Finally got a chance to test the foam cored centerboard against the usual
group of 505's that I race with. Ron's Musto was not out. The wind was
generally 10 to 15 and very gusty but would sometimes die down to 8 knots for
four
or five minutes at a time.
Early conclusions: In these conditions it's really fast to weather and
smokin' fast downwind (spinnaker reaching). If I had to choose only one blade
from my quiver, I would choose this one, even at this early stage of testing.
Greg may well have nailed the design of the foam cores both in plan form and
in section (for the thickness of skin I'm using).
I wouldn't typically try a radical new blade for the first time in gusty 10
to 15 knot breezes but you take what you get (radical because I would
speculate that it's among the lightest CB's in the US). The first thing I
noticed
is that the blade wants to float in the trunk about 2/3 rds of the way up
(this thing could double as a floatation device). Because of the spartite
gaskets, I had no trouble keeping it down once it was pushed down. I did
attach a
safety tether to the cassette block just in case but it never got tight. If
it did pop up during a tack without a tether all hell would break loose
since it would float clear up to the boom.
A note of caution:
I had a little trouble fitting it in the boat with the Spartite gaskets in
the cassette inserts. You learn quickly that spartite makes a perfect gasket
that allows for very little tolerance. If your blade is more than a 1/8 mm
larger in any dimemsion than the top of the blade / the top cassette insert
casting, it will not go through the top insert--you simply can't push it down.
After using some calipers, I was able to find the problem and sand it out
with my fairing board--fortunately without going through the epoxy finish
coats. Do keep this in mind before casting your cassette block with spartite.
One of the immediately noticeable benefits of ultra light blades is that
when you mishandle them, they have so little inertia that you don't chip the
trailing edge or ding the blade. This will come in very handy when sailing
from
the beach where rough handling of blades is just part of the game.
I will be doing some Swift to Swift testing next week with some top notch
sailors in the other Swift and will let you know if the results are any more or
less conclusive. Right now, I'm as high as a kite from a great night of
racing in boat that has been incredibly fast and is getting faster every week.
Between the I-14 R&D that is going on and the Swift, the energy and enthusiasm
in Seattles' high performance sailing has never been higher. The place is
abuzz and it's amazing to be in the middle of it.
Best regards,
Bram
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