Glad you enjoyed it.
Rolling downwind - more board down and don't over ease the kicker. We try to sail with the board almost boxed and therefore have a trapeze boat style centreboard downhall system which means it can be adjusted by the helm when hiking. The key thing when we are going downwind is that we can both reach it and get the board down very quickly if we need to. If we are unsure we get it down as the gust approaches. In the gusts you can sheet a little bit of main which seems to depower the rig and reduce rolling. The basic advice however is practice and sit still and hope. As soon as you both start moving you are in trouble. Try and sit as far apart as possible ie both on the decks. Be ready to move back. The bow will go under if you let it.
The pole can piss me off too. We often pull the line so that the end of the pole goes to the clew of the jib. It is clear that the effect of any drag from pole windage is totally immeasurable whatever it is doing so dont worry about it
You're right a 12 and a 200 do not bear comparison. It is amazing how much more fun a frisky boat is than one with 3 sails.
Key thing to learn is how to orient the rig for upwind/downwind work. By moving jib halyard and shrouds we move the top of our mast more than 18 inches. Be careful in a breeze with two much experimentation for now....
John
Hi Rich,
I agree, the 12 goes stand out from the crowd, due to its shape. It must be the beautiful straight stem. People walking passed Seasalter and seeing my boat on the beach (usually after a short sail followed by a sinking!) often remark. It has even been painted! Good to hear that another 12 has made it to the North Kent coast.
Ben
N2743 (which is STILL for sale if anyone is interested...)
SSC
Rick
Good to see you're having fun in one of the only 5 Numini ever built. They do wobble a bit on a run in a blow - I thiink as a consequence of the light weather performance being so sparkling. John's advice above is all good stuff. Depends on the conditions running - up to top of force 2, the board can come pretty much right up, the leeward shroud right off and some of the windward one too, with next to no kicker. Both of you will be sitting as far forward as possible. If you can be bothered, pull on some jib halyard as well. As the wind increases into force 3-4, you just need to make the boat more stable and manageable: 25-35% board down, leave the windward shroud on, more kicker and both move back a bit - you just behind the thwart, your crew just in front. As it begins to plane, you can both edge back to encourage it.
At the top of a force 4 and beyond - what you were sailing in - you'll want at least 50% board down, the leeward shroud will probably stay on, plenty of kicker and both of you come back together to keep the nose out. As the gusts come, move back even further - you could be right off the windward quarter and your crew on tip toes anywhere behind the thwart up to the transom and delicately moving around to keep the boat level. I have quite long legs and I have a single windsurfer toe strap mounted 30cms from the transom that I lock my aft foot into with the front one under the rear part of the ordinary toe strap. That gives me a more stable platform with the emphasis on weight back rather than out. The saving trick is to pull in a lot of main quickly when the boat really wobbles. It always seems to stabilise it and then you can let it out again. If the wind gets up still further, just start praying!
In general terms, the less kicker and plate you have and the further out you can get your boom, the faster you'll go but the more you'll wobble!
Mike D
N3496
Draining the boat - it's the same as mine so just sit in the right place - ie just by the thwart and crew in front and the water should drain out pretty fast through the transom slots. If you go further back when it's light, the water will come in.
The place to stick the fore/aft level is on the centreboard case top. I think that should work.
As for the centre main, it's worth a try. If you're sailing mostly at sea, it probably just about has an advantage - easier to gybe in a blow for instance - though it does make fore and aft movements for the crew on the run in a blow more restricted. With more inland sailing, most people think it's not as easy to move around the boat and roll tack, and that's why 9 out of 10 owners prefer aft sheeting.
Mike D
N3496
Cheers Mike,
The water does seem to go if you sit in the right place but I have to admit I was quite surprised to look down after a clumsy gybe to find quite a bit of water in ...
As for the centre sheeting I am usre transom sheeting is best if you are not sailing other boats but I think I have enough issues to deal with switching between the Musto and the 12 without creating another one.
The other thing I have noticed is that all this leaning over the side business makes your legs hurt - do you guys wear hiking shorts as per standard issue in Lasers?
regards,
Rick
"The other thing I have noticed is that all this leaning over the side business makes your legs hurt - do you guys wear hiking shorts as per standard issue in Lasers?"
