Steeplechase 2013

[Bill Roberts]

I was road crew this year so this is how I saw the Steeplechase Race 2013. Eric and Dave Weir sailed the 22. Dave is our third person crew on the RC30.
First day: Wind forecast was 22 to 25 knots out of the SE. We sailed with some old Kevlar sails that I had cut down in area by 30%. The race started about 10 minutes after nine. The first check point was the Card Sound Bridge. As the boats approached the bridge, the comments I heard from the crowd around me were, "oh my god, what boat is that"? There was a boat with gold colored Kevlar sails that already had a good half mile lead in a five mile leg over the F18 group. That was the last I saw of the boats until they arrived at Ann's Beach. The second boat to finish was Steve Lohmayer about eleven minutes later. Eric and Dave explained that they had lost much of their lead due to a turnover and recovery. Seems that their rudders kicked up in some shallow water out in the ocean and with no rudders the boat bore off and jibbed and turner over while Eric was trying to get one rudder back down.
The next day the wind forecast was 10 to 15 knots S to SW later in the day. It was a 2 mile beat to the channel five bridge from Ann's Beach. The 22 with small sails was the first boat under the bridge with a large lead already. Lohmayer was second. The course to the first cut was 60 degrees from the bridge. This was a long starboard tack with the spin. The 22 went out of sight long before the other boats did. About 2/3rds of the way to the finish, 30 miles,there is a decision point. One path is to continue the channel and go through two Mangrove creek cuts or the other way is to sail a little further west and avoid those cuts and come back into Blackwater Sound at the Bogies and sail across the sound, sailing east, to the finish. The distance travelled from the decision point is the same to the finish line. The possible advantage is not sailing through the sometimes wind blocked Mangrove creek cuts. As it turned out this year the F18 sailors said they shot right through the mangrove creek cuts, good wind all the way. The 22 finished first followed by Lohmayer several minutes later. Both of these boats took the outside course and came in through the Bogies. Lohmayer thought he actually lost a couple of minutes to the first F18 by sailing the outside course rather than sailing the channel route.
Sumary: Note that the 22 took an hour off its CT the second day while other boats reduced their CTs by 30 to 40 minutes. This is an indication of the time lost by the 22 in its turnover the first day. Some not so well sailed boats actually increased their second day CTs relative to the first day even though the race is 20 miles shorter the second day.
The F18s I saw are all very near "flat bottom boats" and very wide hulls. I don't know what the idea is there. The hull fineness ratio of these boats is low number, not good. The flat bottom hull shape has more wetted area per pound of boat weight to support than a round bottom. Circles have less perimeter for the same cross section area than a rectangle.
The square top mainsails on the F18s need a little tuning up.
The pink spinnaker on the F18 in Cat sailor has a very tight luff tape and way too much shape in the sail approaching the luff. This sail will only sail deep. If you try to heat it up, the luff will collapse, poor design.
I could go on and on about Rick's comments and the way he ran the race but no real value here. Hpoefully these things will correct themselves in time. Anns Beach is no longer a good mid race stopping point because there is no beach. Boats were kept out of the water overnight by having the boats up on beachwheels. The tide waterline came up to transoms which were resting on the beach backed up against a boardwalk, rudders under the boardwalk. Overnight the boats were tied down sideways as well as fore and aft in case they began floating.

[Mac M]

Thanks for the write up Bill and congratulations to Eric and Dave on the win...

I was looking at the picture of the 22 and had a question for you. I notice that one of your spin blocks is mounted what looks like between the beam straps. Is that the recommended placement, one at the shroud anchor plate and one between the beam straps? I'm in the process of redoing my 20 and will be mounting the spin blocks soon.

Another question is what is that cleat that's on the beam between the mast the hull on each side?

[Bill Roberts]

Taking the spin block forward to the beam helps keep the spin sheet forward on the tramp, housekeeping. Locate the second block so that the sheet does not rub the CB.
The cleat along the front beam is the jib sheet cleat, again housekeeping. Things are very busy at the front center of the tramp with several ropes from different systems using this location.
The main traveller control cleat is right behind where the crew is sitting in the photo, mid tramp. In this location the crew can trim the traveller from the wire, windward sailing, and also the skipper can reach forward and trim the main traveller while sitting on the hull and spin is flying.
What does one of your 20 hulls weigh?

[Mac M]

I have no idea how much it weighs or is supposed to weigh. I can weigh it before I paint them next week though. It will be a crude weighing though, have nothing more than a bathroom scale to do it with.

[Bruiser]

Congrates to Eric and Dave. Looks like a great year weather wise. Here is the article in Catsailor which has some more pictures of the slow boats.

http://www.catsailor.com/Steeplechase/S ... Story.html

Bill, did you say they sailed with the smaller sails on Sunday too? It sounded like the forecast for wind on Sunday was much lighter. Impressive to see the boat do so well with less sail. I was thinking the RC's might do much better with less sail as the wind builds. Just wondering about your thoughts when that trade off begins. What wind speed before less sail area starts to pay off?

Cheers again to a great job.

