by K100 » Tue Oct 27, 2015 5:50 am
I'm talking about production racing so glass mast all the way with a turban up top, it's too bendy for such a large sail but that's the rules! Personally I don't like the sail, I have a great affinity with my 3 and 4 but sadly they haven't been out the bag at a race event this year. The trouble is I don't often venture down to the beach unless I know its going to be windy so I don't get a lot of light wind practice on the 5.5, I know I need more kart time to experiment in low wind conditions but to be honest I don't find it as exhilarating as sliding round a jybe at 40mph!!
As for the boom I've tried both loosening and tightening the strap, I know a few people say have it slack but I don't see an awful lot of difference to be honest? I usually tighten it up and then pull the buckle up and release about 10mm so it has a bit of room to move.
I find I can sheet in almost all the way and the sail looks fairly flat and it twists away fine but that last 5-10% where the whip is shortened just pulls it down as it comes across and I end up with diagonal wrinkles across the bottom 1/3 of the sail. Oddly I don't find pointing too difficult if I weave with the gusts but close hauled on a reach it just seems to stall too easily. I was watching people with full length whips and they didn't appear to have the problem, it's not a case of sheeting a bit less as it won't pull to center with the short whip. I want to try a full length whip again but that means buying one, I guess I need a spare anyway.
I don't know if I'm grasping at straws but I've just come back from an event where I had a fairly demoralising performance along with a few flat tyres and transponder issues (it fell off without me noticing). Just picking through the bones trying to find why I wasn't very competitive.
Matthew Edwards K100