it’s the kite Winn (layline) had made so he could manage PHRF in GA that lost him his dealership rights. Jerome/Philleas got so upset they wouldn’t let him sell boats (even though he NEVER said anything about it online) and they even went so far as to mandate him removing it from his own boat when he sold it. We heard about it when we talked to him about our poor PHRF performance in light air (we bought our open from him) and once he sold the boat we asked what the sail’s status was. He basically sent it up to us just so we could see if we liked it which we do so we both win!
It’s a shur (sp) sail. It’s VERY MUCH a VMG runner. If you watch the video we’re sailing it pretty “tight” there and are lower and faster than the SB3. Granted we were both not racing and out having fun/drinking, so this wasn’t an honest/serious matchup, but considering that was the east coast laser rep driving and 2 shop boys, I doubt they didn’t want to beat us… It was blowing maybe ~8kt and we were doing ~6kt against a VERY strong tide… It’s funny looking back at the video when my crew (who’d never sailed before in his life) walks aft to see our wake -vs- the wind on the water. :blink: The guy I was sailing with is a navy sonar tech, so he know’s his angles and he agreed we were consistently faster and lower than the SB3. We both also guesstimated our gybing angles around 45º which is a huge improvement from the little kite.
The rig is basically a set of cap shrouds that go up from the aft hole on the chainplate. There’s a bigger shackle there that pins the shroud, the spin sheets shackle to it, and you lift the boat with it (we had a larger shackle there already so we could lift w/o taking off the spin gear, but this is the next size up to get the right pin diameter). From there it’s 2 tangs near the top of the mast and a halyard on a string (if you’ve seen an open rig it’s the same string setup as the other halyard so it can rotate) as well as a metal plate that rotates off the top of the mast. Unfortunately, because we put everything together the night we raced we took NO pics of the top of the mast, but I’ll try to snag some next week with a tele on the hill near the boat. We are considering runners so we can just use this chute all the time as this setup probably isn’t far enough back in the boat if the breeze comes on.
It’s funny because that’s way too low IMHO (the open rates 130~156 in other regions). I’m sure they’re just being cautious for now. Regardless it looked to be a perfect night, but the wind dropped from 10~15 before the race to 5~8 for the race. Light air isn’t fun for me ever, but our boat will not sail to it’s eventual rating, never mind 108 in light air. We still had a great night and a ton of fun. Going sailing, getting around a course, and NOT breaking anything are always good things. It’s also the first time I’ve moved the boat with my car which felt great.