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Hmm, I'm not going to speculate on your settings as I find these things are so dependant on so many factors. Sounds good for lake sailing in small fleets where speed is king.
But I would question the suggestion of raising the centreboard upwind in anything but survival conditions. My experience is the last form of defence when rig is totally depowered is to sail upwind with the board raised a little. And to suggest to drop it for tacking and Mark rounding is a bit bewildering. That's when I'd be raising it.
In 22 knots plus, the Aero will bear away around a top mark so much smoother using less rudder with the board raised 6 inches. Try it.
But in any breeze when fully hiking, I'd doubt many are going to attempt adjusting the centreboard through tacks, it's just not practical and you'd lose to much speed.
Cheers.
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03/06/2017 12:48:25
Brian
Posts: 20
Another 15 sailing sessions, half practice, half racing, getting better. I like track my settings, and use lots of marks so that I can find setups quickly and spend more time looking outside the boat. Anyway,
here are my current numbers which I hope others find useful…
I sail on a smaller inland lake with plenty of geographic features making local swirls and microbursts.
I copied the kicker settings from Gareth, which were for the 9 rig,
http://www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=forum&fid=10&tid=7405
These were quite a bit lighter than my original settings, but worked well and help me lighten all the other loads which has made a big difference. With no wind in the sail my measured distance from boom end to top deck for three starting-point kicker settings are:
70 cm - close hauled
80 cm - reach
90 cm - downwind
I am now only using a little more kicker as the wind increases, until overpowered when I go for extreme kicker.
For the outhaul, I set the extended eye on the 5 sail against the 25 mark on the boom for upwind. This is my 'on' setting until overpowered, The 30 or 31 mark is very flat for me and that's my strong wind setting. For reaching, I’m still finding a suitable 'off'.
For the downhaul, which I am changing a lot more often, I don't use the numbers, instead I’m using the 'e' in Aero, an idea I got from the video by Mark Jacobi
http://www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=forum&fid=4&tid=7413
When the deepest part moves towards the 'r' I'm pulling on a little more downhaul, towards the 'a' and I slack it off a bit, basically keeping the deepest part of the sail in the 'e' at all times.
The mainsheet, measured from where the main leaves the traveler block:
41 cm for close hauled - boom is just wide of the transom corner.
55 cm for gust onslaught - I use this for flattening the boat quickly, I play the main upwind between these two sheet marks and sail a fairly straight line, trying to keep boat speed rather than pinching.
61 cm for reaching, 67 cm for handling gusts when reaching.
Upwind I sit forwards and out enough that I can see the bow in the water. I’m sailing on flat water so just making sure the bow is in the water seems to work fine.
I am now going for much more speed before pointing, on GPS this is 5-6 knots, on feel the water is audibly lapping past the hull. The daggerboard is up a little, to the zero or one, I only have it fully down for tacking, mark rounding's etc.
I get up to speed, and then curve gently to point. With the boat speed as the priority I find the pointing is better than when I try to point with a slower boat speed
Reply
here are my current numbers which I hope others find useful…
I sail on a smaller inland lake with plenty of geographic features making local swirls and microbursts.
I copied the kicker settings from Gareth, which were for the 9 rig,
http://www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=forum&fid=10&tid=7405
These were quite a bit lighter than my original settings, but worked well and help me lighten all the other loads which has made a big difference. With no wind in the sail my measured distance from boom end to top deck for three starting-point kicker settings are:
70 cm - close hauled
80 cm - reach
90 cm - downwind
I am now only using a little more kicker as the wind increases, until overpowered when I go for extreme kicker.
For the outhaul, I set the extended eye on the 5 sail against the 25 mark on the boom for upwind. This is my 'on' setting until overpowered, The 30 or 31 mark is very flat for me and that's my strong wind setting. For reaching, I’m still finding a suitable 'off'.
