Woods Designs - Eclipse, Flica and Vardo build times

no, about what I would expect. Easy 10-12 knots, max in mid to high teens. But I think you are sailing it really well, remembering that you are live aboard cruisers and have two small (under 10yr) children on board, not a crew of gorillas. Also that (IIRC), you still have a smaller than drawn rig and not new sails either.

As Boatguy knows, the Vardo is something akin to a scaled up Saturn 28, check this video of it on its first race. We were catching the Santa Cruz 52 off wind (you can see them in the background) about 1 min in. Flat water, no white horses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkeosNe90uY

and you can see the gps on 13ish knots

I remember once reading a downwind only race report where the winner said "we averaged 14 knots" I checked the course and not only was there a 3 knot tide running with the racers, but the distance sailed and time taken didn't match the claim

Boatguy is a very experienced sailor and he will probably have dampened his gps readouts to show steady speeds, not bursts, as that makes more sense when cruising

Then off topic I know, but I am always reading that boat X "did 18knots on the gps". Is that an instant speed? an incorrect speed or what? Is there a standard that people use, like a 2 second average? Doug, how long does the Moth sail at 35knots?

Seems to me that the evidence Boatguy has given is more convincing than what many claim for their peak speeds

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingctamarans.com

 

Great to see your Vardo is performing above your expectations Boatguy. I followed your build blog and she looks like a great boat. I hope you enjoy your cruising

As you can probably tell from my sign on name Im a big fan of Richards designs and one day hope to get started on my own Gypsy, although the Saturn does look very tempting....

 

On the sail from ft Lauderdale a broad blue 345 left about 20 min ahead of us. We overtook them within and hour and arrived the same anchorage an hour or more ahead. Doubt they sailed up the channel the 3 or so miles close hauled either. No doubt they fancied themselves sailing well at 7 or 8 knots. Was also striking how much more motion their boat appeared to have. The GPS does seem to be quite dampened and certainly when sailing as described, outrunning the waves the speed is entirely believable.

 

I think the Broadblue 345 is the old Voyager 10, one of Darren's less happy projects. Amazing that people are still buying them, shows the power of marketing

Richard Woods

 

Departing no name today for points SE.

To get back to design specific stats: as an original interested party in the Vardo concept, my primary performance goals were "a good sailing" cat. I suppose my goals were more modest, but certainly would not give any back now! That mainsail I have is still around 80-100 sq ft undersized still! I may actually cut the rig down just a bit to go from about 50.5' clearance to 49' for the railroad bridge here in FL. Perhaps my friends at Doyle will sell me a Gemini 35 main for a good price, but that might still be too short can't find the dimensions anywhere.

I would like to have the waterline plane area of the 3 designs to compare. My guess is the Vardo is perhaps 3/4 of the Flica and maybe just a bit more than the eclipse. It might also be useful to double check the final displacement figures as I was quite careful with loading, but that last 4" of waterline went fast!

Of course I ws just reading an outreimer 50 owner complaining that 100 gallons of water slowing his cat down too much. And here I am doing easy double digits with 75 gallons and 2 dinghies!

 

I have sailed an Outreimer, a fast boat when empty, but the newer ones are slower than the earlier ones (according to friends who have had both)

Check the last paragraph of this page

http://sailingcatamarans.com/index....ormance-questions/106-performance-comparisons

Have a great cruise!

these are measurements for the "old" Gemini,

http://sailritesails.com/ShowAd.aspx?id=7059&SourceID=2&BoatName=GEMINI 3200

Richard Woods

 

Agree completely about the use of Paulownia - light, rot resistant, no knots, glues well (epoxy) and half the price of cedar.

Re interior, seriously consider building components like facias, galley bench, bunktops out on the bench as sub-assemblies, then if you leave the deck off until later, they can be dropped into place and glass-taped

 

Did key biscayne to Bimini in 6 hours anchor to anchor. 1/2 hour faster than Norseman 500 "Miss Piggy" N-NW 18-22 knots. 10 from NE was the forecast.

 

Great you got to the Bahamas - enjoy it! Last time we crossed over the forecast was light W, so everyone left to find NE15-20 "it's just a land effect, it will improve later" of course it never did

Richard Woods

 

We won then georgetown round island race in the multihull class and would have won overall but was not scored against the monos this year. Beat all cats under 46' on elasped time but a Crowther 42 with high performance rig and daggerboards. The race was 18 miles with 8 miles of beating in moderate tradewind conditions 16-18 knots 4-5' seas. Could have used more power as I have smallish sails on the beat, but had the boat averaging 7.5 knots tacking within 105 degrees course made good. Th Crowther beat us by just 10 minutes over 18 miles and we of course corrected well ahead. Best speed to date is 16.5 knots.

 

Excellent, well done! Were your children with you? I suspect your win had a lot to do with the nut on the end of the tiller.

Maybe you'll get the full size sails one day?

Richard Woods of Woods Designs

www.sailingcatamarans.com

 

The kids were with a crew members wife. Abby did the round island but not the in harbor. Leopard 40 was faster upwind in flat water, but I also tightened the rig a good bit prior to the round island. Also used a inhauler on jib sheet to mast base to get clew in about 180mm. If I get a bigger jib, I may also need bigger winches or a stronger wife!