Sailing Ingeborg, now with fresh antifouling

Today I and a friend had a 3-4-hour spin in Ingeborg, only two weeks after she got her new antifouling. The wind was around 8 and up to 10kts from around west.

The setting of the sail:
To begin with I wasn’t completely happy with it, but it turned out to set better and better the more I sailed, and without me tweaking the parrels. When arriving at home, I could no longer tell which way I should have adjusted the parrels, the YHP, THP or HKPs, so I guess they were ok.

Speed:
Ingeborg is clearly a different and much faster animal now than she was on my trial sails last year. I am particularly impressed with her upwind performance. I checked her tacks on the GPS, and even there, after leeway, did the tacking angle stay around 90°. Speeds were between 4.5 and 5kts, in that moderate wind (healing 15 – 25°). Moreover, when I tack her, I get surprised that the sail fills so early on the new tack. Ingeborg’s trim hull, heavy ballast and big keel area allows me to sheet the sail in really close. I am quite convinced that I have not owned such a close-winded boat before. Some of you, who have tested my old Johanna, were quite impressed with her, but I would say that Ingeborg is two-three notches faster (Johanna was normally outpointed to windward by a well-sailed Nordic Folkboat). That IF is so eager to go!

Using the tiller brake:
I found the tiller brake to work exceptionally well on Ingeborg. We sailed long stretches with the tiller locked (between beam reach and fully close-hauled). Actually, I could leave the tiller locked ‘forever’, except when traffic or lack of water in front of us forced me to take over. At one time we rounded a point and were to bear away a bit. All I did then, was to ease the sheet, and the boat just ’followed the sail’  -  no need for readjusting the tiller.
Therefore: I seriously recommend making that tiller lock (..it is more a tiller lock than a tiller brake...).

Cheers,
Arne

PS:
I begin to wonder if there is an extra advantage with the sloop JR with a fairly broad chord: My guess is that most of the self-steering effect  comes from the movement back and forth of the sail’s  centre of pressure, CP, as the angle of attack, AOA, varies. At a low AOA, the CP moves forward and at a higher AOA, the CP moves aft. On a broad-chord sloop sail, as on Ingeborg (the chord/waterline=0.80), the movement of the CP is enough to give a quite strong self-steering effect (this is helped by the behaviour of the hull; more heel gives more weather helm, etc).

Arne Kverneland wrote:

The shadows of the lee topping lift reveals a very trapeze-like vertical camber, much unlike the more D-shaped curve in Johanna’s panels. That is the result of putting a bit tension in the sail along the battens.  

 Arne,

"Tension along the battens" - is that with lashings at either end of the pockets to pull the sail tight horizontally? 

That flat vertical profile looks, to my eye, more efficient.  If you played with the tension, do you think you'd get a performance difference? 

That flat section offers a nice area for you to mess around with your new vortex generators.

Robert,
these days I don’t know anyone else with an IF. However, a friend of mine has a Nordic Folkboat with good sails. That boat is supposed to be one or two percent slower than the IF, if none of them sets a spinnaker, so we can make decent comparisons. Frankly, I doubt if I can beat that FB to windward, but should be happy enough to be only 3-4% slower. On all the other legs, I am pretty sure my IF will be faster. Therefore, in a race from A to A, around something, my guess is that the IF will be fastest.

Compared to the Alo 28, the IF is supposed to be around 1% slower (according to handicaps), if both use spinnaker. Johanna’s wll. is around 75cm longer. The hull speed of the Alo 28 is about 6.3kts while that of the IF is around 6.0.

I am not so worried about the IF’s extra wetted surface. I get paid back in lack of leeway. Johanna had a quite inefficient foil in her fin keel, as most of its iron was in the bulb. She surely went well on flat water, but she struggled with leeway in a lumpy sea, and also when coming out of a tack. I have yet to try Ingeborg upwind against some swell, but she surely accelerates well out of a tack, and always goes where I point her.

Yesterday, while being fully close-hauled, a gust hit us and half of the side deck went under. No problem, Ingeborg’s reaction was just to pick up speed , and then some more speed...

That is good enough for me.

Arne

That rig's a real beauty, Arne!  She looks great.  Congratulations.

Learning to sail Ingeborg

Fifth trip in Ingeborg today. Little by little things are finding their place. The sprayhood has been fitted  -  which called for moving the boom up by around 15 cm. I guess I will lift the boom another 10cm to let me raise and lower the sprayhood with the furled bundle centred. Luckily the mast is long enough this time.

The beast must be removed  -  I mean the full length Bermuda main sheet track, right across the cockpit. That thing is a real pain (literally)  -  and appears to be both bolted and glued in place. I must bring a sledge hammer tomorrow.

Ingeborg’s speed does not impress me: Even today, in around 14kts wind we only just reached 6 kts downwind, touching 6.5. I guess her bottom needs a scrub  -  actually I hope so. Maybe I have expected too much? After all, Frøken Sørensen’ is 25cm longer in the waterline than Ingeborg, surprise, surprise.

(FS is a real low-resistance boat  -  her 2.3hp Honda makes her touch 5kts on flat water...)

When you have learned to know a boat, it feels awkward to be in a new one: In Ingeborg I still feel clumsy and a bit helpless, but little by little I learn the steps as I tack her (going from 25° heel to 25° heel the other way).

On the last upwind leg today I reefed her for the first time. That went well (after a bit more clumsy fiddling). Now, since the sail rides in the fore position under full sail, the first reef is no longer connected with negative batten stagger  -  so there was no need for shortening the boom the way I use to do. But it doesn’t hurt either.

And yes, I did sail her back into her berth, so I have not completely lost the touch. The wind was just about perfect for that today. With 14 kts blowing, the last 5-6 boat lengths went under bare mast. In the berth, an aft spring line with a rubber snubber waits for me. All I need to do is to grab it  ( no rail in the way) and put it over the port genoa winch  -  followed by the fore spring line to stop us from being shot out again by that rubber snubber...

I am sooo glad the previous owner had not completed the refit, so the pulpit, pushpit etc. was not fitted yet. It certainly will not be fitted by me.

Sooo, little by little, Ingeborg and I will become friends  -  I hope...

Cheers, Arne.

  
PS: Finally a couple of photos on the port tack. Note the shiny Odyssey III...