Upwind boat speed equals true wind speed

[Chiara’s slave]

We sailed down the western Solent yesterday, wind WSW 12kn, passed Cowes at 1330, picked up a buoy off Yarmouth at 1435, with the sails down and the main zipped away. Tide roughly neutral, though we did play with the eddies. We passed maybe 25 monos doing the same thing, including a First 40 and a J109. The Ben we passed not far from Beaulieu entrance, it was out of sight when we stopped. We could go faster, but then, we would have to lose the tender, outboard, 50 litres of water, my reefer and my wife’s dress, the gin bottle, wetsuits, maybe only carry 5 fenders instead of 12. Lots of other stuff we’d junk if we were racing, or even just out for an ordinary day. However, we’ve come back a day early, because of the weather forecast. It’s not all that much fun in 30kn of wind. But for our kind of sailing, we very rarely have to do it. The boat sails perfectly well upwind in 30kn, it’s the crew that aren’t keen.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Just popped out for a blast about with our sailmaker. We achieved a knot over windspeed on a reach. Sorry no pictures, the wind was 18 knots and we were all a little busy.

 

[geem]

To me, that's stripped out, but each to his own. As long as you've got half a million to buy a second hand Ikea boat.

https://www.yachtworld.co.uk/boats-for-sale/make-mylius/model-50----15.25-ars-una/

£491K, and that's after a price drop.

It looks like a posh dentist waiting room

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The difference in speed you get by pushing way too hard is pretty marginal on a multi, very often you’re just powering the lee bow deeper into the water. The temptation just isn’t so great, as well as the consequences being potentially worse. A little reef, in time, is the rule. You get better control too, if you’re hurtling in to the windward mark knowing a big bear away is going to happen. You’ll just go straight on, with a big rooster tail from the rudder in some conditions. Ease off, get the bows up, before the bear away.

Revisiting this, we pushed quite hard today. Full white sail, 15-20kn of wind. We weren’t on the ragged edge, but it wasn’t that far off. On a reach, you’ve got nowhere to go. We had the sheets in our hands, ready to dump. Lymington platform to Yarmouth without dropping below 14kn, mostly 16 ish, peaking very close to 19. The guy from Ullman was on the helm at that point, damn him, fastest of the day. He said the rudder was loading up a bit. Traveller at the bottom, we only had the sheet. If we’d borne off, we could stall her out as a bail out. We tried for that last knot, couldn’t quite get there.