Sailing the Boat.
1998
First Outing, 18th August 1998
Well, this is the page I've wanted to start for some time. Actually
I'm so stiff and sore I can hardly type, but never mind.
The
weather was around Force 3 - say about 8 to 10 knots, but varying
lots in bands and with some lighter and stronger gusts. I elected to
use the mast in high position, which is intended to be good to 15-18
knots. This was probably as much wind as I'd have wanted to use it in
for a first sail.
Well, I rigged it, set off across the
reservoir at a pretty decent pace, and about 400 yards out the knot
I'd tied the toe straps on with let go. Splash. New one/third length
tiller extension. Well, I can report that the water start method for
getting back into the boat works very nicely. Wandered back in and
got out the duct tape and put it back together again, then went out
for a couple more blasts round the reservoir, which included a couple
of windward roll ins.
What Have I Learnt?
Performance
Off wind.
The speed was pretty dramatic. Basically as soon as the true wind was
more than about 55 degrees off the bow the boat went straight up on
the plane and stays there. Judging by the amount the apparent wind
came back on quite broad reaches its achieving a pretty decent
percentage of true wind speed. Its also very definitely a two mode
boat, and if the boat drops off the plane in a large lull its
necessary to point up dramatically when the breeze comes back to get
the apparent wind forward again and the boat going again. I think in
most conditions it will be faster to tack downwind.
Upwind
Beating is going to take quite a bit more practice. The boat readily
planes when freed off a little, but in these conditions it wouldn't
plane when pointing as high as it could go. This wasn't really a
surprise, but because the apparent wind heads forward so fast on very
fine reaches and because the wind was shifting a lot it was quite
difficult to establish exactly how high the boat was pointing. Plenty
of work to do to establish how to get it upwind!
Handling
Well, its not easy. Once it was planing it steadied up tremendously,
the rudder loads were very light and I could point it anywhere.
However if I messed up a tack (frequent occurrence!) I ended up with
rudder and centreboard stalled out (this may have been partly because
I couldn't get the centreboard down properly - a little light filing
required) and the boat was very edgy and uncertain. This was also the
case when I was unwise enough to try square running (FX: splash). On
the other hand gybing was very straightforward and viceless provided
I kept on the plane. This was only 10 knots though, 25 might be
another matter.
Capsize recovery will need work. Because of
the buoyancy in the ends of the wings the boat inverts immediately.
It was extremely difficult to get the boat past about a 45 degree
inverted position - pulling on the end of the daggerboard just wasn't
enough leverage - and so I'm going to have to fit long righting lines
that I can exert lots of leverage on. Once the boat is on its side it
flips up easily enough, but its too high a climb up onto the wing to
get over. However once its up its very easy to climb onto the wing
and in, with the buoyancy in the wing helping this time!
One
of the things I was considering when I was mulling over options for
the wings was to have the tip buoyancy as open but slow flooding
tanks. This would have helped enormously with the capsize recovery,
but I decided it was too much of a complication in construction.
Maybe I was wrong!
Other significant factors are
psychological. Its very easy to sit in the "middle" of the
boat with three feet of wing and flare stretching out behind you and
think that there's no need to dive for the middle of the boat if the
wind dies. However this "In the middle" position is
actually with the weight over the chine, and a rapid windward heel
ensues.
The other thing I'll need is another ten tons of
non-slip. I knew I hadn't put enough in, but I was falling over
everywhere. A particular favourite was falling over backwards as the
boat accelerated out of a tack or gybe - this boat seems to
accelerate like a Cherub!
Rigging is bearable - I could
stand up and hoist the sail from in the boat, although its not
exactly steady. I've fitted mooring lines (which double as righting
lines) in the wing tips fore and aft, and tying the boat to a jetty
with these stabilises it up lots of course. An unexpected difficulty
is coming alongside a jetty. It may have been because the wind
direction was awkward, but basically I had to sail right up to the
jetty bow on, then take a 90 degree turn literally at the last second
in order to get a bit of boat I could climb out of alongside the
jetty. To add to the complication you can't be anywhere near the edge
of the boat because the wing would either sink or there's be far to
much power on. Coming into a beach will be much easier I expect -
shame we haven't got any.
Second Outing, 29th August
Lighter Winds this time - about 4-8 knots but variable. I actually
started a race this time, but not in any kind of serious manner -
until the boathandling is reasonable I feel its unfair to overtake
someone to windward, mess up a tack, and do the same thing again two
minutes later... Thus the only tactics involved were to ensure the
others, taking the race rather more seriously, got clear air. It was
much easier to sail the boat upwind with someone else to get a
pointing angle from, and by the end of the race I was able to get the
boat going upwind reasonably satisfactorily, and planing upwind most
of the time. Its quite evident that it is possible to point very high
indeed in this boat, and that doing so is very slow. Cross wind
reaching speed is excellent, as one would expect, although there
weren't any of the faster two-handers to get much of a guide from.
Square running, of which there was a lot on the course, was
definitely more challenging. I suspect that gybing downwind will be
faster in most conditions, but when the wind drops below planing
strength its very easy to point far too high in an attempt to get
speed back up. This is a practice and experience issue I'm sure.
My boat handling was still a long way short of adequate. Two
particular issues were evident.
The first is tacking.
Whilst the dagger board seems to be a reasonable size when sailing
correctly, it is rather easy to come out of a tack with all the foils
stalled out as mentioned before. Getting out of this situation is
quite tricky as the boat won't readily bear away with the rudder
stalled out. Another time I think I'd specify a larger than necessary
daggerboard to make handling easier. Not, I suspect, a problem for
the skilled helmsman, but rather an issue for myself, whose skills I
definitely place in the average bracket...
The second issue
is a definite tendency to roll in on very broad reaches or square
running. Its not a problem actually gybing, but it is before and
after, most especially when changing course significantly. Partially
this is of course the classic thing of a the combination of large
sails and hull shape overcoming rudder forces, but I speculate that
there might also be effects concerned with the square top sail. It
seems to occur principally when making a large course change, and in
such circumstances the flow must become detached and attached to the
sail. This will inevitably mean the generation of large vortices,
which with this sail I suspect may be greater and higher than with a
more conventional rig. Also, of course, with a large roach sail, its
probably quite easy to let the boom out far enough for the top of the
sail to generate a significant windward heeling force.
