From - Mon Mar 10 13:18:04 1997 Received: from hubbub.cisco.com (hubbub.cisco.com [198.92.30.31]) by cheerios.cisco.com (8.6.10/8.6.5) with ESMTP id MAA21620 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:03:55 -0800 Received: from bolero.rahul.net (root@bolero.rahul.net [192.160.13.1]) by hubbub.cisco.com (8.8.4-Cisco.1/CISCO.GATE.1.1) with SMTP id MAA23427 for ; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:03:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from waltz.rahul.net by bolero.rahul.net with SMTP id AA27699 (5.67b8/IDA-1.5 for ); Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:03:33 -0800 From: Randy Devol Received: by waltz.rahul.net (5.67b8/jive-a2i-1.0) id AA12273; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:03:31 -0800 Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 12:03:31 -0800 Message-Id: <199703102003.AA12273@waltz.rahul.net> To: cliff.sojourner@cisco.com Subject: Blade Runnings 0 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 18224 ======================================================================== >From randyd Thu Jul 27 18:28:25 1995 Subject: "T"-2 days Hello again. This will be the last reminder before the Trifoiler Demo Day at Chrissy Field. I will post some kind of report to this mail list after Sat. so stay tuned. For those of you going, I will be wearing a red and white (almost baseball) cap. I will either be sailing the Trifoiler, sailing my Hobie, or be hanging around the crowd waiting for their turn (near the Hobie.) Be sure to introduce yourselves. The Ranger has asked that we park the trailers rather far away from the beach. There is no trailer parking striped, so we will just park it out of the way on the runway. (This used to be an airport.) We will stay fairly close to the St. Francis Yacht Club, otherwise known as the East end of the beach. That is where most of the Windsurfers will be. Today at 2:00 the wind at The Bridge were N.W. at 15 knots, and in the mid 70's. I expect Saturday to be the same. Perfect! My voicemail reminded Greg Ketterman to bring some Trifoiler "T" shirts. I don't know if he has any, but if he does, I am sure he will bring them. See you on Saturday! -=O=- Randy |\ |\ | | | | | | | | |\| |\| |_\__o~___|_\ o====U====o ~~~l~~~~l~~~~l~~~ Commin' at ya! ======================================================================== Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 13:56:50 -0700 From: Randall P Devol To: multihulls@ronin.com Subject: Trifoiler Tryout, 7/29/95, S.F. Bay *************Notice********************** What follows is an unsolicited report from a potential,... no, future Trifoiler owner. Greg Ketterman, the Trifoiler designer, brought one up to San Francisco Bay for a day of test sails and joy rides at my request. This is being posted to rec.boats.racing, rec.boats, rec.windsurfing, and to the Multihulls Mail List for your information and enjoyment. *************End of Notice*************** Well! Whew! Whew-EEEE!! The Trifoiler lived up to every performance expectation and more. The winds were variable 8-12 knots, gusting to 20. (my digital wind speed meter needs calibration.) There was lighter than typical chop and a large number of large dogs playing in the "surf". The sun was shining, the breeze was cool but not cold, the fog stayed south of us. It was a great day for sailing and nearly perfect for sailing the trifoiler. Greg Ketterman brought a new boat he was delivering to a customer in Reno. It was Hull #1 with the Hobie name on it. It was in great shape. The good surprises: The boat was lighter weight than I expected. I thought we might have to carry the boat piece by piece across the sand and assemble it at the water. The boat AND trailer were hand pushed across the sand. Two of us were nearly able to lift the boat (completely assembled). It was quite easy for two people to slide it off the carpeted trailer and into the surf line. The sails looked HUGE for such a small boat. In the video, the helicopter shots don't really give you an accurate impression of the sail area. Of course, the Trifoiler can handle sails that big. They also had "zipper" reefing for those really windy days. Slick! The sails are much nicer looking than the ones in the video and brochure. The sails seem well constructed and only time will tell otherwise. They are a mylar/dacron combination which gives them no stretch. The excess halyard detaches while sailing and a bungie keeps the wire portion of the halyard under control. (Why didn't I think of that for my