Well done Amiina! Well done Edward and Steve!

So what do the race results show us? We must remember that with some 1300 boats sailing the course that the smaller boats starting at the back of the fleet always end up in very choppy water, particularly when they get wind over tide behind the bigger boats. This favours boats with hull shapes similar to the FolkBoat, which always place well in the race, such as the SCODs, Contessa 26, FB, and this year's first small boat home, the Alan Buchanam East Anglian which was second overall. Handicapping takes no account of this disadvantage for the smaller and lighter boats.

650 boats crossed the start line in the ISC Rating System fleet. 41 failed to post a result for a variety of reasons. Amiina placed 106, which is 106/650, (16%) or in the top 6^th of the fleet. This is a very creditable performance. Looking more closely at boat for boat comparisons, there were 2 other Splinters in the race, both serious racing boats. Elfin apparently is now competing with Whisper for top line honours in their club fleet, and was planning of flying her big spinnaker and came 21^st on Saturday with an incredible performance. Sparkly, another keenly raced boat, and probably flying her smaller spinnaker placed 103 and beating Amiina by only 37 seconds on corrected time (after over 10-11 hours of racing). In other words, with her junk rig the cruising Amiina is right in there with the Bermudan rigged racing boats.

As expected the SCODS and most of the Contessa 26s beat Amiina, but not all, and the 2 FolkBoats only beat her by one and a half minutes and ten and a half minutes. Interestingly she beat both Bermudan rigged Hunter Horizon 23s, as well as both Hunter Sonatas!

Overall, it was a most creditable performance. 'The boys Done Gud'.

Perhaps it would be worth mentioning just how much effort is involved in completing the race. Apart from preparing the boat, there are logistical problems caused by the tides around the south coast. Edward left his home berth single-handed on Wednesday and should get back this evening. In between he has had help from Anthony Cook and Sally and Steve Peake, and Steve sailed the race with him. So overall we're talking about 6 days of steady work and significant cost on top of the race fees to get the performance comparison to the rest of us. Did I mention the Brownie points as well? Edward deserves a very big Thank You.

I've posted this on the 'Measuring Junk Sailing Performance' thread (and perhaps it should be copied into the racing thread), simply because it shows what some members are doing, and have been doing without sponsorship or help from the Association. All the useful development work and rig improvements have been done by members who give so freely of their time and effort, and at their own expense. I believe it would be wrong for the Association to sponsor test equipment to assist those who have made financial gain from their involvement with the JRA when the average member stands to gain very little if anything for the expenditure.

If anyone wants test equipment then they can either make it cheaply or buy it out of their own pockets, as the rig developers have done.

Cheers, Slieve.

Well done, Edward! You must be pleased to have matched Sparkle, at least on handicap which means you must have sailed as well as them over the whole course.

I see the handicappers gave you a benefit compared to her, (TCF of .776 against .821) of about 5%, which I guess reflects their assessment of the rig, but the results suggest it is about right. Does she have a spinnaker, and did she use it?

There ought to be a prize for the first person to finish (on handicap) in carpet slippers (as per Jock McLeod in Ron Glas)!

Are you up for some data collection on Amiina?

Thanks for the latest positive suggestions from David and Rob.

I have just emailed a proposal to the Chairman & Hon Sec for them to deal with as they see fit. There are some interesting alternatives available ranging from around £1200 to a maximum of £2600 and these figures include wind and boat speed instruments, a recording device, and some analysis software.

We could spend less by using members computers, tablets, or phones as recording devices, and cheap(er) software, but the instruments and mounting pole(s) will cost at least £600 for off the shelf units and metalwork.

No doubt the proposal will end up being posted somewhere, and at that point you will be able to see the details, and pick it to pieces. It is by no means absolutely comprehensive, but I reached the point where I was spending more and more time researching ever finer details, and I felt diminishing returns had set in.

I hope you will be able to see it soon.

Rob, 

I was assuming that Alan would be specifying a set of instrumentation in a form that could be fitted to any boat, and that the JRA would fund it and make  it available to me and to others.

My plan would be to make a comparison between my current rig and a wingsail. The mast position could accommodate a Sunbird sail, designed by Alan and made by Exe Sails, or a sail designed and made by Arne, thus making it possible to run comparative tests on four different types of sail, if that were thought to be a worthwhile thing to do? 

David Tyler wrote:

Now I have a boat for which a wingsail would be a more achievable proposition, at a smaller size than was the case with Tystie. I could make a wingsail this coming winter, to the same planform as my current sail. I have enough cloth for the sail, and could reuse most of the hinged battens that are in the current sail. I think this would be a worthwhile comparison - same area, same planform, same camber, but one sail with a sharp leading edge and exposed, draggy mast, the other with a better foil section, a rounded leading edge and a concealed mast.

But I would need a self-contained wind and water sensor setup, at either end of a long tube that I could lash to the bow. Anyway, I've always felt that masthead anemometers are not much use in a seaway, when the masthead is describing wild circles.

David,

I bet your Duette is just the right boat to be used as a rig testbed. Still, before you change your rig, I hope you get in some sailing in company with original Duettes or Sonatas.
The proof of the pudding is  -  the match-racing.

I agree with you that masthead anemometers are not the best. Apart from flying around up there, they tend to see much stronger winds than I sense in the cockpit. Quite a few times, when I have been out sailing in a breeze, other sailors around me report about gale-force winds...

Arne