Mr 10%
Rohan’s outrageous 10% claims have generated a bit of buzz around the echo-chamber that is the blogosphere.
But really, how outrageous are they? 10% is only 200m on a 1km windward leeward.
Moth Moth race margins (at least not the top regattas) are greater than 200m, and 200m at 20 knots is less than a 20 second delta.
So on that explanation, 10% isn’t unrealistic.
Though the explanation is a bit specious, given that the Moth covers an incredible amount of distance on that 2km course. It’s more like 4km on a good day. So is 400m realistic?
Anyway. I wouldn’t have said 10%.
Amac’s boat definitely felt better than the others. It’s racing performance would probably be better because the smooth ride means the pilot can push it harder - the other boats requiring too much effort and too much backing-off to keep in the water.
I made a couple of the changes to my boat and the difference was noticeable. This weekend should see what the rest of the changes do.
10% here we come.
Monday 22 May, 2007 - Higher Performance Finally Found!
Has been a while since my last post, and think that was mainly due to being flat out trying to get four boats ready to take to Sydney for the weekend for some training and tuning with Scott and John. On the friday only Amac and I ventured out in the 15-25 knots, as the other guys had to work. Saturday was a similar breeze and we blasted around doing lots of drill and small course racing with Lex. Over lunch Amac made decided to go on his gut feeling and made some special modifications to my main foil (that he was now using as I had his) and to free up the push rod friction as much as possible. The result was amazing! We all sailed the boat and felt it was way beyond anything that we had ever expected in terms of downwind performance along with a completely smooth ride. If anything it was probably 5-10% faster than anything we had experienced before as well. If only we had our boats set up like this at the last few Moth regattas we had been in! So we came in and took measurements of everything as so we can now make all of our boats the same for the worlds and hopefully send all boats out of the factory like this as well. For those that have boats already, we are working on a document that will reflect all this. Stay tuned.
May 30th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Usually I cringe at Rohan’s claims, but not this time. This was a huge jump, probably more for me than for Rohan, as he is a bit better controlling a badly tuned boat down wind. I was completely blown away by the improvement. I would have said more than 10% - but only downwind in a breeze with some waves. We were possibly a bit off the pace before in these conditions, but definitely no longer.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:46 am
So if we add up all of the 4 or 5 10% gains claimed since BR emerged, either they were pretty hopeless to start with or they will be winning by a whole lap at Garda, we will see in 4 weeks.
Like the new specialist heavy weather sail (ref Rohan’s site, Not BRX8 one design I assume?), most new tricks work in one set of conditions and have downfalls when those conditions are not quite right. The trick to good design and development is to have the best comprimise to cover all competition conditions, or the on water adaptability to do so.
Getting a lot closer to a friction less wand mechanism would appear to be an obvious aim, hardly a breakthrough? Maybe there is more?
June 5th, 2007 at 5:59 am
if you read carefully, it said 5 to 10%!!!
But as amac said, it was probably more considering none of you have any idea how ‘hopeless’ my boat was downwind at the nationals, so you can all stick the 10% up your arse!
and yes, obviously my winning distances have closed up over the last few years thanks to taking on the huge challenge with a brand new boat not to mention newbies like Luka getting a proven package. (however i think i won a race by 10 minutes at the NSW states? maybe the gap is getting bigger again?)
Phil - totally agree about one good design for all conditions (as i have learnt this leason last time we raced at garda), and that is what the MSL12 and BR X8 sail is for. however it can get very windy at the top end of garda and it is nice to have the option (especially when u work for a sail making company). will be interesting to see how it compares to a MSL12 in +20 knots tho as we have not yet had the chance to test both at the same time.
My experience is that when it gets +20 knots, you actaully go a knot or two slower upwind using the MSL12 compared to sailing in 12-14 knots of wind thanks to all the drag.