St George Moths 1/11/08

First heat of the Club Championship.

We had 9 boats rigged for a moderate southerly but it seems we are a slack lot and only 5 made the start line on time. A couple of others started late but with the wind a bit gusty and coolish there were a few excuses to pull out and only three of us made the full distance. Dave won as usual, with Steve chasing and me a way back.

But for the first few marks I seemed to be hanging in there, still keeping Dave in sight and rounding ahead of Steve, but then a port tack downwind showed up some major rudder ventilation problems and 3 swims later they were gone.

Last week at sunshine I was having occasional ventilation at speed, so during the week I had glued on a 2mm glass rod and re faired the leading edge for a sharper entry. It worked OK upwind and downwind on Std but there must be some assymetry there somewhere and as soon as I built speed on port, the rudder vertical would let go and the boat gybe.

Subsequent downwinds were sailed as slow as I could to keep the boat flying but not ventilating, unusual way to be racing.

Today I am making an accurate sanding template to clean up the leading edge, something I should have done last week I suppose but we learn the hard way. I hope to compete the adjustments and do some trials mid week so I klnow its right before next week's race.