This comment, and Geoff's renewed announcement of the Tahoe gathering,
remind me of something I've never gotten around to mentioning. Last
year, on the Monday after the gathering, I found myself almost alone
on the lake with -- as I suspect is common -- no lack of wind (there's
an understatement!). Before things got too rough, I tried a few dozen
experiments having to do with heeling angles. Since, unusually for me,
I was sailing with the lapper rather than the genoa, I had plenty of
control over how much heel I allowed. I measured velocity and vmg (as
an indicator of leeway) and made some subjective judgements of comfort
(mostly as indicated by spray-in-the-face). The measurements were
rough as an entire bushel of cobs, but the engineer in my soul thinks
any data is better than none. Indications were that all three criteria
were optimized at close-as-damnit to 10 degrees of heel. More or less
heel perceptibly worsened performance wrt all criteria. The most
dramatic effect was on leeway.
Regards,
Bill Combs
WWP 19 #439 (Aug 1987)
"Ursa Minor"
Fort Walton Beach FL
ttursine@gnt.net