Hobie?!?) In fact, all over the Trifoiler, there are refinements to the design that this engineer really appreciates. It has a very complicated set of control lines. It is more complicated (subjectively) than any beach cat I have sailed, and possibly more complicated than having two racing dingies. The good news is that Greg and Co. have reduced the time necessary to rig those complications through thoughtful placement of cleats, bungie cords, shackles, etc. Greg did most of the rigging himself and it really did only take about 30 minutes. There are a lot of lines but each is quickly and easily attached. The speed estimates of the Trifoiler are not exaggerated and the speedometer on the boat is quite accurate. I had a portable GPS unit out there with me and saw speed bursts of 27 knots. This corresponded quite well with the speedometer reading of 31 mph. The speedometer is a completely mechanical device that relies on the water pressure at the leading edge of the rudder. Slick. No impellers, always accurate whether on or off the foils. (It did seem a bit off at the -slower- speeds, though. :-) I was able to take it out by myself and get it up on the foils. It really doesn't take much technique. I even managed a full jibe on the foils! Practice will make me better but I can, right now, sail it fast on the foils after 5 minutes of instruction. Disappointments: Under these conditions, this boat is W-E-T! Wetter than beach cats, wet. Wetter than windsurfers, wet. Sometimes hard to see, wet. It is no exaggeration to say that there were times when it felt like a salt water garden hose in my face. I already have 5 or 6 ideas about how to reduce the 20-knots-of-salt-water-in-the-face problem. If I can't do something, I just won't choose to sail under those conditions (which were fairly typical for the S.F. Bay). :-( This boat needs a self-bailing cockpit. Mine will have one if I have to put it in myself. Greg admitted that they have been putting off that addition. The boat is otherwise quite complicated and the last thing they need to hear are complaints about some one's self-bailer being stuck open. This boat was brand new and had a problem with twist in the main (only) sheet blocks. Once that was fixed, it worked fine for the rest of the day. Also, one of the sensor arms broke in a non-critical place. This did not affect the demo sails in any way. This boat does not tack. Even Greg's tacks took (what seemed like) 30 seconds to tack. I suspect when racing, it will be faster to turn a 270 degree jibe than to try to tack. This will clearly compromise the boats upwind performance. One of the large dogs took a dump right were we were launching. Disgusting! Summary: It was a great day for sailing. Greg gave 15-18 demo rides. Every rider returned with a BIG smile on his or her face. I am going to get one and then fix the things that I didn't like. I am going to race against "D" class catamarans, F-27s, Antrim 30+s, and beat them all to the finish line. I can't wait! Starting around October, I am going to give (sell?) demo rides by appointment so let me know if you are interested. -=O=- Randy |\ |\ | | | | | | | | |\| |\| |_\__o~___|_\ o===\_/===o ~~l~~~~~l~~~~~l~~ Fast on Foils ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 11:19:02 -0700 From: Randall P Devol Subject: October Trifoiler Update Hi! According to the article in Latitude 38, I am "addicted to speed." I can now confirm that trifoiling speed is indeed a drug and that I may be addicted. Boy, did I have a hangover on Sunday! :-) I took my Trifoiler, Blade Runner, out on the S.F. Bay for the first time last Saturday, Oct. 7'th. This happened to be the "Fleet Week" weekend with a show by the Blue Angels and other military flying and boating craft. I thought it would be nice to get out on the bay and watch the show. I also heard the forecast for winds to 25 knots and a small craft advisory. We launched Blade Runner from the Schoonmaker (sp) beach in Sausalito. It so happened that Lakota, the 60' French trimaran, sistership to the Waterworld trimarans, and current Transpac record holder (6 days and change) was docked next door. We met a few of the Lakota crew going out that day as we were launching. Nice folks. This chance meeting led to the most thrilling sail of my life. It was fun going fast (once we got out of Richardson Bay), but the highlight for me was close reaching behind and to windward of Lakota,... ...and slowly overtaking her. Looking up at the windward ama, about 10-12 feet above the water and 8 feet above our