PDRacer Sailboat - Measuring Tacking Angle

Speed over Distance Record
by Tim Cleary
11-19-06 record: 5.1 mph over .55 miles

Conditions came together for a half mile speed over distance run today. Mild temp, steady 12 mph wind, with gusts of 20. I caught a break and caught a couple of good gusts in the middle of the run.

The constant wind pushed up about a one foot chop, which doesn't sound like much, but is high for Lake Robinson. It gave me a chance to use wave running on a broad reach. This is where, if you're sailing faster than the waves, you can run up to a wave's crest and then slide diagonally down its face to the next trough, then sail up the back side of the next wave and slide diagonally down its face to the next trough, and so forth. By doing so you pick up some forward motion from the energy of the waves. That's the theory anyway and my PDR did seem to go faster sliding along the front of a wave. And no rules against it as far as I can tell.
[from Shorty: That is OK to take advantage of, no rules against that, great technique!]

Photo of Lake Robinson just before run. I didn't take my camera out there. I did 2 close-haul tacks to get out to the point of land in the upper left of the lake area in the photo, then did a broad reach back to a point just outside the lower right lake area in the photo.

Display says .55 miles, 5.1 mph moving averge, with a 6.3 mph max speed.

Tim C.

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