So saturday provided a breeze that was a huge 5-7 knot SE breeze, another day where foiling was a challenge for all. Due to a last minute work trip to Brisbane, and a few errands on Saturday morning I only had an hour to get things sorted before heading out on the water. The best part of the race for me was a perfect port tack start on the biased pin end followed by a quick tack over to starboard ahead of the rest, 5 seconds later they were starting to get up and go. Game over.
The setup is still set at 1.5 degrees on the main foil, but it definitely needs more. I can get good lift from the front foil by putting on more AOA but as soon as she gets going, the wand reduces the lift with the bow up so high and the main foil then stalls out and she crashes back down.
One good thing about this is that I have seen this problem on the second and third week out, due to the light winds. If the winds had been say 15 knots instead of 8, then this problem would have been masked by the extra wind speed.
One of the other problems I am having is knowing what the correct angles are to sail downwind. With no boats around to compare with, it makes it harder to try different headings and see the differences in VMG.
So another thing that this confirms is that NOT going to the nationals in Wallaroo was definitely the right thing to do, as I would have been absolutely nowhere, and extremely frustrated.
You may have too much lift on you rudder. I had the same behavior with my boat and I want worried about main angle of attack. It was not till Mike Cooke told me to reduce lift of the rudder that the boat started to work properly. Try that before you worry too much about the main foil.
All the best,
Doug
Doug may have a point,
My boat runs zero angle. It does not get up as quick as a BR, but it gets up.
Doug,
Luka has suggested the same thing. I will try it next time out. Thanks for the tip.
Bruce