Third Outing, 20th September
About 5 to 10 knots. Didn't really learn anything new, just building
on what I've learned before. My boat handling is slowly improving and
I can tack most of the time now... Daggerboard size definitely needs
to be bigger though - the plate can stall out when trying to sail
slowly in moderate breeze - for example while attempting to get
alongside a jetty!
And why the long delay between trips out
in the boat? Be warned people - in the mean time there have been a
lot of domestic conversations upon the general lines of "Now
you've got that d*** boat finished you can get on with..." and
so I've spent most of the spare time recently building a new PC for
'er indoors, followed by a major upgrade of the room she's putting it
in.
Fourth Outing, 10th October.
A good 10 or 12 knots, with a bit more coming through in bands. I
figured I was ready to have a half serious attempt at a race,
provided that I was reasonably careful about avoiding close quarters
manoeuvring and generally messing up other folks' days.
Managed a comprehensively dreadful start by messing up the last tack
before the gun, leaving me two hundred yards short of the line rather
than the planned twenty or so. However the wind was enough to be
fully powered upwind, and I discovered that I seemed to be able to
keep the boat nicely on the plane and still point higher than just
about everything else on the water (mainly Solos and Lasers).
Consequently when I tacked well above the windward mark there only
about 6 boats left in front. The next leg was a beam reach, so that
dealt with the Solos and Lasers in front, although I let a few of
them back through by leaving them about 5 boats length of space at
the gybe at the end. This was followed by a broader reach, still very
nicely powered up, and would guess that I was getting up towards a
good ten or twelve knots, and considering whether I could catch the
ISO that was the only remaining boat ahead when...
Crack... No steering.
The bottom "fitting" on the rudder stock had let
go quite comprehensively. So that was the end of the weekend's
sailing. Back to the drawing board. In spite of the failure - and a
rudder stock is particularly embarrassing as I've been known to cast
aspersions on other people's stock designs in the past - it was a
useful and enjoyable sail. I've learnt more about handling the boat,
and it really is a joy to sail in those conditions, planing extremely
quickly and controllably.
| Here's a side view of the stock. | And here's the complete bottom bracket removed from the rest of the stock, viewed from below. |
 |
 |
I now suspect that the initial failure was at the other end of the detached piece, about half way along the foil. In this area the sideways loads on the foil are doing their best to splay the two sides of the stock apart, and I think that the outer skin simply failed in tension. With this gone the resulting leverage at the front would have been more than any sensible structure could have stood.
On the positive side the gantry and the top of the stock seem fine, with no sign of any consequent damage, and the bottom bracket was hitting the wash from the stern more than I would like, so I've got the opportunity to reshape it to deal with that too. If this is the only significant structural failure I get on the boat I shall be very pleased.
By the way the strange lighting effects on the pictures are because I just put the bits straight on the flat bed scanner and scanned them in directly in a dark room!
I've talked to Andy Paterson about this, and Bloodaxe are building similar stocks with a solid carbon bottom bracket, about 5mm thick. I shall rebuild my stock with a solid bottom bracket like this, suitably shaped. Because its shallower there should be less of a problem with the wash, especially if I angle it up about 15 degrees from front to back, and the solid construction should have plenty of reserve strength.
Fifth Outing, 31st October
Armed with a newly rebuilt (with lots of carbon) rudder stock, it was
time for the annual club pursuit race. The forecast was dreadful,
rain and force 8 plus. In practice the depression that was bringing
the wind stopped moving, and we got the rain, but, for the first
race, only about 8 knots of breeze.
In those conditions I
wasn't expecting to do very well, and sure enough I didn't. Being a
somewhat mediocre helm, all else being equal, I'd probably expect to
finish about halfway up the fleet. In fact I was a fair bit behind
that although as the gun went, I was just getting in reach of the
last few Enterprises and Lasers and things. The boat was going very
nicely upwind, and I was going very badly downwind, mistiming the
gybe on *every* run! I was able to handily beat the club RS300, who's
just as far down the learning curve as I was, and in the windier bits
was going at roughly the same sort of rate as an RS600 which
eventually finished well ahead of me due to better sailing! I'd taken
a handicap equivalent to about 950 on the UK Portsmouth Yardstick
scale, roughly between the RS300 and RS600, which seems to be about
right.
Before the start of the second race it was getting a
bit windier, about 10 to 12 knots, so I thought things ought to be a
bit better for me. In fact I had extreme difficulty getting the boat
going properly upwind - it felt almost as if there was something
round the dagger board and I was having trouble keeping her properly
on the plane. When I could get her going properly speed was about
equal to the RS600, but when I couldn't I was a lot slower. The rain
started getting heavier, the wind started dropping, I was getting
cold and tired, and there were domestic reasons why it was going to
be good to get home early, so I called it a day after the third leg
of the first lap...
Sixth Outing, 15th November 1998
Normal Club race, around 10 knots, shifty and with gusty bands of
15-18 coming through. A course that was all beating and very broad
reaching. Not sailing the boat well enough to do anything. In
particular I have a long way to go before I get the knack of square
running. Just depowering the rig slightly upwind for the first time
by pulling on some cunningham to open the top roach by bending the
top mast. Seems to work. The gybing angles are absolutely critical in
this type of boat, and square running has never been one of my
stronger points of sailing anyway. Capsized the boat to leeward for
the first time, and to my surprise and pleasure it stayed on its side
and was easy to pull up. Less happily I experienced a small partial
compression failure on the bottom of one of the wing beams where it
goes over the gunwale. Entirely my own fault, I sort of
"bounced" sitting out off the end of the wing, which was
less than sensible. However there needs to be local reinforcement in
that area. I'll consult those who know more than I and maybe put in a
piece of high density foam core and beef up the area appreciably.
Gave people some entertainment coming in. Decided the old "pull
all the foils up and drift in gently sideways" trick was going
to be favourite. It was too, once I eventually got to the side of the
pond, two hundred yards downwind!
6th December 1998
One of the great things about sailing as a sport is that you're
always learning. What I'm learning right now is how much greater the
workload on the helmsman of a single hander is - to date my serious
sailing career has been done almost exclusively at the front end of
boats. When you add this to a boat that takes a lot to get the best
out of it then the result - well lets say it leaves a lot to be
desired! Yesterday was lightish and shifty. The wind strength was say
about 8 knots, and reasonably steady in strength, but most definitely
not in direction! This was enough to have the boat planing most of
the time on the beats, and planing seems definitely to be faster.