For the downhaul, which I am changing a lot more often, I don't use the numbers, instead I’m using the 'e' in Aero, an idea I got from the video by Mark Jacobi
http://www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=forum&fid=4&tid=7413
When the deepest part moves towards the 'r' I'm pulling on a little more downhaul, towards the 'a' and I slack it off a bit, basically keeping the deepest part of the sail in the 'e' at all times.
The mainsheet, measured from where the main leaves the traveler block:
41 cm for close hauled - boom is just wide of the transom corner.
55 cm for gust onslaught - I use this for flattening the boat quickly, I play the main upwind between these two sheet marks and sail a fairly straight line, trying to keep boat speed rather than pinching.
61 cm for reaching, 67 cm for handling gusts when reaching.
Upwind I sit forwards and out enough that I can see the bow in the water. I’m sailing on flat water so just making sure the bow is in the water seems to work fine.
I am now going for much more speed before pointing, on GPS this is 5-6 knots, on feel the water is audibly lapping past the hull. The daggerboard is up a little, to the zero or one, I only have it fully down for tacking, mark rounding's etc.
I get up to speed, and then curve gently to point. With the boat speed as the priority I find the pointing is better than when I try to point with a slower boat speed
Reply
03/06/2017 10:05:52
Posts: 0
Thanks for the tips, I found them useful.
Have you also tried lifting the daggerboard? I pull mine up until I can see the 1. This makes a huge difference. My thinking is that the optimum daggerboard size is smaller for the smaller rigs and lighter sailors. Following your useful tips gives a flatter sail than I would have expected to use for the conditions; flatter sail means that minimizing drag is more important than maximizing lift; so reduce drag by taking up the daggerboard a bit.
This fixed my pointing and doesn't add any leeway. I could then use a slightly deeper sail etc.
I’m still playing with this idea. Next I will try setting the battens so that the top of the mainsail is flat, might allow the outhaul to play more of a role, and would effectively be lowering the drive point on the sail, so the daggerboard would come up a little more.
I tested in light, medium and strong winds, it helped in all cases.
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05/05/2017 07:00:22
Posts: 0
From my efforts over the winter I have a little bit of info to share.
Kicker: Use lots. Pull on as much as you can until your leeward tell-tale stalls and then let a little bit off.
Outhaul: Doesn't really seem to make much difference - try and keep to the tuning guide on this one
Downhaul: Pull it on more as you get overpowered. Don't be afraid to pull it on block to block (if you can)! especially when it is windy-er.
Hopefully this will be of some use to someone!
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05/04/2017 17:25:11
Emma
Posts: 4
Hi,
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It was at the GGP but I would say I was as powered up as the 7 rigs. I think I had too much kicker on but it is difficult to tell as the tuning guide doesn't really apply to the 5 rig where it says "boom horizontal". I suspect I was also oversheeting too
For now I think just more time the boat!
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05/01/2017 21:19:26
Emma
Posts: 4
Emma,
I think there is a fundamental change in efficiency between a sail boat being underpowered and fully/max powered. Once fully powered with shoulders back and up to speed you have good flow established over the foils and sails and power to work with for height or speed.
Maybe you experienced this at the GrafhamGP if it was light side of medium breeze and you were underpowered with the 7 rigs were more fully powered?
Turn up to a RS Aero UK Winter Training weekend where you/we will be able to identify issues alongside other same rig Aeros, details on UK event page;
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04/01/2017 11:20:44
Peter Barton
Posts: 4681
Hi all,
Does anyone have any useful hints for getting the Aero 5 rig up the course?
I am about the size of a round mouse so predominantly (always) use the small rig and I can't seem to get it to go at all upwind. I'm either a maximum of15degrees lower with OK speed or similar height to other Aeros but substantially slower if not stalled out completely. I feel like I am set up the same as the others around me (although they are on the 7 rig) - maybe there is something key I have missed?
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02/01/2017 19:32:20
Emma
Posts: 4
