ARE WE THERE YET. THE BREAKTHROUGH

Craig sailed the new Proteus design at Datchet on Sunday in the M&S District Championships round 3. 8-18 mph of wind with decent size waves for surfing using B rig all day. There is a report on Yachts and Yachting and the MYA web site

Previous versions of the Proteus have always been susceptible to wind and waves. At Gosport in windy weather the boat spent more time checking out the bottom of the lake than shooting down wind, and at Datchet we were severely beaten by Britpop's and Venti's in windy conditions. Now the story has changed and the Proteus can match the other boats downwind. Before I get too excited, there maybe more optimisation to do but at least the Achilles heel of Proteus is overcome.

What a diffence a few mm of movement of the fin box makes. The boat tracks well upwind and surfs so well down wind. I think we can safely say that is, or nearly a match for the Venti's and Britpops. Sailing was tricky with many shifts. In early races Craig was out of phase with the shifts but once in the groove he was unstopable. After the racing Craig gave me his transmitter for a sail. I could not have been happier with what I saw and felt. Not only was the boat so well behaved downwind, what took me aback was the balance of the boat upwind and the ease at which I could tack in a chop and more important was able to put the bow down and see the increase in speed. It was light and manoeuvrable in what were difficult conditions. We have a great platform to move forward but I am sure this will not be the end of the story. More tweaks to come.

The real test will come at the next ranking event at Datchet in early July.

The video below shows the new boat downwind and upwind. Downwind you can see the boat start to lift and surf. The nose dive at the end in a gust was caused by the proximity of the mark and Craig being unable to run by the lee across the wave.

A quick view of Proteus going down wind and upwind