So we’re doing this again. I’m determined to get the Cape Falcon sailing system over the line by the end of August. Testing is a bit tricky these days with the spinal instability but I think I can still sit and steer.
I’m still working with variations on the flat cut sail to make sure that I’m squeezing every possible ounce of performance out of the simplest possible arrangement before we start adding a bunch of complexity. Eventually the course will feature this as the basic model and then some thing that’s a lot more complex but also a lot harder to sew.
For a variety of reasons I’m ditching the ripstop nylon and going back to plain old 4 ounce Dacron, although there will be more exotic options at some point. I’ve changed the sail plan slightly dropping the peak a little bit to reduce twist, which may or may not have any actual effect. I’m also adding another layer of linear fiber inside the leach hem to resist stretch which also may or may not have any actual effect. I’m also testing a floating boom versus a hinged boom. I’m also adjusting the deck controls after realizing that my “clever” sail tie down is actually a piece of crap that needs to be re-thought.
So far I’ve sewn 3 sails to get my sewing skills back up to par, with a couple more coming up tomorrow. I filmed about 30% of the course and we are digging into the old plan set.
Tricky thing around here is finding consistent ideal testing conditions to make empirical comparisons. First test was a bust drifting along 2-3 mph and learning absolutely nothing!
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