a 1960 corvette or (2) sailfish?

an interesting question posed over at the Sunfish Forum: would you rather have (2) Sailfish sailboats or the 1960 Corvette?

oops!

I saw this posted on the Sunfish Forum today, apparently a photo from the Italian championship.

I’ve never done that in a Sunfish, but I have pulled off a similar move in a sea kayak – wave lifted me and the kayak up, and it nose-dived straight into the sand, threw me off and forward, and then landed on top of me.

HT: Wavedancer at the Sunfish Forum

how foils on a Moth sailboat work [video]

this is a pretty sweet video for the Zhik Nautica 2012 Moth Worlds where Andrew McDougall explains how the foils on a Moth sailboat work.  these light little boats just amaze me – I love seeing the videos of a Moth sailor hanging off the side to “run” on the water as the sailboat is zipping across the water up on the foils.

HT: Wavedancer at SailingForums.com

 

50th Sunfish North Americans results

this past week and weekend, the 50th Sunfish North Americans were held on Lake Michigan.  the event was hosted by the Lake Bluff Yacht Club.  additional information can be found on the event’s Facebook page.

eight youth/junior racers participated in the Youth North Americans, with Stewart Draheim taking 1st place with 6 bullets and a 2nd place (that was thrown out as his lowest score) to finish with 6 points.  the final results can be found here.  here is a great photo album with tons of pictures from the Youth racing.

 

the Open North Americans followed the Youth sailing, and after light air on the 1st day with only 2 races, the wind picked up, and the sailors completed nine total races in the 3 days of sailing.  David Mendelblatt finished in first place with 21 points, followed by Greg Gust with 31 points, and Tom Whitehurst in 3rd place with 51 points.  the full regatta results can be found here.

Chris Williams has a good report on the event over at the Sunfish Forum.  he notes that by the 2nd and 3rd days, the wind had picked up and was gusty, with lots of wave/chop action to fight with out on the water.  here is a wind report from Wind Alert and iwindsurf.com showing the gusts (I assume they were off the water before the big storms swept across Chicago and northern Indiana that evening).

old world vs. new world

here’s a sweet photo from the America’s Cup World Series racing that just wrapped up a little bit ago in Newport, Rhode Island.

© Photo Guilain GRENIER / ORACLE TEAM USA

with an interesting description of the photo from the America’s Cup website:

a meeting of new world wingsail cat and old world lateen-rigged one-design

HT: Wavedancer at SailingForums.com

the future of Sunfish sailing?

could the research and technology utilized by the giant multi-hull sailboat’s of the America’s Cup be dribbling down into the world of the weekend dinghy sailor?  the last America’s Cup was won by an impressive performance by the BMW Oracle Racing team and their giant 223-ft tall wing sail on the USA-17.

but now, for the very first time – this wing-sail technology has been adapted for a simple dinghy sailboat like a Sunfish.  X-Wing Sails now has plans and specifications available for sail to create your very own wing sail for a Sunfish.

The key to getting a wing sail system that not only affordable but easy to handle, rig and sail, is to keep the weight low.  The first wing that I built was about 50#, and had only 32ft\2 area.  The latest version is about18# with a sail area of 60ft\2.  Using the standard Sunfish mast will reduce that weight by another 10%.  Note that most sailors know that weight in the rigging is bad for sailing.  The latest design has similar weight distribution to the standard sail system for the Sunfish.

at this point, it isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but I suppose things like that can be fine-tuned with future model revisions.  my only other thought – if you want a bit more speed, and something a little sportier than a Sunfish – don’t most people just make the transition to sailing a Laser?

HT: Wavedancer at the Sunfish Forum.