Fastnet 2013

[the_lone_wolf]

Thought the BP&T crowd might like these, Fastnet started today in Cowes, currently they're somewhere near Dartmouth, the fastest multihulls about to pass Landewednack...

[the_lone_wolf]

The wind picked up during the two hour start so they later classes got better pictures...

I live in Cowes so was watching the Bank Populaire (I think) trimaran absolutely flying back and forth before and during Cowes week, must have been going 30knts making everything else look like it was standing still...

[the_lone_wolf]

It's a bit Geosites isn't it?

Are you on the tracking thing:

http://fastnet.rorc.org/2013-fleet-tracking.html

Seems to be working OK for me, just watching it now...

[Kneetrembler]

the_lone_wolf said:

The wind picked up during the two hour start so they later classes got better pictures...

I live in Cowes so was watching the Bank Populaire (I think) trimaran absolutely flying back and forth before and during Cowes week, must have been going 30knts making everything else look like it was standing still...

The Trimarans were amazing tacking back and forth down the Solent, I followed down until the Needles ( by road ) as did a lot of others, everywhere packed to the gunnels

[dave-the-diver]

Those squared off mainsails.

Struggling to understand what keeps the head (peak) of the sail parallel to the boom.

Is there a spar up there?

Does the sail heavily rely on battens to keep it's shape up top?

At last the old gaffers I am used to have a peak halyard to control the top of the sail, although almost all open to some extent,

David

[the_lone_wolf]

dave-the-diver said:

Those squared off mainsails.

Struggling to understand what keeps the head (peak) of the sail parallel to the boom.

Is there a spar up there?

Does the sail heavily rely on battens to keep it's shape up top?

From what I can tell it looks like the sail simply extends beyond what would normally be the leech

All the reinforcement still runs from the head of the sail to the clew, but the roach is proportionally much larger than a typical "triangular" sail with the extra material held in place by beefy battens...

I think, but I'm not sure, that as sails are measured by their triangular dimensions, it's only the open classes where having such a large roach pays off in terms of maximum sail area and maximum efficiency...

I now await correction from someone who actually knows about them...

[ALawson]

I can ask a chap I sailed on a V60 with, he was with the Abu Dhabi team in the shore based crew and shudder know. they do have some pretty heavy duty batten and Carr systems, wouldn't be surprised if they went all the way to the head of he sail.

[the_lone_wolf]

ALawson said:

...wouldn't be surprised if they went all the way to the head of he sail.

From the hi-res pictures I have they do, there's three right at the top presumably to hold the unattached corner in place...

[ALawson]

The tops of the sails are heavily reinforced where they are locked off at the top of the mast.

If the wind stays where it is there could be some epic reaching conditions once round the lighthouse.

[b14]

As someone who sails boats with square top mains, I can confirm that the roach (as the area outside of the "sail triangle" is know) is supported with battens. In many boats these tend to be flexible to some degree, to enable the roach to "twist off" in the gusts and provide some gust response in the rig.

[the_lone_wolf]

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