Greetings....
Love the website... you guys have been tons of help already.
I acquired an older laser this past spring, and have been teaching myself to sail all summer.
I have no plans to race, at least not in the near to semi-distant future... and enjoy spending most of my time in the boat on long reaches trying to see how fast I can go.....
I have already realized that it is not much fun (for me) unless there are a few whitecaps on the lake. I have found that 20% - 30% of the waves being topped is ideal for me so far.....
(I live in the middle of the Canadian prairies, BTW.... we have a large lake with nothing but prairie surrounding it.... occasionally the winds just howl)
I have a couple of questions about this, though..... A few weekends ago, I was at the lake, in conditions where it was about 20-30% whitecaps, and I had a blast.... The daggerboard was humming, and sailing FELT fast.... I could JUST hold the boat down fully sheeted in (I weigh about 200lbs....) and It was great.
This past weekend I went out, In much stronger winds. There was a storm passing by the south end of our lake, (all of the Cat sailors came in.....) and as the storm passed... winds picked up something fierce. It was great.... maybe 70-80% whitecap, with some fairly large 'wavelets' forming (for a shallow lake, that is)
Except... as large as I am, I could not hold the boat flat to save my life.... I went into shore and tightened everything as hard as it would go, and still no chance. I could not sheet in all the way (or I tipped the boat almost instantly). I did reaches near the shore in this as long as I could (hey, it was exhausting)... but it did not feel anywhere near as fast as it had the week before.... despite the winds being much stronger.
The boat would kinda lift its nose and head up in the gusts especially when plowing through or over the waves...., but I could not get fast enough to hear the daggerboard at all.
How could the boat not be as fast despite the definite increase in windspeed? Could it be that I was not truly planing on the previous week? Does the entire boat lift out, or just the bow? How would I tell? It sure felt like it was skimming rather than plowing.
And how windy is too windy? I went to the lake on sunday.... but it was WAY windy.... (every wave was topped... I would guess about 50-70 km/h winds) everybody else had come in... there was a lone windsurfer on the lake.... and he was fast, but he rarely kept up through his transitions....
I wasn;t that tempted to go out (hey, I am just a beginner....) but kinda curious as to how possible it would be (for next year when I am better).... Is there a way to depower the standard rig? Is there a point at which more windspeed no longer equates to more boatspeed? Is there a point at which it is no longer safe?
Love the website... you guys have been tons of help already.
I acquired an older laser this past spring, and have been teaching myself to sail all summer.
I have no plans to race, at least not in the near to semi-distant future... and enjoy spending most of my time in the boat on long reaches trying to see how fast I can go.....
I have already realized that it is not much fun (for me) unless there are a few whitecaps on the lake. I have found that 20% - 30% of the waves being topped is ideal for me so far.....
(I live in the middle of the Canadian prairies, BTW.... we have a large lake with nothing but prairie surrounding it.... occasionally the winds just howl)
I have a couple of questions about this, though..... A few weekends ago, I was at the lake, in conditions where it was about 20-30% whitecaps, and I had a blast.... The daggerboard was humming, and sailing FELT fast.... I could JUST hold the boat down fully sheeted in (I weigh about 200lbs....) and It was great.
This past weekend I went out, In much stronger winds. There was a storm passing by the south end of our lake, (all of the Cat sailors came in.....) and as the storm passed... winds picked up something fierce. It was great.... maybe 70-80% whitecap, with some fairly large 'wavelets' forming (for a shallow lake, that is)
Except... as large as I am, I could not hold the boat flat to save my life.... I went into shore and tightened everything as hard as it would go, and still no chance. I could not sheet in all the way (or I tipped the boat almost instantly). I did reaches near the shore in this as long as I could (hey, it was exhausting)... but it did not feel anywhere near as fast as it had the week before.... despite the winds being much stronger.
The boat would kinda lift its nose and head up in the gusts especially when plowing through or over the waves...., but I could not get fast enough to hear the daggerboard at all.
How could the boat not be as fast despite the definite increase in windspeed? Could it be that I was not truly planing on the previous week? Does the entire boat lift out, or just the bow? How would I tell? It sure felt like it was skimming rather than plowing.
And how windy is too windy? I went to the lake on sunday.... but it was WAY windy.... (every wave was topped... I would guess about 50-70 km/h winds) everybody else had come in... there was a lone windsurfer on the lake.... and he was fast, but he rarely kept up through his transitions....
I wasn;t that tempted to go out (hey, I am just a beginner....) but kinda curious as to how possible it would be (for next year when I am better).... Is there a way to depower the standard rig? Is there a point at which more windspeed no longer equates to more boatspeed? Is there a point at which it is no longer safe?