A good day at last. Saturday at StGeorge was a nice 10-15kt southerly. Seth came out to play and the moths were mostly disorganised or absent. Only Grant foiled and sailed away from us as usual.

Seth and I had a good work out. He has a slight edge to windward. I am either improved after some batten work since Hayden beat me upwind convincingly in October, or Hayden has improved since Seth raced him at Easter. Maybe its a bit of both.

My boat is still a lot faster downwind. I can run over Seth and then soak down way below and ahead of him. This was similar to what we found 16 months ago when the Log was new. Maybe its the weight difference, maybe its the narrower beam, maybe its the one big sail. We will find out at McCrae when I race the US DCs with sloop rig.

I got well ahead in the race and after a couple of laps I waited and we started together again. Same scenario, he got an edge at the top and I ran past him. We lined up together for a beam reach and I just managed to get through below him by a few boat lengths.

A good day, made all the tacks and gybes without swimming. Had a couple of lazy dips while trying to run by the lea to miss some traffic. Not taking it serious enough at the time.

Two weeks to go. A couple of solo sailing days practice then the big one.

Carriage repairs were sucessfull. I gave it a pretty hard work out yesterday. Wind was solid 15 with some 25 gusts so it was also a test of my boat handling. That did not come up so well.

My excuse was the failure of my Ratchet block which meant I was physically wrecked after a couple of works and consequently spent a lot of time in the drink from bad tacks and gybes.

Only my pride damaged though.

I have listed the boat for sale on the IC Marketplace: http://www.intcanoe.org/forum2/viewforum.php?f=20

$A6500 after McCrae if you are interested.

Another brief day's sailing. A good breeze and even another canoe to sail against as Seth finally got past his family commitments.

Unfortunatley my carriage failed again like it did in February so it did not last long.

But we did have 10 minutes of upwind sailing and at least I was on the pace with Seth, unlike when I sailed against Hayden last Month. Hopefully is this as a result of my work on the boat, battens, technique etc and not because Seth is out of form.

He also showed me some better ideas to improve my carriage and so this week I have some rebuilding to do.

It sure helps having some proven Canoes and canoe people about rather than winging it. Seth even bought Eric with him to add canoe heritage.

I had a good outing yesterday at Balmoral. Due to continued lack of canoes I raced 10 moths at their first NSW interclub event.

A patchy 10-12 kt S-SE was ideal for me but not enough for most of the foiling moths. I lead for almost one lap until Dave Lister got enough to slip past, after which he went further ahead. No one else got close and in the end I lapped most of the fleet. They all seemed to be able to fly for most of the time but when they get light patches they park while the canoe just glides on. It was good to see such moth numbers with a few new faces.

A nice confidence booster with no handling or apparent speed problems. The new gloss finish on the board and rudder might have helped too. Stils ome fiddling to do with battens.

Seth is tied up with his family for another couple of weekends so no DC/IC tuning just yet.

Sailed the moth last weekend instead, at least I had a fleet to sail against. Its obvious that the moth is where I should be putting the effort once the Canoe Worlds is over. The young guys who have been out every week are now legs ahead of me.

I hope to get out on the canoe mid week for some more solo practice, but without any other canoes I have no idea how fast it is going. At least all the UK and US competition are without their boats while in transit.

So who wants a cheap DC after January?

I have had a few sails against the moths at St George. I can sort of hang in with them upwind even if they are foiling, going higher and slower but getting there with the second level boats. But downwind they are twice as fast and I have to wait to be lapped to get another go at them.

Have been playing with battens a lot and have the sail looking much better than at Albury, when there were some hard items installed. I seem to have regained the lost light air speed and height and have found a way to get upwind more comfortably when the wind comes up.

Next Sunday Seth is coming for a sail, and since he is one of our top ICs I should get a better picture as to whether I have improved since racing Hayden.

Canoe Rendeveu Albury

Visted Albury to race a few canoes including National Champ Hayden Virtue.

He won 4 out of 5 races with vastly superior upwind speed. I beat him only once with a downwind finish speed burst, and on only one other occasion got past him at a leeward mark.

But I was happy with my stage of development knowing that Hayden is the best in Aust and up there near the top of the world as well.

At least I managed 3 full races without swims in some challenging and gusty conditions, only relapsing once I got very cold and a little tired.

Speed improvements are needed to the LOG. We found that the similar rig on my former Moth, Chainsaw, improved dramatically with some diamonds to prevent side bend, so this will be my first experiment. I have to sort out the luff zip / unrig requirements, but first I will see if it makes the required difference.

Report on:
http://www.internationalcanoe.yachting.org.au/?page=32413

Another sail last Saturday. Openning day at St George.
Had a race against 4 foiling moths. Stayed with Luka's Prowler (No 2 in Aust Nationals) up the first work but then downwind he shot through in pursuit of Dave's new boat who had blitzed us all from the start. Lea caught me at the first gybe but in the 10-12 kts he cold not get low enough on the downwind and I ran away never to see him again. Grant was back a bit further on Revelations, unable to figure what adjustments had changed over the winter as he was barely foiling.
On the last lap Bruce appeard late again with his monster and we sailed together for a while. We were even closer matched than last week, until he gets clumbsy and rolls it over.
Happy with another day without swims, despite some poor gybes.
Sail is back with Ben Gemmell this week for some repairs and fine tuning. He will get a look at it next week when the 12s come to St George for a visit.
Then its down to Albury to race the ICs again the following week.

I had another sail of the canoe yesterday. We had 4 moths out from St George and Bruce's 16ft moth on steroids as well. It is like a scaled up moth with 3m wide wings from which he trapezes, 500mm wide hull and a giant 12msq single sail on a rotating wing mast, some weapon.