Rick - no, we're all built like gods with highly-toned muscles that enable us to sit out all day and smile at the same time!
Mike
[quote by=Mike_Day link=Blah.cgi?b=Cool,m=1158352050,s=8 date=1158615263]
Rick - no, we're all built like gods with highly-toned muscles that enable us to sit out all day and smile at the same time!
Mike
[/quote]
Hmmm .... you want to have a word with the person who does the photo gallery as they seem to have photoshopped your pics then ...
Seriously though - why don't you wear hikers?
Rick
Rick, if you want to wear hikers then I for one will defend your right to do so to the death.
The class is (in case you have not already cottoned on to this) full of individuals with different ideas of what is fast and what is slow, what is pretty and what is not, what is acceptable and what is unacceptable, etc, etc. I don't know whether hikers are fast or not, and not having seen you I don't know if they are pretty or not, but so long as they hide your modesty I cannot see them being deemed unacceptable.
For my part, I have an important modification to make to my boat before the Inlands and that is to replace the mirror on the boom. To the best of my knowlege, no-one else has this on their boat but it will be on mine. In my opinion, it has no impact on boat speed, is not especially pretty but not ugly either and is not unacceptable.
Kevin
I think it's a question of being able to shape the decks for comfort, whereas in your laser there your stuck with what it's always had.
I'm sure I've seen people with hikers on the wide Chapters with the wingbar-like gunwhales, but most Twelves seem to have a reasonable platform to spread the load without resorting to battened troosers.
Although I've got a Finn now... and battened troosers... and it still hurts.... 8)
If you have a finn you must be luke pie eater too. But yes, I was sceptical about hikers (I think its the braces that do it) but having bought some at the beginning of the season in response to protests from the rear, I'm a convert, at least for single handers.
In two handers I find my arse doesn't protest as much, but perhaps thats because I'm letting the crew do more of the hiking!
Well.... errr..... there might have been a weight related reason I sold my Twelve.... :-/
Rick
One or two people use hikers - I never have - but I think most people don't as the side decks are pretty comfortable compared to Lasers and other flat decked boats. Maybe the other reason is that in a Twelve, because it's quite tippy and sensitive to changes in wind and waves you're constantly adjusting the way you sit out, maybe moving a bit forward or a bit back, sometimes half in then half out, especially when it's not blowing consistently. In my experience of sailing Lasers, you plonk yourself on the side deck, feet under the strap, and then change your upper body only. Here, kikers give you a nice protected stable platform. I wouldn't want to use them in a Twelve as I'd feel that my felt contact with the boat was being dulled (though I do always use neoprene shorts plus some funky Henri Lloyd sailing overshorts with a discreetly padded bottom)
Oh, and Kevin, thanks for the tip about the mirror. I shall be ordering mine from P&B directly!
Mike D
N3496
I sail with hikers both in the 12 and the OK. Rich Williams wears his too in both the 12 and the Laser. I can't claim to hike as hard as Rich, but it seems to me that it helps us both go upwind. Unclear as to how important the hiking is as the pies are but that is another story
meds.
Mike, your hiking apparell does sound a little kinky :K)
But I agree that wearing hikers prevents bonding with the boat ... :P
I'm begining to sound like David Attenborough: "..and it is here, deep in the mangrove swamps of south-east Asia that this National 12 bonding ritual takes place - without of course, hiking trousers....The registering of slight changes in boat heel due to wave and wind fluctuations has caused the N12 sailors' thigh muscles to evolve in quite a different way to those of the laser sailor... "
I don't need 'em either - I'm heavy enough to have a significant righting moment and so hardly ever have to hike too hard out. ;D ;D
Jim N3130 (No quarter for plastic fantastics)
hi Rich,
Was it you i saw capsize off Whitstable today? Fantastic Capsize although the Seasalter pub Brigade were enjoying the spectacle from the beach at the Neptune. I had similar problems in my Laser, capsizing just before you did!
Ben
N2743
Laser 21498
Yeah that was us ... ;D
Nice death roll on the run. At least we have a bit of capsize experience in the boat now.
Getting on quite well upwind and on the reachs but still finding the run pretty challenging - once it starts roling a bit quite hard to dampen it all down...
We'll be out again tomorrow ...
Rick