Different headsails/racing handicap

[stevegaudet]

Here in Jax Fl, we have a 38 mile port to port handicap race and our prevailing winds are usually a beam or close reach much of the way.  Has anyone found a smaller kite or genoa to be effective in conditions where the class legal kite is unusable and the jib/main are not enough?  If so what class did the headsail come from or how did you have it designed?  Perhaps a catamaran kite would work?

Thanks for any input.

Steve Gaudet
VIper 164

[Justin S]

Hello Steve,  The Long Island Sound Viper fleet are researching a "Club Kite", which will be smaller than the standard Grand Prix Viper spinnaker, with a higher clew for better visibility.  The goal is a less powerful kite for Thursday and Friday evening racing which us easier to dowse and less powered up because we race two-up on Friday evenings. If we do this, it will be a group buy and happy to send you details when we have them.  It will be designed for downwind, (not an A1) but its smaller size should make it possible to point higher.

[Peter Beardsley]

How much wind is there usually for this race?  If it's light you can still use the kite.  If it's a close reach or beam reach that is too windy for the kite, you can usually plane while jib reaching in a Viper (recommend moving jib cars forward for this), which is a deadly setup vs. other PHRF boats.  Either way, it's one of the best points of sail for a Viper under PHRF when done correctly, even with the class kite.

[stevegaudet]

The wind for this race is usally light air under ten knots from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm when the sea breeze kicks in. So it is really light air close reaching that would be the biggest challenge I think.  I will be racing Portsmouth for this race so I have to beat anything from a Flying Scot to a 49'er.

[stevegaudet]

Yesterday we raced a PHRF race with two long beam-reach legs in gusty 10–15 knots of wind. Flying the kite was great when we were not broaching and gained on the bigger boats. If we had a slightly smaller and much flatter kite, it would have been a lot easier to handle without broaching and would likely provide a net gain. More importantly for me, I want to be able to train crew when I need someone new or when it is windier than expected. This is hard to do with a kite with that much mid-girth.

Looking for input from anyone on specifications for such a sail and/or a budget-friendly sailmaker for a quote.

Steve Gaudet
#164
Jacksonville, FL

[Peter Beardsley]

I know that Justin is working on a flatter kite for club racing as mentioned above.  My crossover for when I do PHRF looks something like this:

TWA between 80-115, wind < 10 kts: class kite.  Minimal risk of broaching

TWA between 80-115, wind > 10 kts: jib reaching and planing, unless it is a super long leg where there might be something in it to jib reach a bit higher earlier, delay the kite hoist, and then bear away and hoist - that move can work well too depending on a variety of factors. This is particularly effective if TWA is more like 80-95 - at that point, the risk of broaching with class kite is too high, and if you're set up correctly, you're doing 8.5 - 10 kts jib reaching and slaughtering all other PHRF boats in a low risk set up

[stevegaudet]

Thanks Peter, I understand your points, but I really think an A3 would work best for my situation.  I am going to get a quote from UK Sailmakeers and will let the them tell me what is best. For the "club kite" discussion, maybe these numbers help.

I checked with Chat GTP (and reality checked the results) and came up with the following:

Luff: 376–380" (98–99% class max)
Leech: 292–296" (98–99% class max)
Foot: 200–208" (90–94% class max)
Mid-girth: 198–205" (91–95% class max)
Foot median: 372–378" (96–98% class max)
Cut: Tri-radial
Cloth: 0.75 oz

So the question I now have is can the bowsprit handle that much upward force and sideways force or should the bwsprit be deployed at shorter length? 

Steve Gaudet
#164