A big issue on the H17 when getting through tacks is to make sure your mast rotator works correctly.

Without it, you'll never get powered up enough to go forward until you're on a broad reach

Well I seem to be in the minority here with my practice of easing the sheet as I begin the turn. I know it's not conventional wisdom, I stumbled onto it myself. Have you ever looked at your telltails as your tacking? They will tell you that the wind just went aft bigtime. I used to think I was tacking just as I was hit by a huge lift and was tacking into the header. After a while I figured out that it was the rotation of the boat swinging the sail through the air causing the apparent wind to shift aft. Keeping the sheet tight only stalls the sail and slows the boat.

Clearly I'm a minority here but thats why this sport is so cool. You guys keep doing it your way. Thats fine.

All Uni Catters,

Is this a great forum or what!

At the 2004 BVI Spring Regatta, the Trade Winds dissapeared and it was a 11 race regatta in 8-ish mph ( they cancelled day 3, no wind). When I was out there for the 11 races, I kept saying to myself,' so this is what light air-no wave sailing is about?). So, in my class were a Puerto Rican H 16, N 5.8 , two-P19mx and the I-17. It took me until race 11 to win one.

Point being, techniques differ drastically in the various wind/sea conditions.

99% of the time it is Trade Winds ( 15-20mph) and Waves ( 2-3 + ft) and that is were my Uni technique is forced to be.

The first critical point, with me as skipper, the I-17 and this wind range, in a tack sequence, the rig will love to put you in irons if it can! So, I was forced to learn that putting out ALOT of mainsheet ( as my head is passing under the boom as the boom shifts to the new position, I let go the uncleated sheet).
Then as I move PDQ forward, hooking up ( I have the ball-and-socket trap set-up, real nice too), I have to sit inboard until speed and direction is re-established about 66% before I can go on the wire( the hull has lifted to clear water, then I climb out, and get feet in straps set 1st, then moderately pull in m-sheet while micro-adjusting to maximun upwind course). M-sheet returns to preset formula for upwind and I never touch it again. ( ..we are talking 2-3 ft wave condition here)
By the way, the trav is out between 8-10 inches, in these conditions.

The second BIG consideration in tacking, is wave position. Wouter is 100% right, I start looking for a patch of water that will LET me tack. There is only certain positions where you can tack a Uni in a 3 foot sea,..and experiance will teach you this unmercifully,...a nice wall of water will enjoy putting you in irons and push you backward at the same time with the possibility of a reverse pitchpole becoming a reality....all when you are leading the pack!



So, tacking a Uni is just part of the fun of solo sailing! But once everything is dialed in,...what a thrill these Uni's are upwind,..nothing can beat them!

Bruce

No more Hurricanes this year
St. Croix

This is a great thread. As someone new to cat sailing, its really cool to hear so many great ideas and explanations as to why. It really helps alot when you start cat sailing after all the races are done (exept for 1 or 2 the season is short up here).

I just have one really really dumb question: What is uni sailing?
I think its either one person, or one sail, but im not really sure.

Rock on,
double0

usually its both one person and just the main.

"Uni" usually refers to the sail plan. When the boat is referred to as a "uni-rig," it means mainsail only.

Lots of boats, with two or even three sails can be sailed "solo," meaning by one person, even though the boats are not uni-rigs.

And, of course, a uni-rig can be sailed with more than one person on board, but the boat itself is still a uni.

Now there are uni-rigs that also have spinnakers, so I don't know whether they are still technically uni-rigs or what you call them. They are one sail upwind and two sails downwind. Anybody know whether this is still technically a uni-rig? I would think not.

What does Parlier's hydroplaning catamaran classify as? It has two masts, both "uni-rigged".

See the video of it in wild conditions linked on this forum in another thread...

Mikr.

Maybe one sail per mast?!

Thats an intense video!

Nope. As far as I am concerned, unirig means one sail on the boat, period. Let's see, two masts and two mainsails would be maybe a duo-rig?

Parlier's boat is equipped with a twin uni-rig.

Two mainsails on a boat does not qualify as a unirig, any more than a sloop rig does. It's just two sails side by side instead of fore and aft.

In fact, I don't think unirig has anything to do with whether it is even attached to a mast. You could have a unirig that is jib only rather than main only. It's just about one sail, period, whateverwhichway you want to hang it up there.

In fact, if the only sail you have is a kitesail, I would guess that would also be a unirig.

Mary,

uni=one (eg unicycle as opposed to a bicycle);
uni-rig must mean one sail

So you're right in what you're saying. But in our realm "unirig" is often used synomymously for "catrig." An A-cat is really a unicatrig. When a monohull drifts along under jib alone, most of us don't think of it as a "unirig" even though this is linguistically correct. But any boat sailing under main alone (ie one sail positioned aft of the mast) is sailing cat rigged.

So Parlier's boat has a twin catrig...or maybe a bicatrig rather than a unicatrig.

No, a monohull sailing along under jib alone is not a unirig under any interpretation of the term. It is a sloop rig temporarily sailing under jib alone.

There are a few, very rare, boats that do not have a mainsail and only have a headsail. But now that I think about it, even those usually have more than one headsail, so those would not be unirigs either. So that leaves us with the kitesail boat, if the kite is the ONLY sail, to qualify as a unirig when no mainsail is involved.

>>(eg unicycle as opposed to a bicycle);


Wouldn't it be better phrased as : Monocycle as opposed to a bicycle ?

Or are you called single hull boat unihull instead of monohull as well

Wouter