Paul356

That's a terrific explanation, Alan. Thanks.

An exciting day, to be sure. You're video is a lot of fun, too.

It will give an answer through trial and error as you sail a downwind leg if you put in a waypoint where you're headed, then try different headings and speeds until you maximize the vmg. It's essentially telling you if your actual speed exceeds the distance penalties you've worked out through trig (5.1, 5.3, 5.8, etc.). But if you mean will it statically predict a vmg for a given boat or wind condition, no. That's where the polars come in, and as noted they are highly individualized. Also, I think most racing skippers will tell you that they "know" they can beat or can't quite make the polar numbers in certain areas of the graph: they remain estimates, especially when a boat model is new and there is little experience to feed in. Finally, sea state can have a huge effect on the polar performance. There is a lot of difference between sailing in flat water vs reaching hard into a head sea (which may not be the same on each tack) and vs. broad reaching on waves sufficient to provide a surfing boost. For fun, you could throw in the difference between salt and fresh waveforms. Our relatively light CSs may take a huge hit on upwind performance in a chop, but could pick up a huge lift from a fairly modest following sea, especially if the skipper and crew can "ooch" it right. The onboard vmg reading will give you that, where a polar can only give a predicted estimate. All obvious, maybe. --pb

A great sail, and way to go at the end. Looking forward to hearing all the details.

SOS and Highlander maybe 500 yards apart after all this time, it seems.

Alan still has a slight edge on the Highlander as they turn the corner for Flamingo. I suspect the race will come down to navigation, local knowledge and boat handling as much as anything at this point. Alan and Dad should have the upper hand there?!

Swimboy's notes on the roster page said he capsized off Sarasota c. 7 p.m. Saturday evening, was able to get righted, then returned to DeSoto. And his spot track shows he made it back to the DeSoto ramp. That's a long haul back north in the dark. Winds apparently were relatively light at the time of his turnaround. I bet he has a tale to tell. Having capsized this summer, I'd be interested in hearing from Swimboy. I still owe you all my tale.

Pretty neat. Wear the hat with pride.

Off of Naples now, heading for check point 2, sailing at 6+ knots. 3d in class, maybe? Running neck and neck with 2d, with the speedster "spawn" pretty far out in front.

It seems like there are two schools of thought here: Back the end of the trailer into the water and roll the boat off, or back most of the trailer into the water and float the boat off. I guess I have defaulted into the second, but maybe I want to be into the first. I'll have to give it some thought. I see that others have taken the roll-on/roll-off approach. Pete, your walking plank seems like a good idea for either approach; thanks for the idea. I'd missed it before.

Well, "butt joint" has always stopped me for a second, so...

Plus mast tubes are a lot of fun to make.

Enjoyed the video. I always learn something from watching how you work. Thanks.

Based on earlier comments, I had made both sprits a little longer for my 17, and I am glad to have the extra length for flattening. In fact, I then had to in effect "shorten" the mizzen sprit a bit by adding a little line tag to the clew of the mizzen so the sprit would set further back and not interfere with the main. That is, it was so long it was poking too far in front. Make any sense? But it was much easier to do that than make it too short and have to scarf in something later. Ask me how much longer? Can't remember. If someone needs to know, say the word and I'll run out to the garage and measure.

Always fun to watch work by folks who know what they're doing.