Marblehead ranking 3 and 4 and thoughts on transmitters

Lincoln put on a magnicant show for the 13 boats that turned up. The race report is on MYA downwind so I will not bore you with the details.

For me, the boat performance was a big improvement. Prior to this event I was disappointed with the speed of my F6. I could not hold a lane off the start line and generally speed was sluggish so I knew something was fundamentally wrong. Phil, the supplier of the F6 in the UK suggested I look at the cant of the bulb. This is quite easy to do as the leading edge of the fin is verticle. So with my trusty adjustable triangle from my university days, I set to and measured the cant. 4.5 degrees was the answer which was way to much and may account for the lack of performance.

All I had to do was make an insert for the front of the bulb which was 3mm thick, drop it in the slot and fit the bulb back in and screw in tight. The result was a cant of 4.5 degrees. Much head scratching and thinking later I realised the the angle of the bulb was dictated by the angle of the bolt becasue it was such a tight fit. Out with the pliers and a little pressure and the bolt out of the bottom of the fin was at the right angle. Once all fitted together I had the desired cant of the fin.

So off to Lincoln on Friday and a sail with Phil Holliday over the course of a few hours and it did not take long to find the boatspeed was transformed.

Once the racing got underway I discovered I had a good boat to work with. Racing was very tight and I had several races where I was able to arrive at the top mark in the top 3 which I took as a positive, however I had a few races where I lose 3 or 4 boats on the last beat which dented my challenge for second place. The shifty conditions in the past would have defeated me but I was glad to see my sailing has become more instinctive. Third place was a great improvement on past performances in the Marblehead.

On Sunday things got even better. opening my account with a 5,3,1,1. Unfortunately during the coffee break, the leeward gate was moved out towards the centre of the lake. The first time round, the left side of the gate (furthest away from me) was favourable and after rounding second, the boats set off on port tack. The boats were healed and the radio pot hidden behind the windward side of the hull. After 50 yards, my transmitter lost contact with the boat and it turned through 90 degrees and sailed off down the lake in the opposite direction. I turned the transmitter on and off a couple of times before eventually restoring contact with the boat but by this time the fleet had gone. I thought it was a one off but the same thing happened in the next race.

I had to change my strategy and decided to round the right hand gate, come what may and I quite often lost 4-5 boats in the process as the other gate was so favourable but it was better than losing signal.

In the end two third places was a great result and much better than previous outings with the Marblehead. My boat speed was good, instincts sharp and sailed pretty well for the whole weekend in difficult shifty conditions. Most important was my mindset. Relaxed and focussed on good positioning and if things went bad, kept telling myself that there were plenty of opportunities to recover. For example, I found a hole on the last run and rounded the last leeward gate 9th, but found some significant shifts to finish third.

But what to do about the transmitter. I use a Futaba T6K with a receiver with and aerial. I should have put the aerial up beside the mainsheet post outside the hull. Talking to those who know these things, the suggestion was to use a Radiomaster Boxer transmitter and wireless receiver as the users say they have incredible range. I will try one over the winter and see how it goes. The Futaba is fine for the IOM and DF's as they have no carbon in the hull.

One of the rare times I got the better of the winner Darin Ballington