heads, was awesome. It looked like one of the make- the-boat-look-really-fast shots from Waterworld. The raked mast, the large roach mainsail, ... it was awesome. The ama on Lakota is large enough in diameter to easily hold Blade Runner when ready to tow on the trailer. Blade Runner ready to sail would have *easily* fit on either trampoline. And we were slowly overtaking her. I am not saying that Blade Runner would beat Lakota on all points of sail and under all wind conditions. If I won the Lottery (several times) I would rather own and sail Lakota than Blade Runner, but it was such a thrill to sail so fast on my first trip to the Bay and have such a large and famous racing trimaran setting the pace. Actually, the reach pacing Lakota was one of the slower trips across the bay. The speedometer read 25 mph. A little later we pegged the speedometer at 35 mph and actually had the rudder/foil lift so far out of the water that I could no longer steer. That was scary. When the rudder lifts out, it doesn't round up as you would expect from sailing on other boats and from thinking that the center of lateral resistance moves forward without the rudder. Empirically, the Trifoiler rounds down when the rudder lifts out. I guess that is because the lift required on the leward foil creates drag, and that drag is so far out from the center of the boat that IT turns the boat down. The good news is that as you turn down the apparent wind drops, the rudder drops back into the water, and you are off once again. I want to give a special thanks to Dale Mead who not only helped us set up Blade Runner on the beach, but he also wrote the Latitude 38 article that saved me from answering the same newcommer questions from every passerby. There were many interested people there to look at the boat, but nearly all of them had read the Latitude article and basically knew about the Trifoiler and what it could do. Dale, I owe you several rides. The downside about Saturday was the amount of water we got in the face. I am literally thinking about how to make a scuba mask suitable for sailing. I wore a 3/8" wet suit long johns and was really cold after an hour of sailing. The buckets of water come before you are on the foils. Typical bay chop is enough to soak you completely. Anybody got drysuit recommendations?! -=O=- Randy |\ |\ Am I dating myself? | | | | | | | | No, but I *am* waiting by |\| |\| the phone for me to call! |_\__o~___|_\ o===\_/===o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l~~~~l~~~~l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blade Running ======================================================================== Hi! (If you received this email, you are on the unofficial Trifoiler email list I maintain. About once per month, (or more often if the news is worthy) I try to update list members with information about the Trifoiler and what I have been doing with Blade Runner. If you do not want to me on the list, let me know.) It's winter here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have been working on the Trifoiler (and the trailer) to make it easier to launch and recover. I have also started adding the instruments I want. I have named it Blade Runner. Thanks to Quest-7 for producing wonderful graphics. The name runs the entire length of the cockpit on both sides. The letters are 5 inches high and are the same color purple as the sails. Kewell! The trailer has new bunks with padding so that I can (almost) launch it by myself. (Thanks for the idea goes to Larry in Reno who did the same to his Trifoiler trailer.) After I get the shroud extenders installed on the guy wires, I will be able to easily launch it by myself. The most interesting addition to Blade Runner is the electric motor. It is most useful for light wind conditions where sailing a boat made to go fast has trouble going anywhere. (See Below) The motor and battery add about 80 lbs to the boat and are removable for getting back to "racing trim." Under motor alone, Blade Runner travels at about 3 knots (in forward. We did not try high speed reverse.) which gives me enough speed to have steerage. It is not really enough speed to motor to a destination very far away and the battery will not power the motor for more than about 3-4 hours. When not in use, the motor slides up on deck and out of the water. It kind of blocks the view ahead, but not completely. This motor is everything I wanted it to be (except free, less than one pound, and transparent). Race Results: Chris (my regular crew) and I took Blade Runner