Europeans @Barcelona 2013: Day 3 & Wrapup Report by Piet Saarberg / Vision Team

Another complete report by Piet Saarberg, Secretary of the IACA and builder of Saarberg Masts & Vision A-Class. Check his interesting comments on new developments and different conditions, as yesterday the breeze was down as shown in these images and changed the trimming game.
Check his full daily reports at http://www.catamaranparts.nl/news/

Piet his report on day 3

The 3rd day of racing with light wind predicted. Starting from the north it had to turn south east, but races started at 13.00h. It was the same pattern as before, the black flag had to be drawn to get away in the second start. Steve Brewin was caught out with BFD, together with 3 others. The wind was trapezing for the light brigade and the building of the chop again. The wind was best to go right after starting towards the Barcelona harbour where there was a wind blowing to make trapezing easier. Out to sea and then downwind to the narrow gate. When you could find some waves in the random pattern you could be lifted a bit. Jatcek had a big lead and went to the gate first. Then along the coast again. The wind played with the patience of the sailors and you could get your tacks wrong very easy. Even Jatchek lost his lead again and it was very easy to lose 20 places in 10 minutes. From the results you can see that a lot of sailors got hammered.

The second race was the first to get started in one go, the surprise of the day. The wind had picked up another knot to 8 but is was still difficult to find your way. You could follow the crowed and stay more or less where you were, or go left at the gate and tack after e few hundred meters, or go out to sea. It depended when you were there which was best. I choose to follow the crowd 200m higher and found a lifting breeze with roughly the same strength. With a teasing hole in the middle letting a few sailors through. At sea there was a split of going back to the coast or staying out longer almost to the lay line of the gate. Once again a gamble. I managed to start roughly with the first 12 in the first round and only losing a few places every leg. The 3rd round the wind was having its toll again and it was every bodies race. From the results you can see that the known sailors were all over the place. This was the first race I felt good about.

Time to give some comments on the J-boards and winglets on the rudders..... I have not seen flying over longer distances throughout the series. Today the cats trying to fly got caught out as their boats were not set for these circumstances. Misha was the only sailor minimizing the damage by pulling the J-boards up downwind as far as possible, but this is limited as the boards get to your sail when pulling too high due to the progressive curve. I still do not believe in stable flying as the control is due body weight and human reaction time is slow. The best you can expect is prolonged jumps when the sea state is favourable. This is the best you can expect. Short jumps are difficult to exploit as the cat slows down considerably when coming down, easily loosing your advantage of the short acceleration. The only one so far getting the best out is Misha, through control with his 90kg and his extensive sailing experience when the wind is up.

The winglets are a must on this choppy water stabilising the platform and holding better flow in the sail. The downside of these are the freedom of surfing in waves as they do not give the platform the freedom to get the right attitude to get the full acceleration going down a wave. You must choose to have them before a series like the WC and EC which is sailed over 5-6 days.

Steve Brewin has done his excellent series with normal curved boards and winglets.

The Catamaranparts Team
http://www.catamaranparts.nl/news/
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Full Results at http://www.vela.cat/bisc/ClassA/130625_clas_PROV_5i6.pdf
Images Galleries from previous days at https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-A-Division-Catamaran-Assoc…