Faster, that is, if you point the boat in the right direction. For
two laps I was, and was definitely catching up ISOs and things after
my usual (in the current state of boat handling) "hang back from
the line and give the good guys some space" start. After those
two laps I then managed to get comprehensively out of the groove,
miss all the shifts, and get deservedly and embarrassingly overtaken
on the beats by the people I'd just overtaken on the previous
downwind legs...
The lesson, I think, is to be aware of
everything. Right now I'm getting reasonable at keeping the boat on
its feet and moving, but not nearly aware enough of the wind. It
seems, too, that I'm finding the headers much more difficult to spot
than the lifts. A lot, I think, is because in those conditions the
apparent wind changes so much with strength, its easy to miss that
the direction has changed to. Again, its all part of the interest of
sailing a light and responsive boat, and after all, Its no fun if its
easy! Strange, when I was crewing I had no great problem spotting the
shifts and gusts... I don't suppose Ben Ainslie would have so much
trouble either. All I need is a bit more sailing ability :-)
1999 Entries
29 March 1999
They say that you should learn something new everyday. Today I
learned that you should never use pultruded glass tube to sleeve a
broken alloy tiller extension - it fails at the point loads where the
actual joins were, and leaves you with no steering about twenty yards
off the beach... I've hardly got to sail the boat since the last
entry. I've had one shortish run with the small rig in around 18
knots and building, and I ended calling a halt to that due to being
tired out and completely unfit, and yesterday's very short outing
that ended with the tiller extension.
For those that are
interested the thing at the AYRS seemed to go off reasonably enough.
Although there's been a reasonable amount of interest in the boat,
especially after the Y&Y article, I think that as I always
suspected there aren't a huge number of people wanting to own a
larger development singlehander than a Moth in the UK right now. I
guess its a function of reduced leisure time - twenty years ago the
predictions of the future were that people would work less and less
as technology changed society, but what actually seems to have
happened is that less and less people are working more and more, and
people who might once have worked 40 hours and got on with a hobby
are now working 50hours and taking a load more work home on a
laptop...Its noticeable in the Cherubs too - I think the average age
of people who build new boats has dropped about 5 years since the
1970s.
5 April 1999
I'll write today up in some detail because I learnt quite a lot about
the boat, and also the way I sail it I fear! The wind varied between
about 12 and 20 knots, but was steady, with neither major guts nor
shifts. Actually it was hard to believe I was sailing inland in the
UK. I imagine the overcast conditions had a lot to do with that.
It was definitely a small rig day, and I went out with my newly
repaired tiller extension, sleeved externally. This is good call I
think. The standard 16mm tiller extension tubing feels far too
fragile when it gets to over 4 feet long, bends easily, and is
vulnerable and gets bent all the time. When I repaired it from last
week I sleeved virtually the whole length with 16mm inside diameter
tube (19mm o.d.) and it feels a lot more robust.
Anyway it
was an excellent time to evaluate how the small rig works, and to get
to grips with learning how to depower it. Basically it mostly works
as predicted. Grab a big handful of cunningham at the start of the
beat and the top of the sail goes board flat and the mast bends and
twists off, but the bottom of the sail stays reasonably full. Heeling
moment goes down, boat is manageable again. Get to the top mark, let
the cunningham off, mast straightens, top of the sail regains curve,
rig powers up again. The difficulty was pointing - As soon as I tried
to point reasonably high the speed was dropping off far too much, and
I suspect I was making worse VMG than I do in 8-10 knots with the big
rig up. I wasn't using a great deal of kicking strap, and towards the
end of the session I started using more, and things did seem to
improve. However I wasn't much cop at sailing upwind when overpowered
in the old boat either, and the suspicion has to be that a lot of the
problem is me! Offwind the boat was definitely underpowered in the
lighter parts running, but there was one long reach with the true
wind on the beam, and I most definitely enjoyed that!
28 April 1999 - Bang!
Another breakage I'm afraid. This time the boom. The sailing club' Wednesday evening series starts this week. After a very windy day it looked as if it had dropped off, so with the wind varying between 10 and 20 knots I decided to risk the big rig on the assumption the wind would drop further before dusk. However coming down to the start it was still very windy, and I was definitely sailing the boat well within itself, but with the rig fairly depowered with loads of cunningham and quite a bit of kicking strap. Then, after a tack, the boat was accelerating as normal when suddenly, for no apparent reason, I completely lost control and the boat bore away and rolled into windward. When I eventually sorted things out it became apparent that the boom had broken between kicking strap and mainsheet takeoffs, just at the point where the sleeving I put in for the kicking strap point load finished. Obviously not strong enough. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I wonder if Needlespar still make something I could sleeve it with? For various reasons I have to have the boat back on the water by Sunday week (9th) so not much time to make something - certainly not a plastic boom.
Recent worry has been centreboard size in very light airs (<3 knots). In these conditions the board very easily stalls out and its difficult to recover. The obvious solution is a larger board, maybe a more tolerant section, but its a lot of work for what are frankly dire sailing conditions anyway, as the plate is OK in normal conditions...Still mulling over this one.
7th May 1999
Spent the day making a new boom - It turns out Needlespar haven't used the section the old one was made out of since around 1975, so the chances of having anything suitable to sleeve it with were pretty much zero. However they have, at virtually no notice and in spite of regular business for regular customers, assembled what amounts to a kit of pieces for a new boom for a pretty moderate cost, and which has taken much of the donkey work out of building the new spar. So many thanks go to David Hunt and his staff at Needlespar.
9th May 1999
I think the number of people who are interested in my personal
sailing diary is rather limited, so I'll call a halt to doing that
unless anything particularly different happens. Instead I'll try and
summarise what I've learnt about sailing the boat under the main
headings below.
I also had a second opinion on the boat
today, and there might be a little to come from that source later,
plus hopefully a few photographs.
Upwind
In very light airs when not powered up its a tricky boat to sail
well. It points high, but its very easy to get out of the groove and
slow down too much. As soon as it gets powered up - sitting up on the
wing - it will plane readily upwind. The most difficult situation is
when the wind is varying between light and powered up as the helm
needs a lot of awareness of what's a shift, what's a change in wind
speed etc etc. This pretty much goes with the territory really as its
all part and parcel of a boat that can manage boat speed that's a
significant percentage of windspeed.
Once the wind has got
up enough to justify reduced sail with the stump things change again.