on a test sail with the motor and to check out the Richmond Yacht Club Small Boat Midwinters. The original thought was to race in the multihull division against Hobie 16's, Hobie 20's, and perhaps a Tornado. As it turned out, because the wind was so light, (3-5 knots) and because the large fleet favored a very maneuverable boat, we bailed. We did not start. It was fun to be out there watching 100+ well sailed small boats. There were lots of Lasers, Internation 14's, International Canoes, Moths (I think), Snipes, Bights (sp), El Toros, and others, all sailing faster than Blade Runner in those conditions. :-( Oh well. Our day will come. As an experiment, I removed the sensor off one ama and observed that the wake behind that ama became much less disturbed. I am sure that the slow performance can be improved by removing both sensors. But don't do this at home kids, unless you know you will be able to put them back before you *need* them. I considered it safe because the wind never got above 5 knots. There was No way we were going to get up on the foils. (Thanks go to Dave Culp for that suggestion.) New instrumentation: The new Trifoilers come with a compass. I added a compass too. I also added a Speedmate boat speed instrument. At first, I was sure that there was no way to have a water speed indicator that used an impeller. Once on the foils, there is no place physically large enough to mount conventional impellers; they are all about the size and shape of a juice glass (not an O.J. reference) and require a wire of some kind from the impeller to the display. The Speedmate elegantly avoids both problems. The impeller is about the diameter of a pencil and about 3 cm. long. It is designed to be pulled through the water and spin like a free-wheeling propeller. Inside the impeller is a magnet. As it spins, it generates a moving magnetic field around it. An induction coil (the size of a hockey puck) picks up the magnetic pulses and the display converts them knots or meters/sec. It also includes an odometer. Nice. (Are you listening Greg?) Assuming it passes the high speed tests, I plan to mount it on top of the mechanical display. :-) I installed the impeller behind the trailing edge of the rudder, as low in the water as the pitot tube opening for the mechanical speed display. It should be in the water at all times except during the almost-out-of- control reaches. On Blade Runner, the distance from the impeller to the pickup coil is about 25 inches. At that distance, slow speed sailing (below 2 knots) produces inaccurate results. At speeds above 2.5 knots the displayed speed corresponded very well to the perceived speed through the water (based upon wake from the amas). It also corresponded pretty well to the GPS speed if you averaged over minutes. I can't wait to get it up to speed! News flash!!!!! Joe Siudzinski, the Bay Area Multihull Association's official performance handicap setter has given Blade Runner a PHRF rating of -240. This is THE most negative number I have ever heard of. He derived the number with very little hard data and the number assumes that the entire race is spent up on the foils (which I don't expect will happen very often). The number will get adjusted each winter based upon race results. If things go well this season, I may have a more negative rating next season! (Not!) Just in case, he also gave Blade Runner a rating for races completed without getting up on the foils, but I don't remember what it was. The first YRA race will be the Vallejo Race, the last weekend in April. I have invited Greg Ketterman to join me, and he said he will if his schedule will allow it. Look for us at the finish line an hour or two after the start! Also look for me in the Delta Ditch Run, the Jazz Cup Race, the Silver Eagle, and any other reaching race. Look out Rocket 88! Look out current course records! -=O=- Randy |\ |\ Am I dating myself? | | | | | | | | No, but I *am* waiting by |\| |\| the phone for me to call! |_\__o~___|_\ o===\_/===o ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~l~~~~l~~~~l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blade Running P.S. F.Y.I. Wind Toys is the No. Cal. Trifoiler dealer. They are going to be at the Oakland Boat show at Jack London Square, April 20-28. They will have a Trifoiler in the water giving rides. I would like to give rides also on the 20'th and 21'st, if I am ready for the Vallejo race by then. Check them out. Their number is 800-499-7245. ========================================================================