yes please!

michael..the main sails i go out on are between 5.3 and 7.5, i sail in land where you need bigger sails than the coast. (just rereading this last sentence.. i'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs!!! my vodka induced logic thought sailing in oz may somehow be different.and i'd have to explain the inland / coastal wind differentials!!! with consideration i withdraw this explanation!) I sometimes sail my 4.5 on a really windy day. I beg /borrow / nick an 8 or 11 m on occasions (read tomorrow!). one of the areas (yes i know theres many areas.. thanks speed monkey b4 you start!) i'm really trying to improve on is sussing out what size sail for what conditions. ive started to keep a log of the wind speed in the sailors log section, the size sail i went out on and how i got on. for example tomorrow is my first time out since oct/nov 2004 (yippeee bring it on i can't wait!) anyway back to the topic in hand.. i've had a shufty through my logs to see what sail i reckon will go well with the forecast. i used to be ok at sussing out what size sail to chose since i've changed sailing location, the launch site is in a big wind shadow in a bay at carsington. so you don't get that much of a clue b4 you get out of the bay. i then change the sail power by downhauling outhauling more when out there. i have a pretty full-on shoulder injury that means if the wind really picks up on me its agony to get back on a too big sail. also i'm crap at rigging so it would be good to be able to change the sail size without having to rerig. however i'd be concerned that it would really affect the aerodynamics of the sail and what you would do with the zipped out bits.



ne way thats enough for 2nite..let me know if you need more info. i'm off to get some sleep before a rediculously early start.



p.s i'm not that good a sailor (yet!) so you may want to take this with an intermediates pinch of salt.

p p s me and my design team from the local are available to be flown to oz to act as inspiration for your project. our design ideas get better the more stella you supply. just send about 6 return tickets and we'll be there!

hey (Michael Again)



sorry but university budgets dont allow for international travel unfortunatly. Ur story is really helpful in targeting down on my exact market/topic. And yes wind conditions are similar over here to what u described. strong sea breezes on the coast and sometimes winds more inland. I wouldnt really know about inland wind as i mainly sail on the beach!



It was really interesting to find out that u have a little trouble chosing the right sails for the right conditions, cause i dont remeber having that problem. I'm basically putting it down to the fact that we used old cloth sails which were easy to rig and took the gusts well. I remember rigging them. Terrible to sail but relitivly easy to learn on. i must admit, these days it is alot harder to learn as cloth sails dont exist any more and more knowldge is needed to get ur monofilm sails rigged nicely. I remember rigging sails with as little 'creases' as possible in the sail until i knew better. top heavy pieces of crap that wouldnt work at all for me!



I guess it's just a learning curve.......



Thanks again for all ur comments

Michael



ps. It wont be for another few months (around august), but if i can I'll post some initial concepts and see what u guys think.



later