It almost seems as if a switch is turned off when you point the boat
up high, and it seems to be more difficult to get the boat in the
groove and planing upwind steadily in 15 knots than in 7! My second
opinion agrees with this, and we've talked it through a bit. We think
something very dramatic must be happening to the whole rig in this
regime - it seems as if suddenly there is a lot of drag from
somewhere. As its obvious that it can't be the hull it must be the
rig or foils - maybe both. The obvious conclusion is that the short
rig is too stumpy, and has got so low and is so over-elliptical that
the induced drag has gone through the ceiling. Another possible
contributing factor might be that the centreboard - a NACA 63 series
foil, is operating outside its ideal range as a result of the rig
lift/drag curve and is overloaded. This is discussed a bit more on
the Rig Design page.
Reaching
It planes. Virtually continuously. The only thing to watch out for is the huge changes in apparent wind as windspeed increases and decreases. Again this pretty much goes with the territory. I haven't experienced any control issues at higher speed. The only thing is a definite tendency for the bow to dip - which is inevitable with such a low rocker hull, but a good pump and a move aft on the wing has to date been more than enough to keep things in order. She seems to need far less dramatic trim changes than the shorter Cherub, but of course this is all in flat water and moderate winds - a few waves might be *very* interesting! In very light airs its quite possible to overtake the wind as you sail into a calmer patch, which is somewhat disconcerting.
Broad Reaches/Running
The worst point of sailing. Difficult to tell how much of that is me rather than the boat though, probably rather a lot. I've yet to get the angles for tacking downwind sorted out. There's also something of a tendency to get into a roll on broad reaches and runs, which I suspect might be related to the large head mainsail, but I guess all boats do it to a greater or lesser extent.
Tacking
Not easy. In particular tacking from reach to reach in a serious
breeze is very difficult. What tends to happen is that you throw the
boat into a tack, the drag on the big rig slows the boat, the low
weight provides little inertia and you stop coming out of the tack.
Then the foils stall out and you go sideways without steering. The
main reason, I think, is mast position. In most singlehanders the
mast is well forward in the boat, and if the sail isn't sheeted in
then the drag is a long way forward of the centre of effort, and
helps the boat bear away. In this boat the mast is much farther back,
with a short boom, and the drag from the rig is nearer the centre of
effort. It has occurred to me that one solution for this might be to
sink the transom and let the bow lift out of the water, catastrophic
for speed, but it might get the boat to turn. A more disciplined
tack, keeping the power on until actually pointing past close hauled
is more successful, and with practice I can tack pretty smoothly more
often than not, provided that I concentrate.
Ordinary tacks
in lighter airs are OK with practice, the art being to release a good
handful of main when head to wind, let the boat heel to leeward on
the new tack, and simultaneously pull it up and grab the mainsheet in
again to give a titanic pump - like a normal roll tack really but
exaggerated. . This also works a treat for making sure the battens
come across.
Gybing
Fine, no great worries. Well, maybe not quite, but I've noted that boats with short booms and mainsails with plenty of roach always seem to gybe quite readily. The only concern is that its quite easy to over correct and let the boat heel to windward coming out of a windy gybe, and that can be followed by a classic bear away/roll/capsize to windward. No worse than any other boat though, and better than many.
Miscellaneous
The business of coming up to a windward jetty has been causing some amusement, because if you go to slowly the foils stall out, and... The trick seems to be to find a corner of jetty and beat up to it at a reasonable speed. Stand up on the windward side, and aim the boat so that the bow will clear the corner of the jetty but the wing won't. Just short of the jetty - timing is *important!* point the boat up and free the sheet. The wing you are standing on disappears below the water and the brakes go on hard with all the extra drag and no sail. Just before the boat has a go at capsizing to windward step off the *front* of the wing and onto the jetty, grabbing the shroud at the same time. So far its worked! Lee shores are easier - just stop and pull both foils up and the boat drifts in gently sideways.
Conclusions
Its not an easy boat to sail, and in many ways is frustrating in that
respect for a mediocre helmsman like me. On the other hand when
you're sitting halfway up the wing, loads of power still to come, the
wake is so smooth that you can hardly see a trailing stern wave,
you've got fingertip control and are travelling faster than anything
else on the reservoir... Lets just say I wouldn't rather be in a
Laser.
July 1999
Continue sailing the boat, not much dramatic to report. (other that its good to sail!).
A recent distraction from the more serious stuff was the club
kids day. I knocked the sail area right down (even used the storm rig
at one time) and used the boat to carry various young passengers
round the lake for various events including duck racing (scatter 300
plastic ducks round reservoir, sail out to pick up ducks, most ducks
win!)
The ++ was a neat tool for this, you just sit your
young passengers on the leeside wing, heel the boat so the wing is
parallel to the water, and then they just pick up the ducks as you
sail past. Even neater is the fact that the wing touches the water at
the back first, so if they miss a duck under the wing, heel the boat
a bit more and the duck gets caught under the wing beam and can just
be retrieved!
More seriously, my sailing of the boat seems to be improving steadily, with less frequent major silly errors. One of the key things is not to point too high beating. Once weather is outside the absolute optimum lower than most other boats always seems to be the way to go. Key, at the moment, in the lighter stuff seems to be to make sure the daggerboard isn't overloaded. I'm going to get a longer chord daggerboard (probably round October) which I hope will make things more user friendly!.
August 1999
After some pretty dire weather this month there was actually a decent breeze today - very decent at times. I was running the big rig in what must have been pushing 18knots at times, and generally not having too many problems. I was getting much better upwind speed than I have done by sailing very low indeed - some 10 degrees lower than a Laser I think, and keeping the boat footing fast. Loads of cunningham, with the top of the sail completely bladed out flat, and quite a lot of twist. In the windier bits the top 3 battens were inverted (well top 2 so flat as to be impossible to tell) and the 4th one in a nice S Curve, inverted at the front, but with the bottom of the sail powered up. The boom was right out towards the quarter, I suppose about three feet off the centreline at the transom, but the resulting VMG seemed pretty reasonable. All in all, in spite of having started 6 minutes late (just call me Davro - in-joke for Cherub sailors) I had a most enjoyable sail. Pity the main halyard decided to pull through the cleat about a foot halfway round the last lap, (no idea why, maybe just loads of cunningham tension, I shall have to put something less convenient on), but on the whole a good day.
