Breda, 25 April 2010
With GP Atlantique coming up we used this weekend as a little tune-up. It was the second following weekend with just a few knots of breeze.
The team had a few main goals for this weekend. First of all we sailed with almost the entire crew that is starting in Pornichet. Second this week all navigation hardware and software arrived and Thijs installed the program etcetera. Besides these two goals we also keep playing with the tips and tricks Bouwe told us during Spi Ouest concerning the rig settings.
The crew for GP Atlantique will consist: Thijs, Anton, Ralph, David and Rob. With Koen de Smedt (from Belgium) and Yann Riou (from France) the crew is complete. This weekend the crew trained with six where Bram filled the open spot being the jib trimmer. Handling during mark roundings but also spinnaker and jib peels went smooth.
On Sunday Thijs brought the navigation hardware and we installed it at the boat. After a few communication problems it all was up and running. By having these instruments onboard it is much easier to calibrate the wind angles and change for example damping of boatspeed and heading.For navigation and tactical software we use Adrena. A program that has; and is often be used by Volvo Ocean Race teams and for example the trimaran Groupama to set the new round the world record.
During the weekend the crew kept on playing and tuning with the new tuning guides. We have to get used to it but we have the idea the boat performs better especially during acceleration and during shifting gears.
Because of the small breeze we were also able to check our overlay sheet for the sails. Sometimes we only had 3 knots of breeze. What is better performing? The flat fractional kite or the bigger masthead with more draft, or maybe the code 1 jib? The overlay is very small and there are big differences in speed and optimum angles. So big gains of big losses this is interesting matter!
At the end we stripped the boat down for transport. Tuesday David, Thijs and Ralph will crane the Mummaduck, prepare for transport and leave for Pornichet. Rob and Anton will pick up Koen in Antwerpen and drive to Pornichet by car. Whole crew is about to arrive Wednesday morning around seven.
Overall we had a great weekend in which we experienced interesting things and gathered some knowledge about sailing the Farr in very small breezes.
Next report will be from Pornichet,
Signing off,
MD
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