[Bill Roberts]

Yes, they did sail with the smaller sails on Sunday. I was concerned because the wind forecast was single digets by noon on Sunday. Then there is also the political aspects and some sailors might be upset with us if we changed mainsails, went back to the standard size sail. So we took a chance and went with the small sails all the way. As things turned out by the time Eric and Dave finished, the breeze was still in the low double digets, 10 to 12 knots. They finished 28 minutes ahead of the second boat in 40 miles of racing on the second day.
On the first day they finished 11 minutes ahead of the second boat in 60 miles of racing. What's going on, why??? They turned over when the rudders kicked up in shallow water and it took a several minutes to get the boat back up in 25 knot winds in the ocean. The shroud extension system worked fine.
Thanks for the good wishes.

[Kevin Keller]

Bill,

I am wondering why they did n't use your technique(sea anchor, stepping on the mainsheet) of righting the boat?

Kevin

[Bill Roberts]

TIME!!!! They were in a race. No time to set the drag chute and turn the hulls into the wind and no power boat to help. The shroud extension system is tried and proven on this boat many many times. In a race there is no time for new methods, new techniques, new schemes never tried before on this boat. When the boat turned over, "that just started a new race to get the boat back up right now". Have you ever seen a boat righted FAST? It is something to see a turned over boat with sailors running around/climbing the tramp and doing the tasks that must be done to right the boat as fast as they can.

[Kevin Keller]

Bill,

I understand time is of essence when racing. However I would have thought that it would be quicker to pull out a sea anchor, attach it, right it and then retrieve the sea anchor rather than having to climb up, release the extender, throw the rope over, right it, then reconfiguring the stay extender. I know it took me a little while to get the pin through the eye of the stay as the boat bounced around after I righted it one time.

I guess I am wrong though. I wish I could watch them in action, it must be quite a show.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Bill Roberts]

Hi Kevin,
The drag chute righting system to me is an RC30 thing. I have never tried it on the 22 or other boat. The 22 already has a built in righting system. You mentioned throwing the righting line over the hull.This is not necessary. The torque that the people generate attempting to right the boat is equal to their weight times the distance from the boat CB to the sailors CG. This torque does not change if the righting line comes over the top of the hull or from the beam at the upper hull. The tension in the righting line changes but that is a comfort thing if you are holding the line. The righting line should be ready made with a loop for the trapeze hook at the correct length. Having trouble getting the pin back in place, PRACTICE!!! Develop a technique that works quickly and easily. You have three things to coordinate and two hands. How are you going to do this quickly???

[Bruiser]

New Years Resolution...Have an RC, ARC or Super Cat win all of the events next year.

So far, since the summer of 2013 The Around the Island Race - won by a RC 27, the Buzzelli Regatta won by RC 30, now the Steeplechase won by an ARC 22. Next up Miami to Key Largo, then Mug Race etc. Let's keep these boats at the top of all the regattas next year.

[Bill Roberts]

Mac M,
A SC20 hull should weigh no more than 120 pounds. Early production hulls built by Formula Racing Sailboats weigh 110 pounds. Boston Whaler hulls weigh more. The weight variation is due to the amount of resin used to wet out the cloth. At Formula we had some young men that built surfboards and they would work hard to use as little resin as possible and get the job done.

[Mac M]

They are Boston Whaler hulls. We moved them the other day, they are definitely heavy! It would be interesting to see how much they weigh after 30+ years. Might try and figure a way to weigh them

[Bill Roberts]

Mac,
Bathroom scales are fine. It takes two people. Each one holds up one end of the hull. Weigh each end, boat plus person. Subtract person weight. The remainder is boat end weight. Do this at each end and add the two boat end weights. The total is total hull weight.

[Bill Roberts]

Rich,
What are you getting at? Do you think if we win more races, that will sell more boats and increase our numbers?
History: The SC20 won the Mug Race several times. How many 20s are at the Rudder Club and how many were there ever?
The SC20 won the Miami to Key largo Race many many times. How many SC20s are there in Miami and how many were there ever?
There were hundreds of P19s and NACRA6.0s sold in Florida in that same time period. Why so few SCs? Maybe 10 at max including SC17s.
Conclusion: Faster boats don't matter. Better design doesn't matter. Better engineering and rigging doesn't matter. Higher quality materials doesn't matter.
SC and ARC were the first beach cats with a streamlined foredeck. Less aerodynamic drag and greatly improved pitchpole resistance. SC boats were the first boats that came from the factory with nonskid on the decks for trapezing.
RC and ARC boats were the first boats with self tacking jibs and square top mainsails.
SC boats were the first with captive mast steps for safer mast raising and lowering.
SC boats were the first and only beach cats to come from the factory with a righting system for SAFETY.
NACRAs and Hobies have been involved in sailing fatilities due to their design and construction. SC has had
none. Evidently that doesn't make any difference.
All RC and ARC boats are built with West/Proset Epoxy Resin...stronger and stiffer hulls.
All of these things and more don't make any diffwerence to the beach cat sailing/buying public.

Rich, you tell me what it takes to make beach cat sailors buy ARC and RC products.