Flex (22924km):
7 hours ago 🌐
Point Grey, WA, AU. Another nice sunny day with a light wind forecast and the same set of characters were tempted to paradise. Arrived to very light breeze and very low water so upped the experimentation by doing some quadrification tests. This was a bit like herding kittens and my improvised launch gate left much room for improvement so killed that plan when Richo turned up. I had rigged my 8.6 but Richo was rigg'n 9m thinking he'd out do me. Went for a chug fest on the big kit, 4kts, then 5kts..topped out at 6kts. Came in thinking I'd set the bar high enough to smash the others and went back to experiments. Wind had already spun too much west for that to be usefull so gave up as Dangermouse rolled up. Bamm! Wind came in. Just like that Richo was planning. Danger mouse didn't want to be outdone so rigged a monster 9.5m race sail along with monster 12 ft board... Out again and nicely planning but the small 18cm fin was out of its depth with the chop so in again to change to bigger fin. That was much better but sketchy due to the low tide so cruised around a bit but decided there was enough puff to bring the smaller board and new experimental fin out that has been waiting for wind forever.
So out on the small board with the 3D printed FF22 Prandtl fin V1...this was a hard twisted fin that theory says should work well one way but be a dog the other. On a bear away the fin tip should be in negative angle of attack and move the tip vortex off the tip plus generate lift... The test was whether it work work well enough on the upwind tack and if any measurable improvements on the bear away tack. Couldn't remember/work out which way was what but turns out port (first) tack was the dog. ok upwind but sketchy as/spin out city on a bearaway. Turn around and different story, nice and stable and locked on the bear away. Top speed reached (so I thought) using this fin...(I was running dual height data logging anemometers for whole session to compare later..average speed for whole session was a massive 8kts so not really a solid speed test). Did a few laps on this kit then came in to swap to a standard 3D printed FF22 to see the comparison on the polars. Of course the fin change killed the wind and the comparison test was dead.
Richo came in and reported yet another harzard he'd spotted in the play zone..this time a black chair...Since there was no wind and I had the drone ready I went for a look but Richo's explanation of the location of this hazard was more vague than Antman's of the log. Thus the drone search was unsuccessful (top tip to all, if you find a hazard, just stop, or make a course correction/slow down then can easily find coords later to remove hazard).
It was all very pleastant and the sun was out and had to apply sunscreen for the first time in forever. Dangermouse was in boardies. Wind picked up a little and back out on the aircraft carrier with the 28 fin...someone had pulled the plug and the tide was a good 10cm lower than when we started, so a real effort to get going...but just enough puff for me to cruise about planning in the sun but the big guys were having a solid chug fest and they called it. I came in thinking it was all over when bamm, wind decided to boot again.
Out on the small board with the normal (3D printed) Fangy to get some comparison data to the Prandtl and got my best speed...Not that Dangermouse is competitve but I think I just pipped him by 0.001 kts for speed. Richo somehow found gust of the day (measured at 16kts on my gear) and smashed us all.
In all, a very pleasant outing. Svt8.6, iSonic117, iSonic97, FF18V4, FF28, FF22 Prandtl V1, FF22
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