SailDog–I Mean Rocket–Update: No one ever said building an otherworldy multihull to sail through the 50-knot barrier would be easy. And Paul Larson and his SailRocket team are finding that out. The thing just does not want to get up on a plane and sail fast, particularly after Larson modified the sail to make it flatter and less powerful. In the latest outing, the experimental TinkerToy was plowing a hole in the water, while windsurfers were ripping it up on a plane all around them:

“The rig was noticeably less powerful than the week before but then this is to be expected as we are targeting stronger conditions. We figured that the reason that we were performing beyond expectations last week was because the sail was so full and had little leech tension. Basically it was a good light wind setup. The new rig seemed to lose flow very quickly if you over sheeted. The boat is very strange to sail as it just has absolutely no heeling reaction to powering up which is unlike any boat I have ever sailed before. You just don’t feel anything load up. The only thing that happens is that the boat accelerates. All the sailboards were sailing around us with their big rigs all loose and twisted on their big wide boards. every time there was a little gust they would pump up onto the plane and go tearing off. A luxury we didn’t have but then that is not what we are here for,

A good friend had lent us a GPS to read speed off but today the figures were just nudging over ten knots at best. We decided to make the best of the day and do some other things… like giving Helena her first sail seeing as she is the backup driver. It is an imposing boat to sit in for the first time. I explained to her how you can sail the boat down the course just steering by the mainsheet alone. Sheet in and she bares away and sheet out to head up. Combine this with the rudder and she is pretty maneuverable. One thing we noticed as Helena headed down the outside course was that when she got a gust that the back lifted before the front once again. It shouldn’t still be doing this.

As we towed back up the course the wind increased with a large high-level cloud bank that was coming in. We got up to 15 knots of wind as we set up for the next run and thought that we might be in for some speed but alas the boat just didn’t lift out and we were left with only 15 knots as a top speed as I hunted around looking for a way to break free from the waters drag. A sailboard went tearing by whooping away… as I would if I was on the board. Something was not right. YELLOW PAGES ENDEAVOUR would have been doing 35 knots in these conditions and we were still mushing along. We headed for the shore.

Basically there is an equation that SAILROCKET needs to effectively hook into and it is this- by going fast we make wind, which makes power, which makes more wind which makes more power etc. The boat is designed to feed off this like no other boat but it seems that we can’t quite get the equation started. Of course a stronger wind would help and slightly depowering the rig wouldn’t help but it still felt lacking. We agreed that a much bigger forward planing surface was needed. Bigger shoes. This would help the nose of SAILROCKET lift out sooner which will greatly reduce the drag as well as serve to help the transom lift also.

We noticed how slowly water drained out of the centreboard cavity when we raised the boat out of the water. The venturi effect was supposed to suck this large area dry when SAILROCKET started moving but the seal seemed to be too effective which left us thinking that we may be carrying as much as twenty-five kilos of water around with us up front. When the new planing surface is built we will remedy this by making a complete watertight seal around the centre-board so it should be a double bonus.”

So, back to the drawing board, or the workshop, to build a new front end. Just to keep your hopes alive, here’s a video (from the Daily Sail–the best online sailing magazine in the game) of SailRocket’s first test sail, where she’s putting up a lot of spray but at least looks like she could eventually be fast…



Slow Boat: “Hmm, I wonder if this thing would make a good front yard planter…”

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