----- Original Message -----

From: colcampey

To: harryproa@...

Sent: Sunday, January 16, 2005 11:25 PM

Subject: [harryproa] Test sail

      Hi all,
      I was looking forward to crewing on the Elementarry on
Saturday in the inaugural Southport to Sandgate race, after a couple
of days practising in Moreton Bay with Rob, Mark and a 40 sq metre
Kite from Kiteship. As it turned out, Mark must have had a
premonition – the race was cancelled on Friday, after he had decided
earlier in the week not to race until after a little more fine-
tuning of (mainly) the sail handling setup (not to mention the
backlog of boatbuilding work he has to catch up with).
      So, instead I was able to have a sail on a 32 foot mono that
Rob was going to race on instead, with a 70 sq metre kite. What an
eye-opener! I've used a spinnaker on my 30 foot cat in the past,
appreciated the performance but not enjoyed the tendency for the
leeward bow try to bury itself (despite my cat – a Crowther- having
buoyant bows). The kite provides better performance for the same
size, but lifts the bows. I expect we'll see many more of them
around before long.It will be interesting to see how Rob adapts them
to proa sailing.
      Back to the Elementarry – the real reason for this post.
      After the race was cancelled, I arranged with Mark to have a
test sail on the Elemantary. Having been reading about Harryproas
for a few years now, I figured it was time to actually sail one.
Mark didn't need his arm twisted too hard and suggested we meet at
Grafton for a sail on the Clarence River – scene of the Bridge-to-
bridge race that the Elementarry didn't quite make it to ( read
about the mast problem on the website).
      Despite the cancellation of the Qld race 300 km to the north
due to strong wind forecasts, on the Clarence when we launched late
morning, we had 0-5 knots, and an incoming tide drifting us towards
the low bridge (where the race finished). For the first hour we
spent our time alternately with no breeze drifting towards the
bridge, then with brief "squalls" of 3-5 knots  obliquely across the
river ( also towards the bridge), allowing us to gain a little
breathing room.
      I was amazed at how little breeze it took to get El flying –
my only comparison is with a Nacra 5 metre I had – not a slow boat
but nothing like as reponsive as this one. 
      It was lunchtime at this stage and Mark showed me a handy
parking technique. There's a fairly steep grassy bank on the lee
shore of the river so we glided over, pulled in parallel to the
shore, hopped off, tightened the sheets and windward hull lifted up
as the masts lay gently over onto the grass, and there she lay for
30 minutes while we ate.
      After lunch the breeze picked up and I really experienced
what it's all about! The gentle pre-lunch practise had allowed me to
get familiar with what to do ( and not to do) during shunting.With
no preparation, Mark would ease the sails right off and haul them
back on in the reverse direction. As he was doing so, as we came to
a stop, there was little resistance to my swivelling the rudders
thru 180 degrees. As long as I didn't stuff up, we were accelerating
again quicker than if we were tacking a similar size cat. Upwind we
were shunting thru about 90 degrees (no compass or GPS for
confirmation) without heading as high as possible – I suspect 80 or
less is possble with fine tunng.
      On my Nacra cat I occasionally flew a hull, but never felt
very confident, and on one occasion even managed to pitchpole it
(despite a 90kg crewman).On the Elementarry Mark was regularly
lifting the windward hull using sail adjustment, in about 10 knots
of breeze, and after a little practice, I could do it quite easily
by steering off the wind a little while Mark kept it fairly tightly
sheeted. I suspect that with practice and with windward platforms on
the flying hull, it would be relatively easy to keep that hull
airborn for extended periods, without feeling like you're on a knife-
edge.
      Rob and Mark don't think that more than 2.5 metre beam is
necessary if the crew can get out to windward of the windward hull.
I liked the trapezes on my Nacra for the ease of moving for and aft
and in and out but Mark likes the idea of a platform because of the
implcations of  using trapezes with flexible masts (although only
one body per mast Mark :-)
      Part of the reason for the good performance of the boat is
its lightness (this also makes loading and unloading easier – as
does the fixed 2.5 metre beam.) Despite this I was impressed by how
solid the boat feels – less flex in the panels than either my Nacra
or my subsequent Windpeed 30 (which handled conditions up to gale
strength without any problems [the Windspeed, not the Nacra]
      The only negative aspect of the test sail  was the tendency
of the battens to stick when you shunt in light winds. Mark feels
that a track system instead of the luff pocket will fix this.
      In summary:  Fantastic – get your orders in!