3-5-11 RACING

by Pam 

It was an interesting day.  The temperatures were dropping, the wind was howling and we had a good number of people show up.  None were really planning to sail but showed up all the same because you just never know what the day might bring. 

I got to see all the new flags that Gary worked on.  Excellent job Gary!  I like the PVC instead of wood. We’re going to start looking professional out there.

I also heard a recap from last week … sounded fairly exciting … two races, lots of wind, two rescues with some folks opting out of the second race.  Lukas was on a coach boat on the junior course and got to rescue a guy that capsized a canoe.  The police had already been called and a search begun, a helicopter was hovering, maybe part of the search, maybe not (conflicting reports on that part).  Lukas also rescued a spray top so if you lost one check with CSC.  Doug and I were over at Rush Creek on J/22s.  Doug’s first time to helm a J/22 in a race.  Not boring, sometimes ugly, and lots of learning.

The post last week about over rotating the mast generated some discussion today on the docks and then continued over lunch with Bruce, Luigi, Doug and me.  Luigi hadn’t read the post but when it comes to aerodynamic engineering, he can tell you anything you want to know and back it up with all the math, science and theory.  Listening to Doug and Luigi talk had my head spinning.  I understood about a third of it but between the two they did a good job of convincing me and Bruce that Doug’s theory was sound.  Then we moved on to which way the centerboard goes in … curved side or straight side forward.  Doug is convinced that it’s straight side forward.  Luigi first said he was incorrect but as they discussed the material of the board as opposed to the material of an airplane wing, Luigi changed his mind and said straight side forward.  Aerodynamically, it should be curved side forward because airplane wings torque and twist and the straight side forward would cause turbulence but wood doesn’t flex in the same way so you want to take full advantage of the larger area of the straight side.  Bruce understood the theory but remained unconvinced because straight side forward on his new boat causes vibration and curved side forward does not.  I’m sure we’ll have follow up discussions.

After lunch we headed over to the Bath House to see the sailing exhibit that Frank put together.  Excellent job Frank!  If you haven’t gotten over to see exhibit, make it a point to go check it out. 

So, I always assign a BS discount percentage factor to what people tell me and Doug is no exception except that when it comes to sailing, I’m often surprised at how his best guess is usually bang on.  Listening to Doug and Luigi talk had me asking the obvious follow-up question.  How did he know all that stuff?  Turns out, he spent about a hour a day for several months using the Bethwaite wind tunnel helping measure lift and drag of various configurations as Frank Bethwaite was designing the rig for the little America’s Cup.  He just keeps surprising me.  Doug says the Butterfly mast/sail design is extremely advanced which is remarkable since the boat was designed in the 60s.  Previously, I had assigned that statement a rather high BS factor but I’m going to have to change that number.