September 99
Pleasant discovery today on relative performance. For one reason or another I haven't had much of a chance to sail boat for boat against the asymmetric equipped boats at the club, but today, in about 5 to 8 knots, I wound up just in front of one of the middle of the fleet club RS400s for a tight reach/run/broad reach combination of legs in what was for both of us marginal planing conditions. I had - as you'd expect, a definite speed advantage on the tight reach, being able to pull out a few yards on every little gust, managed to stay at the same speed on the runs through sailing deeper and getting one less gybe in, and then still managed to stay ahead on a broader reach that should have suited him best. In what wasn't remotely powered up conditions for either of us, it was good to see I had a boatspeed advantage in spite of the kite. Pity I found a hole to sail into on the next beat!
October 99
I actually spent the latter half of September sailing the Cherub, doing (part of) the UK Nationals for the first time in several years. Great fun, big waves and dolphins. Consequently what with that and a sort of cold/flu type bug I haven't been sailing this boat much. Carries on much the same, with lots to learn. Interesting how many different ways there are to set the rig up to achieve much the same sort of effect when overpowered upwind, its possible to lose power with either lots of twist or by depowering the top with the cunningham. Latter ought to be faster and feels better (provided you keep enough twist in to cope with varying wind, but there's not a huge amount of difference. Key thing is, as ever, how high to point, and there are loads of alternative ways up the beats. Its all part of the learning curve. I think a fleet of these boats could provide quite fascinating technical conversation on the different ways to achieve good upwind performance, but then that's always the way with development classes - much more interesting talk in the bar afterwards (provide that the techie stuff doesn't bore you rigid). Now the boat is going down to Bloodaxe for a bigger daggerboard and case (I'm much too busy to do it myself).
2000 Entries
April 2000
I've finally got the boat back on the water after a totally unreasonable break. Too much weekend working, too many other commitments, transport problems etc. Had a short blast last week with the big rig up, but Easter Monday saw a good 15 knots coming across the reservoir, which in my current state of fitness meant the small rig, and an excellent chance to evaluate the changes.
My sailing was pretty appalling for the day - too many unforced errors as they say, and too out of practice, so we'll draw a curtain over actual results. In what was probably worst case conditions for the old rig problem the boat felt easier to keep in the groove and planing than I remember, and certainly much easier to tack - there's now enough side force that even if you come out of a tack too slowly and stall the foils (still possible of course) a couple of big tweaks on the tiller get you going again without the tendency to go straight back into wind.
So it seems promising!
The next Wednesday evening really confirmed things. Again a lousy result - poor sailing combined with the bad luck you always seem to get when you're sailing badly anyway - wind shift and lull near a mark meaning a couple of extra tacks, and the next few boats getting away on a gust - I'm sure you all know the sort of thing. But it was maybe a little more wind than the Saturday, at least for the first couple of laps, and again I was finding it easier to keep the boat in the groove, and more difficult (but still possible) to get myself really stalled out and sideways coming out of a tack. I really must see if I can persuade some "Rock Star" hot helmsman to come and do a couple of races and see how it really goes...
Today (May 1st) was slightly less windy and I ran with the full rig. Again it does seem easier to get the boat in the groove upwind, and at times I was making pretty good progress. However its still more than possible to completely stuff a tack, and I managed to do so so comprehensively that I ended up tipping the boat in to windward trying to power up again... Oh well!
June 2000
I think I've identified one of my frustrations - the fact that I never seem to catch people downwind as often as my relative speed when next to them would indicate. I think I'm spending too long sailing in lulls! The boat can do a very significant percentage of wind speed, and we seem to be having a lot of long broad reaches this season. The breeze invariably - it has to come across half of Southern England and several rows of hills to get to us - comes in bands - a sequence of gusts and lulls. I get to the top of a beat in a lull, and then stay with the lull all the way down the run, just out of reach of the gust coming up behind. Of course nominally slower boats behind are sailing in the gust... Similarly with boats ahead. This is compounded by my amazing talent for completely messing up the last 100 yards of a beat, and letting people get away. A lot of its is natural ability of course (or to be precise my lack of it), but I am learning to use a lot more kinetics, because very often one quick pump or rock will get the boat travelling 20 or 30% faster for the next 200 yards. This seems to be particularly important with sailing deep. My theory is to point a tad, pump, and get the apparent wind well forward and the boat planing very fast. You can now bear away and go low, maintaining the apparent wind and speed until wind die slightly, then repeat the process. This certainly seems faster than either running straight downwind or gybing high. Its also more fun and interesting if you get it right.
I also had an interesting Wednesday evening race last week, in that I went out with the big rig, and some pretty big bands of wind - I reckon around 20knots - came through. I got the biggest when gybing for a narrowish gap* between a mark and a club rescue boat. The wind came in like crazy just after the gybe, and I failed to get the boat under control and clobbered the plywood mark top big-time with the wing. Amazingly no damage. However at this point I was hanging off the back corner of the wing, the bow was making a determined effort to head for the bottom of the pond, and there was *no way* I could stop and do a 360 turn! So I sailed round well clear of everyone and retired after the end. Pleased to note that in spite of extreme temptation the boat actually didn't show any particular sign of a pitchpole, although I suspect if the water had got up another two inches and onto the foredeck I'd have been in trouble. The long fine bow is great for that situation, it just cuts through. In my Cherub I'd have pitchpoled for sure with that much stem immersed. Its still pretty easy to really mess up a tack in that wind and lose a hundred yards. I think the next boat (!) would have a couple of inches of rocker extra under the daggerboard and the mast six inches further forward.
*Well, narrowish for me, in that boat, in that wind. There was no obstruction at all for a Laser sailor!
Amusing the other week - I did a broad reach alongside one of the Club Isos, who was trying to work out why he couldn't overtake me down a long broad reach... So right close to the mark he attempts the quick "out on the string, luff up for speed and grab an overlap" trick. This was remarkably unsuccessful when tried out on a single hander with superior acceleration and close reaching performance... So it was a pity that I bore off too quickly for the mark and spat it in to windward. Oh well, serves us both right - me for trying to be too clever and him for not staying to leeward like a gentleman... With the big foil it seems critical to keep the foil lifted offwind for wetted area, which was far less important with the little one. What is interesting is that the boat seems less stable on very broad reaches/runs with the bigger centreboard.
