The Megabyte has an identity crisis. No, I'm not talking about some sort of wannabe Laser complex--not worth going there. It's a case of two rigs on one boat. The Megabyte was first introduced in 2000 with a Laser-like sail--it was even designed by the same guy. OK, not exactly Laser-like with its full length top batten and cut for a much more flexible carbon mast, but not radically different either. Then, in 2007 PS 2000 introduced a new skiff-like rig for the boat with all full length battens, an even more flexible top mast, and a big fat roach (no, not that kind!). I've sailed both for a while now usually suiting up the old sail for fun and practice preserving the new sail for racing.
My initial thoughts had been that there wasn't all that much difference between the two rigs (maybe more speed downwind in light air with the new rig, but without any side by side testing hard to really tell), but that was before I saw the new coaching video that Ian Bruce put together for the Megabyte's little sister, the Byte: http://byteclass.org/ (click on "technical" link.) Watching that made me realize I was sailing the new rig in the old style. So, time to experiment and see what this new rig can really do.
I went our last Friday afternoon for some testing. My focus was on observing the sail with the traveler pulled all the way to weather and working out the mechanics of the sheet and traveler controls when tacking. I found that tacking the traveler isn't that big of a deal as long as you don't try to do everything at once--just as described by Ian in the video. As for the sail shape, yeah, sheeting to weather allows the sail to really twist, so much so that the top weather telltale is spinning circles while the lowers are streaming aft. When I'd observed this during early experiments with the sail, I thought it was a bad thing. Now, I'm not so sure. Despite the telltale direction, the leech ribbons all looked good, and the boat felt powered up and fast. I think next time I'll take a GPS with me and try to measure any speed and VMG differences between twist and no twist.
More to come . . .
About this blog
Well, this blog started out as a chronicle of the restoration, and adventures aboard, the O'Day Mariner, Mothra. But since then, and thanks to Mothra rekindling my love of sailing, it's often taken over with other sailing content. So be it. I'm having so much fun with the new Megabyte, I gotta share that, too.
2 comments:
Enjoy your experimenting. it's always a trial-and-error thing, isn't it? at least you've seen some video footage of different variations of it all :) That sure helps as a starting-point for you. Enjoy :)
Would be good to do some side by side tests w/ another MB - easier said than done. Makes me think I need to do a better job of looking at my boats sail shape more. I tend to be very unscientific in my sail trim - sheet in and go like hell. So many things to think about out there.
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