Desperate to sail

I never said that it is good for high speeds too. You wanted an advice regarding your bad low-speed performance and that's what I addressed. You can't have an ideal boat for every condition, it's a matter of what one wants to obtain,

Well done Laukejas. The boom wil make a big difference.

By the way, you have created a thread which was (to me) more refreshing and relaxing to read and contribute than the other one about high-tech AC multihulls.

Whish you a good wind and a lots of good time in your brand new sailboat!

 

all boats have issues going up wind in light winds, it does tend to drift. should work okay in a reach or down wind.

Notching the leading edge creates extra drag at all speeds, especially at higher speeds, and it does help lift at lower speeds.

Rather than notiching wraping a cord around the lee board in a spiral, about 5 cm spacing, should also create leading edge vortex to help low speed lift. and it can be removed when the wind picks up.

Larger lee boards would be useful for low speed, lower aspect ratio has less tendancy to stall, but not as good for high speeds. If you can find a peice of plywood to lash to the lee boards for low speeds it might help. Your rudder might give you issues in high winds when the loads are higher, looks workable for light winds however.

 

Now that you have fixed the balance of the boat and added a boom, the only reason I can see for the rig not working is sailing technique.

High aspect ratio boards are much easier to stall than low aspect ratio ones.

I learned this the hard way when I sailed my second professionally built boat.

It was a fiberglass sloop that had a very deep and narrow swing keel.

I remember futilely tightening up the sheets to get the damned thing to move. It just sat there and drifted sideways.

I even checked to see if I had run aground. I hadn't.

Disgusted, more with myself than the boat, I motored back to the slip. Obviously, if there were over 1500 copies of this boat around, someone had to have managed to get it to work.

I found the trick was to let the sail out until it starts to flutter, then draw it in just enough to make it stop.

I started doing this and the boat started to move (forward not sideways). Once the boat started moving forward, the sail again developed a slight flutter. I pulled it in some more and, guess what, the boat started to move faster. It took awhile, but I eventually started getting a feel for it

By the end of the first season, I was able to get about 3.5 kts out of her.
By the second, it was up to 4.5 kts.
By the third, it was up to 5.5 kts. By then, I was routinely out sailing other boats of her type.

One day I saw a brand new boat on the lake that was similar to mine. Its sails were set post card pretty. But the boat was going nowhere. I had to laugh.

High aspect ratio boards have a very small 'groove' (set of conditions when they work very well). Your mission is to find that 'groove'. It may take some time, but you are a man of admirable persistence.

 

Oh, sorry. Must have added that myself!

Haven't tried with the boom yet - but I guess you're right. I never had an opportunity to sail a professionally built sailboat - never had courses or anything. My experience is only as a passenger. I red lots, lots of theory, but am still waiting to put it to practice.

Well, exactly the conditions for a total beginner Very "smart" of me to raise the bar that high. But thank you for the compliment. I'll certainly try until I succeed. I'm putting high hopes into that boom. Until now, I was always wondering if my boats (this one, catamaran before, sail-raft before that) didn't sail upwind because of poor design, or because of poor technique. If you say everything should be okay now as far as design concerns, I can rule that out and be sure on what I have to improve. Thanks!

(No wind today yet)

 

Make sure your boats trim has the transom above the waterline in light airs. Drag from the stern will ruin any attempt at upwind sailing. You will often see the sailors in racing dinghys sitting near the base of the mast in light airs. You may need a tiller extension for that.

 

That's very interesting idea, haven't thought of that. Tiller extension is no problem to make.

 

And at last, the wind blew. Although it was 33 degrees C today, I rigged this improvized sailboat for the first time after recent upgrades, and from the very start, tried to sail upwind through the narrow sleeve of the lake towards the place where it broadens. Since in that sleeve there is only 200-300m from one shore to another, and narrowing as I went, winds are weak, gusty, and unpredictable - more vortexes from trees and hills than steady wind. It was very difficult to keep steady pace, but I learned as I went, made adjustments to sail shape (with recent additions, I now have traveler, cunningham, outhaul and boom vang, which make wonders of the sail shape), made center of mass adjustments to lift the stern as rwatson suggested, and eventually, I understood what drives this boat forward. One thing I really learned - keep the speed up no matter what. With speed, I couldn't see any drift at all (these high aspect ratio leeboards work like a miracle once speed is gained) - but if I let boat stop, it goes sideways in seconds. It was quite hard to accelerate and cover enough upwind distance before I had to tack again, since it was a 50 meters bottleneck between shores where the sleeve ended (just before exiting it) and unpredictable gusts didn't help either.

But when I finally left the sleeve, entered broad waters... And felt like the king of the seas (sorry, lakes). With no nearby shores anymore, there was steady force 1 or 2 wind, and sailing upwind became so easy, that I almost cried of joy. Such freedom, such a wonder... After a while, wind went below 2m/s with rare gusts, but with steady direction, I was still able to make it upwind, just a bit slowly. Even when there was so little wind that I couldn't feel it on my face anymore, boat still made upwind distance. So I went hunting for ripples on the water, sometimes no more than 10-20m wide "corridors", and sailed in them from place to place.