July 2000
The sailing seems to be coming together a bit more these days, although its not really showing up in results. Less major errors really, and some reasonable beats and so on. What is getting increasingly frustrating is this club mania for not having any powered up reaches on the course. This morning I had to miss the first race, and as I started rigging the boat they were sailing round a course which had a mixture of everything, including a gorgeous beam reach across the reservoir that had me mentally rubbing my hands as there was a decent breeze. So they changed the course for race 2 for another collection of beats and runs/broad reaches. Yeah, windward leewards are fine in an asymmetric boat in a decent breeze, and I know that runs are much more tactical in Lasers and so on, but I sail for the enjoyment - this is *club* sailing after all, and all these legs sitting in the middle of the boat are getting to me... I suppose I could put a kite on, but the speed the boat will get up to and control issues would be extremely worrying.
I do have a speed figure for the boat - stop frame analysis on the video shows that it was doing about 11 knots. Not an especially dramatic speed, but the wind was bottom end of Force 3 and it was the first time Alan had sailed the boats. The Cherubs were hitting about 15 knots in the same conditions, and they're known to be able to hit 25.
November 2000
Haven't really sailed the boat since July - I spent August/September in a flat out modification of my Cherub - its gained a snout - above waterline bow extension for the spinnaker pole and jib. The Cherub Nationals then got postponed because we had some problems with fuel supply here in the UK, and when they finished I then had a lot of weekend work in the Office, migrating the organisation to NetWare 5.1. So three weeks ago I went to go sailing. It was F6-7. Decided to rig the boat anyway, using the very smallest size sail, but managed to crack a spreader whilst sorting out a snaggle on the jetty.
That evening the wind built considerably - I saw one weather report claiming F12 as the depression moved into the North Sea. Fortunately I'd taken the mast off ready to fix the spreader and mine was about the only boat in its area of the dinghy park not to be blown over. The next weekend we had a lot to do repairing jetties, boat tie downs and so on, and I had the spreader to do as well.
So last weekend I chucked the boat in the water, and as I pushed it off the ramp saw the mainsail disappear over the transom. Yes, you've guessed it, after removing the rig I hadn't reattached it to the boom. Mylar mainsails sink. A long way. Just there the water has to be 15 feet deep and I wasn't even going to try diving for it in November. After some effort I eventually rigged up a drag out of a long length of chain and some rope (this worked a treat when I finally took the time to do it properly) and fished the sail out undamaged but too late to do more than have a quick sail round the pond.
December 2000/Jan 2001
Winter and its getting cold. Too cold for me on December 31st - if there's thick frost I'm not going to go sailing! I've been considering modifying the boat to PlusPlus Mk 1A. This would entail taking the outer skin off and adding up to two inches more foam, then a new outer skin.
Sailing wise things are going OK. I think that things are improving - I even beat one of the clubs better sailors in a race the other week - he *must* have been having a major off day! Today I turned the second race into catalogue of errors - first, cutting my way nicely through a largish bunch up the first beat I went to duck an Iso, and tucked my bow nicely just behind his transom in approved inland fashion (we tend to sail much more closely without waves in the way), but hadn't realised how much I'd had to bear off - enough that my wing clipped his! Its not a boat to do 720s in - cost me around 15 places and just about last to the windward mark.
Then to make matters worse a few beats I was watching the rig and the downwind traffic carefully and completely failed to spot the *anchored* rescue boat... Another little repair job with a two inch square chunk removed from the stem...
I think the tacking technique is getting a lot more sorted. The critical thing is the elastic for the tiller. (This is a Moth thing primarily, shockcord from the tiller end to each side of the boat to centre the rudder). The trick for tacking seems to be to free off quite a bit of mainsheet as you for into the tack, tack the boat well through the wind, moving across quite late and letting the boat heel to what would be the new leeward side and then drop the tiller extension on the new side and sheet in the mainsheet hard with both hands while getting out on the windward side. The resultant massive pump as the boat comes upright accelerates the boat out of the tack and gets the foils working. This is of course much like an exaggerated conventional roll tack. And as for the rules - let me assure you that to date gaining speed as a result of the tack has not been an issue!
Jan 2001
I've been considering modifying the boat to PlusPlus Mk 1A. This would entail taking the outer skin off and adding up to two inches more foam, then a new outer skin.
Early April 2001
Got out sailing at last. A month ago I crewed (briefly) a Cherub at a horrendously cold Draycote and came down with flu. This weekend I could breathe a bit more, and the Foot and Mouth precautionary closure of Island Barn Reservoir where I sail is off for the moment, so I could go sailing. And it was a nice breeze, varying Force 3/4. I even managed line honours in one of the races, which I think is the first time I've managed that. Handicap results were less impressive, but I felt I was sailing the boat better than I have, with only a few major errors... What was interesting was chasing a Laser Vortex for a while. Yes, thankyou, I did overtake it! It seemed as quick as my boat offwind in lighter winds, but as soon as I was planing seriously I could leave it. I believe that the prototype Vortex sail was cut by Caws, a few months after they did my sail, and it seemed to me that there was something of a family resemblance in the two rigs. I'd love to kid myself that there's some influence from my ideas on the production boat, but fear that the resemblances come purely from the Sailmaker...
I crewed an RS400 in the club open the next day, rather less than successfully. Just couldn't work out how to get it going upwind. Perhaps being fit enough to sit out hard would have helped! Anyway, I have a lot of time for the 400, I think Morrison does those low wetted area all rounder boats very well. However what was striking was the noise! Modern Cherubs and the PlusPlus have low rise of floor, very vertical topsides, and plane very quietly. The spray just blasts away from the hull at the chines, and, apart from a sharp tapping (or banging, depending on the wave height) as you hit each wave then there's not that much noise. The 400, on the other hand kicks up a hell of a racket, especially if its not bolt upright. There's a continuous sort of bubbling roar from the topsides on the leeward side at around mid length. Presumably that's part of what's going on to cause its rather indifferent top speed. Every boat is a compromise!
Early June 2001
The boat's been out a fair bit recently. I'm getting a better technique going for upwind sailing, which is helping some. Basically I'm ever so slightly feathering the boat into gusts when overpowered upwind, combined with quite a lot of twist in the main, which seems to work better than playing the mainsheet too much. I'm also putting the weight further forward, which means sitting on the front corner of the wing. Upwind is still a problem though, and I think basically its down to just having too little rocker and too much wetter area. Boat surgery hopefully will help. What I am doing is carrying the big rig into more and more breeze, in order to have the power available downwind. There's just not enough power reaching on the courses my club prefers... The new technique helps with this, although I was getting severely blown about last Wednesday when it was hitting I think the top of F5 in the gusts.
