DaySailer.org Forum

Hey Niles

You look you were planing in the one pic.

SD

I don't know but it felt fast I usually can tell b/c I have a GPS and anything above about 6 mph has to be planing based on the hull speed right? Without the gadget it was honestly a bit harder... but it made me start looking up at the telltales rather than looking down at the GPS.

I really really really want to get a Doyle before next season...... I have little hope of flying my spinnaker without some crew and there are so many light air days on Beaver lake I would like something a bit bigger and lighter to play with.

Curifan, they got several good pictures of your boat.

John

I can usually feel it come out of the water when it happens to me.
I would like to do the doyle thing also. but I have so many things I need to do first with no time to do them. that is on the far back burner. Maybe when I retire.

SD

At the rate my "refit" is going, the only new sail I will be able to get is my grandmothers old table cloth strung from the forestay!

I went back and looked at my old GPS logs, the FASTEST I have ever had the boat was 8 MPH - I think this had to be planing since it exceeded the math based hull speed. Based on what I have read here, with the right rig and right wind you can get that sucker faster.

34 582 ft 432 ft 0:00:36 8 mph 235.0° true 5/11/2013 10:46:16 AM N32 47.351 W97 25.641
35 581 ft 429 ft 0:00:40 7 mph 246.5° true 5/11/2013 10:46:52 AM N32 47.310 W97 25.710
36 581 ft 425 ft 0:00:38 8 mph 244.7° true 5/11/2013 10:47:32 AM N32 47.282 W97 25.787

That was before I knew enough to set it for knots (doh!). That was on my second actual sail in the boat - with the North Sails - very new. Never beat it since, but never had a 6'2 215 lb crew member since then either!

The highest peak I've seen on my GPS was around 11mph during the 2011 Tx200. That was in 20+ knot winds with a double reefed main, probably happened while surfing down waves.

John

And even then, with a portable GPS, it's easy to get false maximum speeds if you happen to move it forward for any reason (like returning it into a holder). If your tracks show that the speed (or a slightly slower speed) was maintained across multiple trackpoints then I would assume you would be able to increase your confidence that the number is real and not an artifice.

John, I assume you have the full track information for your trip. How closely spaced were your track points? Any indication that the peak speed , number is real? Even if it was from surfing a wave, for example, and therefore legitimately shows only once, you'd expect nearby points to have above average speeds as well, don't you think? Is that something your software lets you get at? Another interesting thing would be a running average speed over a time period that would cover a few track points.

I assume that fully loaded for the TX200 as you were, you'd not be able to get your DS to plane, but with the winds as you describe them it might have sailed in "forced mode" for stretches, which would seem to be the prerequisite to allowing a wave to push you to the peak speed you observe.

Although my GPS does get averages, they are for the whole trip. I'm not sure what the interval is between track record times. I lost some of my 2011 tracks. You are correct that a GPS can provide a false speed if the unit is jerked rapidly. I do remember watching the GPS for a few minutes at times to get a more accurate idea of the speed. I do rember in 2011 seeing a steady 8+mph (unit was not set to knots) on a couple occasions. I do not know when that peak was recorded or what the conditions were at the time, I just know it was crossing a large bay with wave chop reported that day at 6 - 8 feet. Surfing down a wave is my guess for the high speed recording.

2011 was a very windy year, the windiest of any of the Tx200 events. The winds increased in strength each day with the last two days being 20-22 knots gusting between 25 to 30. Lots of damage among the boats that year. That year half the boats that started dropped out along the way.

In 2010, the year I dropped out (my first attempt) I was sailing alone and the boat wasn't as heavily loaded as the years after that I recall getting into a planning condition for a short period of time. 2010 the winds were more mild (5 -15 knots, depending on the day), that year I was asked to pull out by the organizers. They thought I had heat stroke, but it was really bad fatigue due to ne being able to sleep at night for the previous 4 days, just couldn't sleep. It was probably best that I pulled out. I was much better prepared in 2011. The Day Sailer didn't fail me tho.

John