kid we used to just flip them across. With the Viper, if you try to tack too fast you stall the rudder, but if you go too slow the boat just stops head to wind. Should I have tried to backwind the jib?

2) How do you radically depower the boat? I know the correct answer is to buy the carbon mast and new sails, but my wife is giving me the tough love,
--?Your boat is just fine?learn how to sail it?. Hence this email.
--?My car is eight years old, everything is starting to break, and it bugs me?.
Twenty years of experience tells me I?ll see new wheels in the driveway before there is a black mast on the boat. The fact that my truck is ten years old with 200K miles is completely irrelevant?

We left the dock with 40 Loos on the outers and tightened each side two more turns on the way across the bay. Inners were loose, no spacers in front of the mast, so the mast had a pretty good bend. Halyards, cunningham, outhaul, and boom vang were all as tight as we could get them. What did I miss?

3) I have an old main that I am thinking of cutting down 25-30% and resewing to be really, really flat. Should I chop more off the head, chop more off the clew, or take an even amount off the whole leech? If you want a mainsail designed for going upwind in heavy air, does the big roach have any value?

Thanks!
Ike #24

[Drew Harper]

Damn Ike,

I'm really sorry to hear about this. Anything you need, please let me know.

I'm not the guy to talk to about tin rigs. Never sailed one in any breeze.

I'll start of by saying, 34 is big breeze anywhere on the planet. Add to that the fetch that a Southerly has in SF Bay and it adds up to a big problem. The tiny bulb isn't a huge issue other than it helps keep the boat flat when you are light or in bigger breeze.

You were sailing way light. My team sails at 510 lbs and WE are way light at 3 people.

In my experience, anything over 30, you are all the way in the back (nuke position) and you're two crew are fairly far aft. The rudder on the Viper is dinky and will flop out of the water with very little heel. Add to that the sweep and you've got a handfull in 30+. Sailing the boat flat in big air is critical. It often involves feathering the main and in reality the boat sails MUCH better downwind in big air with the kite up, versus white sails only...just too much CE aft of CLR...it's a math problem.

If we know we are hitting 30+ we bend the rig bigtime (twoblock the tunrbuckles). Main is boardflat up top and inverted down low. Probably over 1000 lbs on the shrouds. We add blocking the front of the mast as the 35 knot  puffs just bend the headstay so much that you can never ease the jib out enough, overpowering the boat (hence the crashing on headsail alone you were experiencing. Lowers come tight when we sheet,vang and cunningham which helps keep the headstay with some tension. Too much lowers and you'll hyper power the middle section of the mast. This is all probably irrelevant on a tin rig.

It's a good idea to have your main recut (luff cut) to flatten it out. I've seen that sail and it's a bag. That is certainly adding huge issues to heavy air work. I'd flatten the jib too. The roach really isn't a big negative in big breeze, assuming you have the sail FLAT in the wind. Feathering the mainsheet helps and you will be VERY active steering and talking to crew.

It's not a bad idea at all to cut these down and at some time procure a regular full set. That would give you the capability and confidence to sail in bigger breeze. I've thought about building a chicken kite for #104 for those days puffing 35...just to keep the boat controllable.

Don't feel bad at all about this Ike. I think there was some great breeze at CRW and there were lots of crashes happening. Vipers, like all other boats need specific sails to be really effective in winds 30+. It's just the nature of the way the loads work.

Anything you need....let me know.

drew

[Ike van Cruyningen]

Thanks Drew!

You are a huge asset to the class. You've helped me so much with the boat already--I'm delighted we both sail the same waters. Now if I can learn to get the boat under control, I may get to the first mark before you finish the race :-). Congrats on your San Diego sail!

Ike

[Drew Harper]

Thanks Drew!

You are a huge asset to the class. You've helped me so much with the boat already--I'm delighted we both sail the same waters. Now if I can learn to get the boat under control, I may get to the first mark before you finish the race :-). Congrats on your San Diego sail!

Ike

You're doing a GREAT Job of campaigning the Boat. For those who don't know...Ike is on the water in his Viper constantly racing and sailing.

Thanks to you !!