G'day,

I have not done any real sailing with both rudders up, will do next time I go out, maybe this Sunday (Doug, I will give you a call).  Suspect it will point ok, but will have large leeway.  Last time I was out, I did sail upwind with only the aft rudder.  No obvious leeway, but no boats to compare with, either. 

 

I have not done any serious surfing yet (have a look at http://home.tiscali.nl/marsan/texel2005.wmv to find out what we would have had to go through at Texel this year) but don't think it will be a problem.  The boats that suffer tend to be short for their sail area/centre of effort.  We are very long.  The rocker is good if you sit on the back part, not so good if you sit on the front.  As long as you are ahead of the wave, I guess you tend to sit on the back, but as soon as the wave catches up, you sit on the front and down you go. 

 

What is really good about harryproas in surf is that you can use the rig to slow you down.  This is generally impossible with a stayed rig, where you can only ease the sails so far and your speed is then dictated by the breeze.  Ideally, you sail in just behind a wave, using the sheets to keep you in position.    We did this in the (small) surf at Coffs and it worked a treat.  The acceleration possible with direct  or 2:1 sheeting and a light boat also increases your options.  It is safer to sail faster than the wave and allow your rudders to work, rather than be pushed along at the same speed as the wave. 

 

regards,

 

rob

 

 

In shallow water with little or no  rudders down , can the boat still
point. I would assume that in spite of the shallow draft, the lack of
rocker would still give good tracking.


I read recently, I think it was in the Australian Multihull World
talking about the Wide Bay bar, about a cat pitch poling from surfing
in and digging its bows in the sand. I was wondering about how the
lack of rocker on a Harryproa would fare in similar circumstance. I
am tossing up between; better as the lack of rocker means lower COG
nad earlier and gentlerlift and acceleration; and worse as the bows
would dig in sooner. Overall I feel it would fare better from a wave
overtaking and worse if you overtook the wave and surfed down its
face.
Any views after taking Elementarry through the surf?
Robert




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