Downwind has been a bit embarrassing. Carrying all that rag for power is all very well, but last Sunday I copped a really big gust. Bore away and freed off hard as you must, and down the mine fast went the bow. This was bad enough, but the boat heeled slightly to windward, and the windward wing hit the water. Normally it has a positive angle of incidence and tends to bounce up. With the bow down trim caused by the water level being just over the foredeck it had a negative angle of incidence and flipped the boat over to windward exceedingly quickly! I reckon its the most spectacular capsize I've managed in a good many years, and one observer commented that it just seemed to be inevitable in that I appeared to be doing everything right... On reflection had I borne away slightly more slowly and kept the boat bolt upright I might well have got away with it - I'm not sure its going to be very easy to actually pitchpole in this boat because it doesn't decelerate drastically as the bow goes in. It isn't easy though, and I guess Andy Paterson was the first to explore this behaviour in far trickier conditions at Hill Head a while back.
I had what initially seemed like a similar capsize on Wednesday, but it was actually caused by the rudder pin lifting out of the bottom bracket. Oh well, I've been meaning to put a clip on. Got to now!
On a different topic I've also been using the boat for our Youth training! Using the slab reefs in the sail I hasten to add - the second reef barely comes up to the spreaders and makes for a quiet and manageable boat which still has a little more sparkle than a Topper. The wide cockpit and feeling of space seems to comfort some of the nervous youngsters for a trip round the bay - the ability to look over the front of the wing at the water seems popular. At the other end of the scale one of our more experienced young Topper sailors has done a couple of trips in the boat steering, with me as mainsheet hand and balance. Its quite pleasant to sail like that, though that could be my natural preference for crewing...
September 2001
Well, by the time most of you read this the PlusPlus will be under the knife... Three years on its time to apply some of the lessons learned and modify the hull some. The plan is to add a bit more rocker and a bit more fullness and rise of floor in the centre sections. This should help out the light air performance quite a bit. I'm also hoping to make some gains at moderate wind planing because I don't think the boat lifts and reduces wetted area quite as well as it might until its really flying. On the other hand I'm definitely assuming a drop in top end reaching performance, but that really isn't an issue. Here's last Sunday's quote, from Club RS400 sailor, who *had* been 100 yards ahead of me at the start of a 400yard (for him) spinnaker reach "Where the **** did you come from". The RS400 is a nice boat, but high speed reaching really isn't its forté:-). Lots more discussion on this subject here on the Plus Plus mk1a/2 page.
The new rudder is an improvement, but not a huge one, but then again the blade isn't much larger. Possibly we should have gone bigger yet, but of course the whole game will change with the new hull shape anyway. Hopefully it will get easier. In the meantime I've got some work to do to - I'm going to shave down the wing end floats some. Hopefully this will reduce the tendency to invert. Also at the moment you have to specifically move from sitting on the base of the wing up a step to the end of the wing. If this is made smooth there should be less of a tendency to either sit in or sit out, and not in between, when in between is faster...
Jan 13 2002
Back on the water. The surgery is complete... First couple of races today in a sort of variable F1/2 sort of breeze that wasn't shifting very badly. We won't talk about the first one, which suffered from winding most of the strings round most of the other strings while rigging. An inability to sheet the mainsail in properly or put enough cunningham on is not especially quick! The second race, however I was third on the water behind a couple of RS400s.Rather too far behind the first of them, but I blame the light bit in the middle of the race:-).
First impressions are that upwind speed has benefited quite considerably. Its much easier to keep the boat planing, and even more importantly it doesn't stop nearly as badly when it drops off the plane in the lulls. Similarly light runs and broad reaches in sub planing conditions don't seem to be nearly so doggy. The boat still slips onto the plane very easily, I'd say that drag is probably much the same in the transition and low planing speeds, but appreciably less at sub planing speeds.
Lots more conditions to explore, but so far I'm pleased, especially as the improvement upwind seems to be visible from the shore!
Jan 27 2002
There was a bit of everything today! The previous week I didn't race the PlusPlus because there were 40knots plus gusts with a wind direction that was going to make launching quite risky. The morning race was sort of F0 to 1, variable but not too shifty surprisingly. Previously that would have been complete death to the ++, but, coupled with a course that had lots of apparent wind reaching it was pleasing to end the race mixed up with the RS400s. Definitely a big improvement in those conceptions with the boat a lot less sticky. The second race was a bit of a disaster - a very congested start line led to a bad start, and it took about a lap to get clear of the Lasers. The wind blew up a fair bit towards the end, and I have a suspicion that we're noticeably down on high speed reaching, but that's only to be expected. Upwind still feels lots better!
Feb 3 2002
15 to 20 knots coming through regularly and a definitely vicious feel to the gusts... I decided to put the small rig out, and as I careered out to a line that was set perilously close to the leeward bank this felt like a good idea... So, how will the small rig feel upwind? You may recall that I had some concerns before this surgery... Well it feels good - up onto the plane, good speed (apart from one *horrendous* tack) and pretty easy to get in the groove. The boat is definitely a whole lot more tolerant now than is used to be. What with the low aspect/low speed optimised plate and the increased rocker you there's a lot less luck involved in getting a tack right than there used to be...
Onto the reach, RS400s and things falling over right left and centre... Stercus, stercus, morituri sum, as readers of Terry Pratchett will recognise:-) Having a terrible job getting it stabilised on the reach, but with everyone else falling over maybe its just a viciously nasty bit of wind... Next run turns out to be through the middle of the Laser fleet coming up to their beat, and with a huge gust behind. This is getting very worrying... manage to hold it then gybe clear... Another 400 in and another place. Then for laps two and three the wind dropped and I ended up spending the runs and broad reaches sat in the middle of the boat struggling for power...
One nice manoeuvre I was pleased with was on one of the doggier runs where a 400 somehow managed to get an inside overlap coming up to the mark when I was underpowered... pointed up a bit and powered up, and while he was going for a gybe and drop at the mark I gybed early and came onto the mark at full speed right onto his transom... He elected to point up to stop me going to windward with no speed on... So I just shot straight through his lee with the extra speed and got in front and back in clear air... Its an important point I think, in any gybing downwind boat I think you want to avoid gybing at the leeward mark, with so much else to do its almost always slow, especially if you've got a kite to drop. Go a bit higher, gybe early and just round up round the mark and you're starting the beat at full planing speed and can keep that apparent wind for a few boat lengths, as well as more tactical options...
