Marie G

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  • 29 Jul 2012 10:11
    Reply # 1024936 on 1019433
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

                                                                          

                                                                          Stavanger Sunday

    One has to realise that the boats Ketil raced against are quite hot, most of them with carbon, Kevlar and Mylar sails. Moreover, these racers can have their sails trimmed in a way the junk sails can not: The camber can be adjusted over a wide range. The fact that the junk sail is stuck with a constant camber will handicap it when going to windward in light winds. For this reason, it may well be that a junk sail meant for inshore racing should have as much as 10% camber in it to better match the average conditions.

    It could be that the split junk is more flexible with respect to varying wind strength than the ordinary junk. I am looking forward to hearing more from the racing with that rig.

    My motive for going junk was never to produce racing machines, but rather cruising machines. The idea was to get in as many sailed miles compared to motored miles as possible and with the minimum of fuss. One thing is for sure and that is that the general cruising performance of my Malena went up with the cambered junk sail, compared to when she had a Bermuda rig. That masthead Bm rig of course had no fancy trimming of the camber of the mainsail.

    Arne

    Last modified: 09 Aug 2012 08:51 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 29 Jul 2012 00:03
    Reply # 1024736 on 1019433
    Yee-hah!  Sounds quite a race, Ketil.  You must have had someone else with you for such a long one?  Well, I think she's proven herself and look forward to hearing how you get on as you and Marie G get to know each other better.
  • 28 Jul 2012 21:13
    Reply # 1024641 on 1019433

    Hi,

    Here comes the first report from Marie G:

    The start was 4-6 knots headwind, and Marie G behaved quite well. She could not keep up with the good racers, but left a good impression, keeping up with a Bavaria 45 and the not so hot Albin expesses. The 2 best sailed ones just left us behind.

    The wind changed direction and build gradually, a dead run starting at 10 knots building to 18. Marie G sprung to life and exelled. Most of the competition flew their spinnakers, and the bigger boats started to get away. As the wind increased, more people had problems with control with broaching and tearing sails. The sea was coming in from the port side, old heavy swells, and made the going rough for the boats around me. Marie G had overhauled the 2 fast Expresses, but they managed to follow her with very hard and skilfully helming. The rounding mark was a concrete tower build on an shallow "mid ocean". That was a 90 degrees tun to starboard, and resulted in a tight reach with the relative wind at 70-80 degrees and the seas from behind. Did she fly? Yes she did. 8 knots constant and surfing to 10,8, higly enjoyable. An extra bonus was looking behind to see the hard working crews to keep the spinnakers flying and not broaching. All good things must end, of course, and at the next rounding mark the wind died and changed to head on. Marie G now had to go to windward in very little wind, changing directions all the time. Sailing into the wind is OK when the wind is 8-10 knots and fairly steady. With wind from 3- 6 knots and warying, it is not easy, especially in the dark. Marie G was overhauled by 5-6 yachts during that period. Later the wind changed (again), and came as a lame 1-2 knots from dead behind. Marie G trotted along at 1-2 knots speed, and overhauled 4 boats in one go in the wee hours of morning. Sun rose and the wind changed to dead ahead 1-2 knots. That meant that the other boats said bye bye to Marie G. We exelled in the tailwind, they excelled in the headwind. Marie G and crew spent the next 7 Hours looking for the wind, and trying to creep forward the best we could. We managed quite well, and got to the point where we could sail to the finishing line when the wind came. We where the last boat to finish, but half the fleet did not reach the finishing line in time, so I am quite pleased with the result achieved.

    What conclusions do I make?

    1. No other rig gives a mixture of control and power when reaching and running.

    2. The Junk Rig is superior running in calm conditions.

    3. It performs well in a deacent headwind.

    4. It is an absolute bummer in a flimsy head draft.

    To establish the handicap on a decent beat, I will have to race it on a circuit. I will do that in the near future, watch this space.

    Happy sailing

    Ketil

  • 27 Jul 2012 21:48
    Reply # 1023964 on 1019433
    I didn't mean to imply the other sailors would be negative - more incredulous, but of course you guys in Stavanger have already pointed out that junks can sail.
  • 27 Jul 2012 16:42
    Reply # 1021271 on 1021070
    Deleted user
    Arne Kverneland wrote:

                                                                                Stavanger, Friday

    ......... And don’t forget; Marie G also has a very nice, light and elegant interior which makes her perfectly well suited for cruising with 2-3 on board, so I regard her more as a hot racing-cruiser than a flat-out racer.

