Now that the top boats in the worlds are using 2+ front hydrofoil horizontals, 2+ rudder foil horizontals, 2 masts & 2 sails has anyone changed their mind and think that something like the international 14 Rule 17 is a good idea ?

17 (e) Equipment usage

(i) Sails. Each boat, irrespective of owner, shall have for use not more than one (1) mainsail, two (2) headsails and one (1) spinnaker for use during any one regatta.

(ii) Mast and spars. Each hull is only allowed one mast, one boom, one bowsprit and one spinnaker boom for use during any one regatta.

(iii) Centreboard/daggerboard. Each hull is only allowed one centerboard or one daggerboard for use during any one regatta.

(iv) Rudder. Each hull is only allowed one rudder for use during any one regatta.

(v) Hydrofoil. Each hull is only allowed one hydrofoil (as defined in Rule 6) for use during any one regatta.

(vi) General

(i)  This Rule 17(e) applies only to World Championships, other International events, and to National Championships

(ii) The mast, spars, sails, rudder, centreboard/daggerboard, and hydrofoil of each boat, irrespective of owner, must be declared at the start of each regatta.

(iii) Any application to change a mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard, or hydrofoil must be in writing to the PRO and permission will be granted provided (a) the discarded mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard or hydrofoil is damaged beyond repair and is not used again by that boat during the regatta and (b) any official stamp on the discarded mast, spar, sail, rudder, centerboard/daggerboard, and hydrofoil has been appropriately crossed;

So the last week or so has been spent focusing not on moths so much, but on non moth related activities. But, as always I am still trying to improve my result, and for a mid fleeter one of the best ways to do that is to try and minimise the alphabet in my scorecard.

When a boat has a lot of miles, there is a matinence cycle that needs to happen. For some people this translates to “fix things when they break”, and for others it translates to “sell the boat and get a new one”, the approach I am trying is “identify and fix marginal stuff before it breaks”.

The other thing that will happen at this regatta is that there will be people looking for spares for the older boats after things break.

And with that I thought I should outline some of the things that commonly break and that you should be looking at, especially if you are sailing a home build, Bladerider or Prowler.

1. Control rods. A common failure is that the thread strips out of the brass barrell nut, or the pushrod breaks at the thread. You should have spares of both, and know how to replace them.

2. Bladerider sika hinge. The sika hinge is a known failure point of Bladerider foils, and if it fails it is game over, the flap will rip off and take the pushrod with it, and tear through the vertical. You need to check the sika, especially at the tips before every sail.

3. Loosing unique parts. Bellcrank clips, ball joints, bolts that are a strange size. You should have spares of all of those.

4. Breaking the wand. Accidents happen and wands break, it may get caught in a spectators dress, the boat may fall on the bow, it may come untied and drag on the road, it might be destroyed on the beach, or someone may crash into your boat and break it. (All these have happened).

5. Gantry attachment points. Where the gantry attaches to the hull, mainly for boats with a Prowler style joint (like mine), this is a known failure point. If you have bolts they need to be replaced pre-regatta. This gave me a DNF at the states.

6. Tiller universal joint. This is another one with tricky parts to replace. This was a states failure for me and one of the reasons I now run gantry adjustment instead.

To summarise … replace worn bits NOW and get spares, spares, spares and more spares.

Personally I hope I have all my failures out of the way, at least I discovered this mast stump failure last week, and it is all repaired now.

Bring on Belmont !!!

When I write test plans in my day job at work, I write a one line sentence to make things really clear “Anything explicitly not listed as in scope, is out of scope by default”

Well when I read rule number one, to me, the phrase “fullest liberty in design and construction within these rules”  that implies, that “Any development that is not explicitly banned, is allowed by default”, however that does not appear to be the case. Maybe that is something we should look to add in the future.

Then the propellor heads of the world are free to create things like this … “but it’s only used to cool the engine.”

Yes this blog post is just an excuse to post  a picture if the Brabham fan car.