Now that we have some regular GPS action happening at St. George thought it would be interesting to post a comparison of just how much faster Luka’s state of the art prowler is compared to a Wombat 84 style skiff.
A the start, things are pretty much even when the gun goes, except that Luka is doing more than twice my boat speed, before he even gets going. You pretty much feel like you are not in gear when the gun goes off, and the fleet blasts away from you.

When Luka takes his first tack, he is already halfway up the first work, and I am only just clearing the line parallel to the St. George sailing club. This graphically shows the speed difference in a straight line drag race upwind.

At the windward mark, Luka now has a lead of half a leg.

By the time I reach the windward mark, the foilers are long gone. It looks like the foilers haven’t pulled a bigger gap, but that is because I was running with the 5 knot run out tide and they were running against it. From this point on the only time I see them again is when they pass me going the other way or put a lap on me.

This just goes to confirm that these foiler moths are awesome beasts, and my new boat can’t come soon enough.


February 19th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Nice post mate.
February 19th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
The reason the gap isn’t bigger by the time you got to the top mark is probably because of 2 cartwheels as well
March 1st, 2007 at 9:18 am
Hi Bruce,
Nice post, I posted a reply on my Blog… I wish I was as good sailing as I am with my pc
Greetings from Holland,
Koos