CLUB REGATTA 13 SEPT 08

            Can the crummy conditions continue? I think not, but we suffered from very light winds on Saturday. It was overcast and warm and humid, but no rain. So as much that we all hate ultra light winds, we were there and decided to give it a try. Ron Rhault had bought some very thin sails a few years ago, but had never had any luck with them. The big question was, “ can the ultra light sails work finally in very light winds?”. The results shown below show the failure of the super lightweight sails (Blackmagic). I too had bought a similar set and found no rewards in them. Why is that? We all can come up with an explanation after the fact, but anyway here goes. I think that in near drifter conditions the super lightweight sails just sag on the rig and don’t hold their shape at all. The light winds do not have enough strength to pull the sails up to optimal profile and so little power can be extracted from the weak winds. The super lightweight sails probably work ok with winds in the low range around 5 mph, but are distorted at higher conditions. They appear to have a limited range of operation.

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