    Arne

    2 is just fine!!  the 3rd is only for ballast.  
    I am sure Ketil appreciates the poem in 'The Junkman smiles' by G.R.G.Worcester:-

    "When one has good wine,
    A graceful boat,
    and a maiden's love,
    Why envy the immortal gods?"
    Li Tai-po  (AD 705-762)

    Cheers
    Edward
  • 27 Jul 2012 10:21
    Reply # 1021070 on 1019433
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

                                                                                Stavanger, Friday

    Modern racers like Ketil’s Marie G not only need a big crew for handling the rig, but the crew is even more essential as movable ballast. Ketil is mostly racing single-handedly which is good in light winds, but he no doubt will have to reef earlier than other X-99s as the wind picks up. In other words; there is more to racing these days than making the rig perform.

    However, there are also a couple of double-handed and single-handed races in our region, where Marie G will have a chance to really shine. And don’t forget; Marie G also has a very nice, light and elegant interior which makes her perfectly well suited for cruising with 2-3 on board, so I regard her more as a hot racing-cruiser than a flat-out racer.

    Arne

    Last modified: 27 Jul 2012 11:03 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 26 Jul 2012 22:56
    Reply # 1020592 on 1019433
    I don't think the Chinese curse of may you live in exciting times applies to Junk rigs because we are seeing exciting developments with the rig.
    I look forward to hearing how she goes.
  • 26 Jul 2012 22:38
    Reply # 1020578 on 1019433

    We are at a major step in the western junk rig knowledge base. Thanks to Ketil, and Edward in due course with Firebird, we are about to discover just how well we are getting on with improving the performance for the rig. After years of rigs which have underperforming (remember the stories of boats that wouldn’t even tack),  and comparisons with cruising Bermudan sister boats sailed by weekend drivers, we have members who are prepared of sail against Bermudan boats sailed by racing crews who will be used to getting the best out of their boats in one design fleet racing.

     

    We must not expect to out perform them at this early stage, but if the performance is on a par with the middle of the fleet we will have done well and will be well set to refine our rigs as the pointy sailors have done over the years. It will be interesting to see how the rigs perform up wind as we know we should have the edge as the wind frees, but how will we compete when the spinnakers fly? These are interesting times.

     

    Cheers,  Slieve.

    Last modified: 26 Jul 2012 22:38 | Anonymous member
  • 26 Jul 2012 19:55
    Reply # 1020481 on 1019433
    Deleted user
    Great photos and an inspirational approach.
    Congratulations to Ketil and Marie G.
    Hope we can have a full article and photos for the next magazine.
    I can also see a good 'boat of the month' photo.
    Good luck with the racing.
    Cheers,
    Edward
  • 26 Jul 2012 07:19
    Reply # 1020002 on 1019433
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

                                                                       Stavanger, Thursday

    Annie, I don’t think there will be many negative or sour reactions to Marie G from the pointy rig fleet. After all they have seen junk-rigged boats around - and seen how they perform for over 20years. Remember, the Stavanger-junks have always been generously rigged and since 1991 they have had some sort of camber in the sails so the on-lookers here are used to their good performance. I must say that people have been very positive in their comments to me and my boats, at least, over all those years.

    The race-fleet Ketil will be in is pretty hot, so racing there will not be a walk in the park. Still Marie G will at least not be an old and slow (IOR) dog, unlike Edmond Dantes was (by the standard of that race fleet).

    Now I found some data about the X-99:

    Design by Niels Jeppesen, over 600 built from the late eighties and until 2004:

    LOA=10.0m, LWL=8.5m (appears to increases to 9.5m at speed), beam 3.0m

    Draught=1.75m, depl.=2.9t, ballast=1.2t

    New carbon JR mast: Length=12.5m, diam=20cm, weight=62kg

    Sail area with JR: 55m² with an AR=2.08

    When I was on board Marie G some days ago, I noticed that her roll rate with the new mast was much quicker than in Johanna, whose 10.6m mast is around 90kg. A hollow wooden mast for Marie G would have been at least 120kg or 4.1% of her displacement - not so good.

    Yesterday, when we sailed alongside, I noticed that Marie G heeled only the same as Johanna, even though she carried a taller and bigger rig. I bet the saved 60kg (plus some windage) in the mast is a good help, along with the hull’s beam of 3m further up the topsides. As this photo shows, she is pretty trim at the waterline.

    My hunch is that Marie G probably is the fastest monohull, junk-rigged sloop, ever.

    Arne

    Last modified: 26 Jul 2012 10:37 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
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