after last weekend’s disappointing results, we made sure we applied those lessons appropriately. the conditions were similar, with very light winds (6-8 knots) picking up across the race, to about 10-12 knots. still not blowing our heads off, but the f18 does start moving when the breeze gets into that range and sailing becomes quite a lot more fun.
importantly we also had the same competition as last week and this gave us the opportunity to see if the changes to the rig we made were working as expected. to be honest, we only changed the jib car position; in order to really set the rig up for lighter winds we would have to change the mast rake (i.e. the angle to which the mast is tilted backwards) and possibly even the angle of the spreaders, but that’s more involved and given we are a light crew and actually underweight for the class we kept the settings.
since we only had one race we could use both cameras, the trusty old sony actioncam on the spinnaker pole (above) and the new insta360 on the boom. bother perspectives are interesting but offer slightly different clues about our sailing. rig settings and hull attitude can be better observed in the front view, while the insta has a broader angle and importantly allows us to select and dynamically change the viewpoint in post-production.
my ancient mac pro really struggles with the large files, though, and it takes hours to process and export the edit. the other ‘issue’ is that the insta telemetry does not offer the option to display the speed in knots; that may not be a massive issue given that means little to non-sailors. it is great, though, that studio360 can link the data we collect using our garmin watches.
lastly, the lighter breeze allows us to concentrate on our maneuvers and boat settings. we try to be more conscious of the dagger board positions as well, but we still forget at times. obviously when the wind gets stronger, we don’t always have the time (or the nerve) to mess around with the boards.
and above another edit, the 360 version of the last lap. use the mouse to change the point of view.
so much to learn, but the f18 is such a fantastic boat.