Video of that high speed nosedive down the page. And an interesting peak speed on GPS
Raceday – Racing Cancelled because of strong winds
A regular raceday looks more like this. But today there is a lot of wind. How is a cheap plywood box going to hold up in the conditions? 18 to mid 20s as gusts barrel down parallel with the shore.
We are at the Taal Lake Y.C. and, as the Committee boat goes out to start line, wind gets stronger.
As we launch the Oz Geese (info) the wind comes howling in. I start worrying about the guys who have just a year’s sailing experience.
And Rich is an OK level sailor but a bit rusty.
How will they cope?
Will the wind moderate or call off the racing?
It was pretty hard getting the boats upwind, photo is me slowly grinding my way photogenically upwind (or at least the boat is photogeniacly backlit), sails set wide to try and keep footing so the centreboard would stop the boat sliding sideways. Only to be hammered by a mad gust well above 25 struggle to keep any speed with sail mostly luffing.
Downwind was pretty amusing. This is a video still from the nosedive video. Boat is kiting over the top of one wave.
Far too much wind; two less experienced crews and one rusty sailor. Two experienced.
In the end we called off the racing and the wind got stronger. One boat capsized and drifted downwind. Rich sailing solo. He had a heart attack last year. He rights the boat, gets in and sails upwind back to the club in the mad conditions. Crashboat standing by in case he gets into trouble. Later he grins and wants to retell the tale. So all was good.
Disability Sailors equal with the rest of us
Doing speed runs. Record was 13.8 knots
Nosedive
And then he gets this one of the nosedive.
Boat muscles its way up/through the obstructing wave and over the top.
There have been lots of comments about how lucky or skilled I was getting out of that. There is much less skill or luck required in the goose.
- Because I was pushing hard I did three of these nosedives. Remember that the wind was over the mid 20s, otherwise it is not worth pushing the nose down to get the power for a speed run. The nosedive can be reduced by either sailing more conservatively or reefing the sail. Also be steering more across the wave, but I would have hit the committee boat. But the Oz Goose is no drama even at high speed. Just fun.
- Look carefully at the video. There is no radical steering required. Tiller is central. I wave the extension a bit as I try to move back even further to pop the bow out Boat never wants to veer left or right unlike most pointy nose boats. Tiller load is very light and balanced at all times.
- Stability of these boats is enormous. In his early days Job sailed a whole downwind leg sitting on the wrong side of the boat in just sub 20kn winds. The boats are not stodgy and slow but they have this huge stability reserve.
- And no water came into the boat at all during that big crash. It seldom does.
Oz Goose Info and Plans available here.
New speed record?
This was the best run. Look at around 1:50 to see the top speed in a crazy gust in the crazy wind surfing down a crazy wave.
Two years ago the speed record in Texas, also on a tideless lake was 12 knots which was raised to 12.9. Then in the Philippines we raised it to 13.8 and look at the visualisation below of the GPS data.