It was only light when we launched. The Hollow Log was much faster than the moths in sub foiling winds, but when Bruce came out he was marginally faster upwind in less than 10 kts. Neither of us were fully powered up, but were going upwind faster than everything else.

We sailed around to the River club who had an opening race for the 16s. By this time the wind was a touch over 10 and Luka was foiling his moth well. The three of us followed the 16s away from their start.

In two short laps Luka had caught and passed all the skiffs, Bruce and I had a close race just behind the slowest skiffs, gaining upwind and losing downwind. The Hollow Log proved faster upwind than Bruce, while he gained a little downwind. After two laps I waited for him and we did another lap in slightly less wind and we stayed closer together.

On the way home we both commented that it was good to have another boat of similar performance to tune and race against. At least until he finishes his new 16.

More time on the boat. No dramas, no swims, nice speed.

I have has a query from Rhys in NZ with some interest in canoe building. My response is valid to anyone else who might be considering building from the Hollow Log design as posted on the Aust Canoe web site:

It has taken me along time to feel comfortable sailing my canoe. It is not an easy boat and I have made many mods to the sail, rig, seat and systems before reaching the point that I am comfortable to sail it in at least 20kts and reasonably smooth water.
I still need lots more practice before the idea of 25kts and waves is tempting, but we might get that at McCrae, so I will be working on it.I think I can handle a small boat OK. I have been sailing narrow moths for 5 years and manage to finish about 1/3 from the front in NSW and Aust fleets. I am 57 and a long skinny 85kg.
If all that sounds like you and your commitment, then I recommend building the boat at minimum width because the rewards when you get it right are very moth like.
If you want something easier you could try some of these options:
* simply increasing the width of the bottom pannel (and hence chine width )by 100mm
* increasing the prismatic coeff by making the ends blunter,
* lowering the freeboard and cockpit floor
* using the conventional sloop rig, but you would need to widen the gunwale beam at the mast to stay it. I doubt the sloop rig would be lighter but the short boom would make gybing much easier.

I would not change:
* the general hull shape and the way the stressed ply flows smoothly from bow to planing areas as nicely as a bow wave.
* much of the structure as I have proven it tough and strong enough. The foam BH are really forms for the carbon ring frames and also deck supports for heavy feet.
* fin, seat and cat rig mast positions. The boat tacks well and only gets into iroms when you centre the tiller halfway though a tack. And since I have got the sail to twist downwind there is no tendency to nose dive.

Scott and Luka won the Harbour Marathon in appalling weather on a borrowed 49er.
A report on Scott's blog: http://scott.projectsomewhere.com/

Next outing for the canoe will be against my moth friends when the St George SC season starts on the 15th Sept.

Then the October long weekend at Albury when the canoes gather for a tune up and pre worlds measurement session. I note the water level has risen to be higher now than it was last October when we had only a few short races in very light winds.

Woollahra Marathon?

Not for me.
Today its raining, cold and windy and I decided to stay at home and keep dry. Not sure if anyone else bothered.
There is a long warm summer ahead and that seems much more tempting.
Links to SFS results from last week:
http://www.sydneyflyingsquadron.com.au/bm/pr0701.htm

2007 SFS Brass Monkey Regatta

Last year the rooster but this year the feather duster.

On Saturday we had a hot Sydney westerly in the lee of the North Sydney high rise. The weather station at Fort Denison next to the course recorded winds of 15-20 with gusts of 25, but everone sailing thought it was worse than that with lulls to 5 and shifts of 45 degrees.

I got to the first mark after a couple of sucessful tacks in touch with the leaders but fell over on the bear away and put my body through the sail. End of day for AUS21.

In our division the race was between a good NS14 an MG14 and a 30 year old pre wing wooden 18. I think the small boats came out on top because they were easier to handle in the conditions.

In the other divsion the F18 cat blitzed it finishing a lap ahead in one race. One 18 in training struggled around, and the 12s won the yardstick

I repaired the sail overnight and improved the mainsheet system to reduce friction. The wind also dropped to a 10kt southerly.

I lead the 3rd race till the last mark when the old 18 caught me and then they ran faster downwind to the finish. The last race was nearly as good but the 18 lead around every mark. I probably stayed within a minute or two but could not find the shifts to sneak past.

The F18 and the modern 18 won a race each. Yardstick to the 12 again.

It was very rewarding to sail out of the start higher and faster than the NSs, as I still consider them as a benchmark in windward performance. I also tried sailing angles downwind, with body weight just outside the boat, and was impressed that the old 18 did not make huge gains. With a couple of slow gybes (the have an old end for end pole) I was right with them at the bottom mark each time. Some good practice, and some refinement of the boat. No swims on Sunday and getting confidnet on the tacks and gybes with improved technique.

Next weekend is the Woolhra Harbour Marathon.

Since last summer when Oliver Moore sailed the boat in the Australian Champs and placed 4th, (while I sailed in the concurrent Moth State Champs), the rig has been refined and now we can flatten the sail and independantly control twist. A great asset when gybing. And now my gybe success rate has increased alarmingly. Thanks to a lot of effort fromSail maker Ben Gemmell.

We sailed the Winter inParadise regatta a few weeks back and I managed plenty of safe downwinds and stayed unexpectedly close to the 12 ft skiffs and ahead of the cherubs in what was more like their type of course, upwind and straight downwind.

The plan is now to get as much seat time as possible up to the Canoe Worlds at McCrae in January 08. It will be hard though to not sneak out on my moth occasionally.

I am a new Blogger, but the canoe is now a year old, and has had a fair bit of development since winning the SFS Brass Monkey regatta on yardstick one year ago.
Next weekend we get to try and defend that title but not without the challenge of a less generous yardstick.