Later, when hands got tired of holding the tiller and the mainsheet, I rigged an "autopilot" - just lashed the tiller and clamped the mainsheet. And because boat was so balanced and stable on the reach, it went for about 10 minutes in steady speed and direction without ANY intervention - I might as well jumped out, it would probably sail by itself (unless changed weight would change directional balance)! In the meantime, I re-tensioned stays, made a boom vang, answered the call of nature, and, standing on the bow deck, waved to some beautiful girls on shore who looked with awe, as they probably saw a sailboat for the first time in this lake (I think no one wants to fight gusts and vortexes in these narrow sleeves).

And then, when I felt that wind is about to die, I sailed back downwind towards our berth. Strange, though, that sailing downwind, boat balance changed - it wanted to turn upwind, even though mainsheet was almost all the way out, so, CoE went forward. I expected it to act vice versa. As I approached the berth, I rigged autopilot again to have free hands so I could raise the leeboards (they run more than 1 meter below waterline, and could break if boat went grounded), and then, even with heavy drift, manuevered into the narrow berth under sail.


I don't know if there is any other feeling in this world that could compare. Sense of achievement, of freedom, of something else that I can't put to words. At last this sailboat is good enough and I control it well enough (although I'll strive to do better) to sail anywhere with almost any wind. As sharpii2 said, it certainly has this "small groove" conditions in which everything works, so it is very difficult to sail (to keep speed up) for a novice like me, but on the other hand, maybe these are the best conditions to learn.

I can't tell how happy and proud I am now. Thank you. Thank you all who helped, inspired and supported me. I couldn't have done this without you. At last, all the hard work paid up.

Two days from now, and experienced sailor will come here, and will evaluate my sailboat and sailing first-hand. It will also be the "official" launch, a shakedown run, with spectators, photoshoots, and so on (I just pray there would be any wind that day). After that, I will upload these photos for you to see.

Thank you again. Due to your support, I finally saw my dream come true.

 

Your enthusiasm is contageous.
I feel happy too, that everything is going so well with your sailboat.

Well, wish you a nice rest of the summer, with many days with good wind for sailing.

Cheers!

 

Ditto.

 

Very cool. Good job!

 

Good to see some happiness about.

Its a bit like sex, all you want to do as a virgin, over the moon for the first few months, then 'whats all the fuss about" as you approach old age

You will see when you get to meet those 'pretty girls', who were probably thinking 'My god, who is that strange man in that beat up old boat with the wrinkly sails with that worried look on his face"

When you get comfortable as a sailor, then getting other people to race, and seeing how cunning you can be, and sometimes getting ahead of the fleet adds a new level of interest.

Then, you will get all your joy just floating along, watching the waves and birds and scenery, and realising its all about the places you go, and the boat is just another clever invention.

Enjoy the journey.

 

Now the next step is to build a couple of foils...

 

Congratulations! sounds like you had a very good day indeed.

The real key was understanging the relationship between the sailforces and the lee boards, and that is what allows it all to work. consider that since the dawn of recorded history of humans taking to the sea in ships, the best they could manage was reach, and mostly could only go down wind and with the current, up until only about one centruy ago. It was exactly this relationship with a keel or centerboard and the sail that allowed the sailboat to be come something that you experianced, a ship that can be operated at your will to get to almost anywhere you want (as long as the wind blows).

I have read stories about some of the first Europeans that attempted to sail to the Florida keys, if they missed the islands, even by just a few hundred yards, the currents would take them all the way back across the Atlantic and it would takes several months before they could attempt that landing again. They could spend weeks kedging out rather than to go around the Atlantic again. All of it could have been avoided if they had an effective keel or lee board.

You have discovered this with just some words on the internet, all the rest you accomplished with just a few simple tools. Knowledge is the power to accomplish your goals.

 

Congratulations. I remember the feeling, from the first time I rigged a flat bottomed canoe for sail and got it to work properly.

And by the way: if your boat wants to swing up when you're running downwind, it's time to pull the leeboards up or pivot them back, so they aren't as deep in the water; the boat is 'tripping' over them.

If you have a way to adjust the boards on the move, you'll find that the farther you turn from upwind the shallower and/or more swung towards the stern they should be. Some boats work best with their leeboards or centerboards all the way up, when running straight downwind.

 

This brought a smile to my face, old racing memories. I love the 'no wind' sailing - so many people just give up, when this is the biggest challenge.

Once, in a 'crews race', ( the skipper had to stay onshore while the crew went around.) coming into the finish line, there were about 5 boats ahead of us, and they were all well inshore, following the very distinctive ripples on the water.

We had a chat amongst the three of us, and decided that even with no ripples, we were still moving well, and the distance to the line was, much much shorter in a direct line - so with nothing to lose, we just headed straight for the line.

We beat the leading boat that had been chasing the ripples by more than two minutes, despite being a long way behind them.

Likewise, in the Mirror championships, the middle of the lake was crowded by people following the ripples. We were so far behind, that I risked going around the fleet on flat calm water. We got to the next mark 6 boatlengths ahead of the leading bunch.

So, ripples may be good water level indicators, but they are not the whole story by any means.