24 April 2002
Yes, been a long gap. What with the Sailboat exhibition featuring my old Cherub (q.v.) and a number of crewing jobs and so on I didn't really do the second half of the winter series in the ++. However tonight the Wednesday evening series started, so I dragged the boat out, complete with its new elastic return on the outhaul and a couple of other bits of string tidying things up. It was the warmest day of spring so far, and a rather pleasant F2ish sort of breeze, somewhat variable in direction but not mega shifty. And I picked up one of my best ever results in the boat - beat the entire club Laser fleet including at least one person who finished in the top 10 in last years Laser Radial Masters. Of course this might be something to do with the best breeze of the evening having been after the Lasers had finished and the fast fleet were doing one more lap, and probably quite a lot to do with the club handicapper giving me a new and exceedingly generous handicap - it seems he was the only person who didn't know I was modifying the boat - but I was still pleased!
28 April 2002
Not a good day. With 30 knots coming down the pond at times I went out for a blast with the mast in the low position and the sail taken down to the second slab reef - so not an awful lot of rag up. At this point the wind increased - apparently well into Force 8 by the clubhouse anemometer. Actually all was fine and controllable until the outhaul decided to give way, leaving an uncontrollable bag in place of a nice flat heavy weather sail. This precipitated a couple of swims, and worse still it appears that at some stage in the exercise the starboard shroud managed to break through the carbon bracket for the shroud. Fortunately because the mast is also supported by the stump and lower shrouds there were no more serious consequences, although I shudder to think what might have happened had this failed on a high speed reach... Time to give up. This in itself was a game and a half as it had to involve derigging the boat on the leeward bank before a tow back, but (thanks Stuart) got back without further incident. But now I have to sort out replacing both shroud anchorages, and I fear there is quite a bit of structure involved. More when I've talked to Mr Paterson...
14 December 2002
No, not a sailing update, just a note to say that the shroud brackets have now been replaced and the boat will be heading back to the sailing club soon. I've been busy all summer with Cherubs and the poor old ++ has taken a back seat.
27 April 2003
Well, we're most definitely back on the water now. To replace the shroud brackets I got some substantial triangular stainless steel "rings" and wrapped a good number of layers of unidirectional carbon round them and onto the hull surface, spreading them well over the outer face of the hull flare so that the load is distributed over a wide area with plenty of adhesion.
Back on the water we've had outings in a variety of conditions. Last Wednesday was the first evening race of the season. An Eighth out of 24 odd was pleasing, especially as I beat some *very* talented Laser Sailors on handicap. However it must be said that the Lasers had been having a very close battle all round the course and had basically sailed themselves to the back of the fleet on handicap. They blamed the course, but I figure the internecine squabbling must have easily cost them the 90 seconds that would have put their leaders 2,3,4 instead of 7,9,10.
This Saturday we had more wind, 10-15 knots building to 20ish, 25 in the gusts. With the big rig up it was something of a handful, especially bearing away and other direction changes. I actually messed up the race on the first beat though. Feathering into a gust I let the boat slow too much, and when it then headed 20 degrees I found myself stationary with foils stalled out and no control. Worse still the following pack was hurtling up to me on starboard, and most of the obvious moves for regaining control would have put me in someone's path with no rights at all... I just had to wait!
What has become especially irritating lately is the business of gusts downwind. I think with the rocker changes the boat is just a little slower downwind. Previously it used to just sail in the lulls, which was irritating enough (see the June 2000 entry . Now it seems just a tad slower and gusts do catch up to me. At which point I speed up and sail out of the front of them again. Meanwhile some slower boat behind is sailing in 50% more wind and staying up with me. Arrghhh. Obviously if I was as fast as a 49er then I could sail into gusts. The thing to watch out for is the days when there are wind lanes, because then you'd just point up or soak down to the windy bit. Or else sail on the sea where the breeze is more consistent...
18 Jan 2004
To be quote honest the Cherub is taking first place at the moment by a long way, and late Summer/Autumn in the Cherub went very well indeed to the extent that we have some new glassware at home. Consequently over the year the singlehander only really came out for the Wednesday evening series, in which I got some for me reasonable results, aided by what I think is an excessively favourable revised club handicap. It was the best place I've got overall in the series, although keeping the boat on the water all summer so I got a reasonable number of races in helped
I'm giving some thought to a possible further round of hull tweaking though for a year or so's time. The extra rocker and rise of floor has helped in the light stuff, but at the cost of a considerable penalty in planing conditions. I'm mulling over the possibility of putting a flat around a foot or so wide along the centreline of the boat, washing out a bit before the mast. What that would do is give a bit more lift to the centre of the hull at speed, without having too much of a wetted area penalty. It would also decrease rocker along the centreline without changing the buttock lines farther aft. To do it would simply be a case of shaving off some of the extra foam we put on the boat in 2000, leaving a feather edge, and slapping on a new layer of glass over the top. Well, a bit more sophisticated round the daggerboard case, but that's the run of it.
Of course the other thing you have to think about, with all the success the Moths are having is lifting hydrofoils, and the thought is certainly very tempting, but I think the launching could be a real problem at Island Barn. The trick I suppose would be to work out a trailer system where the daggerboard can be left in all the time - more like a lifting keel.
16th Feb 2005
Another year, another update! Quite a comedown for what must have been effectively pretty much the first sailing blog, although I didn't think of it like that!
Seeing a post about the beast on Yachts and Yachting's Forums has reminded me I thought of some stuff to put in a post here a coupla weeks back, though I've forgotten what it was!
What has the last year seen? A couple of problems with wing beams: well they're six years old now. Two of the club youngsters noticed a crack while they were sailing the boat two handed, and brought it back in gingerly before it snapped, and the week after I had repaired that I found another incipient crack, so had to stop again to do that. Basically just chuck on a few more layers of unis, hardly rocket science!
Have been thinking that when I get round to do the next boat I must replace the mast as well. More taper in the mast tip and a higher aspect ratio sail (so taller mast) I think, bring the range when its time for the small rig down a bit for the same area and have a better aspect ratio with the small rig. I'm tempted to do a Bethwaite type collar round the mast foot to cover the kicker area. Bethwaite has made some reasonable aerodynamic claims for these - admittedly his argument is principally to do with interaction with jibs - but it occurs to me that on a singlehander one could maybe run the collar back as far as the mainsheet which might make quite a difference at the bottom of the sail where the losses must be horrendous.