I just got the attached photos from a spectator at a recent event and it got me thinking about where I put my weight in different situations.

Going upwind, I've noticed Paul gets pretty far forward and the transoms are out of the water. I tend to be farther back, but in this photo I'm probably more forward than I though and it looks like the bows are digging in a bit too much. An A-cat sailor told me I had my weight too far forward and was pushing too much water.

What do you guys think.

Hi Eric, I have a Taipan 4.9 as well, and looking from your hull trim in the picture, it looks about right to me. Basically for flat water and light to moderate winds, I try and sit as far forward as possible. I find the boat "bites" upwind better and i get more height. The boat with the bow down, seems to track upwind on its own. Sitting too far back in light to moderate winds and the boat feels a little doggy. Of course if there is chop and your dolphin striker is hitting the waves, you likely want to move back a little.
However once the wind gets stronger like 18+ knots, and the settings are right, the boat seems to "plane" upwind. At this point I keep my weigh further back, right where my crew's front foot would be behind the forestay and I would be right next to my crew. So probabyl about a foot back from the forestay. Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, and I forgot, because of the hull volume, I find myself moving my weight further forward when sailing cat rigged as opposed to sloop rigged. I can see what your friend means, hoever, remember that the A class has far less hull volume and a slight shift in weight fore and aft makes a lot more difference than the Taipan when sailed one up.

I tend to do much the same thing as described by Carbonated.

I lighter conditions I press my bows in to clear my sterns. However there is a point after which you can really feel the boat slow down. So I try to ride right up to that point without crossing it. Normally my bow is halve submerged. In really light stuff (crew to leeward etc) I may press it in till 3/4 of the bow. The slower you go the less it seems to hurt. And the more a loud stern does seem to hurt.

When the wind picks up I move further and further back and something even a long way. In a rough seastate I may even stand at the rearbeam or behind it with my crew right next to me. The bows come up then are hardly touches the water and the sterns sink but when their is really alot of wind the boat seems to go only faster. Pretty much when you speed is such that the rooster tales flatten out or disappear then you can ride the Taipan on its sterns and get lots of speed in really rought conditions. And I'm really talking about Inter-20 to fastest F18 speed. I can't really explain it as you really depress you sterns at that time but apparently the speed of hull subdues the drag of the depressed sterns to such a level that the drive increase from being further back is more than enough to overcome the extra drag and still speed up the boat. It looks rather weird when viewed from another boat.

ALso this stern riding trick seems to work when enocuntering short and steep waves. Burying the bow and recovering is never a problem with a Taipan however I find that I get better speed by standing far back and pulling the bows up. The boat seems to ride more horizontal when passing the waves and approaches the next wave in a better attitude and the direct result is higher boat speed.

In flat water however I'm still riding the hulls a horizontal as possible so that would be about halve submerged at the bow for my crew weight.

It is a funny little boat, things that work on other boats don't work on the Taipan and things that does not work on other boats work on this little Taipan. I found you really have to experience over the full range of possibilities to find ALL the "tricks".

Wouter

looks also quite o.k. for me.
the A are longer and even the outdated MK4 has a more modern (evoluted) shape than the 4.9 which basically means more volume in front of the bow.

V shape and flat bottom shape are anyhow very different to sail and not really comparable. if you nose dive the flyer in everything than very little wind you are just slow.

basically (like already pointed out) target in light wind is to get the sterns same level with the waterline to have less drag.

in strong wind even the 4.9 has the potential to plane, but for that you have to step far behind and submerge the sterns quite significant, as the boat is still much to V-shaped in front of the frontbeam.

if you look at picture you see how far people stand behind. notice how much spray (and drag) is taken into account just to generate positive lift by planning...

even the hull shape of the famous flyer I believe is not optimized, the flat aft part need still to be submerged to get the boat into the angle to appreciate best planning lift and therefore best speeds.

so basically it's always about the compromise between to much draggy stern and support from planning and if this lift cannot be generated due to lack of speed (wind) reducing of drag on the stern is major target, specially with V-shape hulls.

regards

dirk

Hey All ,

I think that wiring w/ my forward foot at the front beam is fast in even moderate wind ( maybe cause i'm light). But shuffle aft as you foot in gusts or the boat noses in and just stops...

Has anyone experimented with this (attached) , in breeze just
strong enough to keep the sail from flopping to windward ?

PK

P.S.

Doc - i'll work on that photoshop assignment - do you have another copy of the logo ?

Paul--with my heft, I'd flip to windward if I tried that.

I'll email the logo to you.

thats not sailing weather in the picture.. It is God telling you the bar needs financial support!!

There is what’s known as "the ideal attitude" for the position of a cat in the water. It is the same for all points of sail, and all wind and sea conditions.
Basically the leeward hull transom should always be just clearing the water at the transition point of the transom and the bottom of the hull (this is so that there is the least drag produced by the movement of that hull through the water). The windward hull should be “flying” only just clear of the water, (once again to reduce drag to its minimum possible). Towards maintaining the hulls in this “ideal” attitude, the moveable “ballast” ,(the crew), positions themselves accordingly. Obviously the positions that a crew have to be in will depend enormously on the prevailing conditions at the time. The control of the sails is the other factor in the “balancing” of the cat. Whenever the hulls change from this attitude, extra “drag” will be induced from the “ideal”, but the object is to attempt to keep the “ideal” as much as possible (or at least more than your opposition) – less drag, more speed (and control).
There is no “set” position for a crew to position themselves in, it will depend on many factors, I.E. the weight of the crew, the point of sail, the longitudinal buoyancy ratio of the particular hulls, the mast rake, etc. so that the position fore and aft and side to side of the boat that the crew position themselves will be solely governed by their need to keep the correct attitude of the hulls in the water for maximum speed and least drag.

On the Taipan I found that this is not the case.

Two examples. If I have to get to a bouy but cut the layline a little low than I walk forward and push the bows in. This gives me a few degrees extra pointing against a penalty of lower speed. However this is still very much the optimal attittude for that situation as sailing low and tacking twice will take longer. Guys this really only works when you are relatively close to the bouy.

Otherwise I find that riding the Taipan on its sterns help keep speed up in a rought seastate. Certainly not an optimial attitude according to Darryls rule of thumb but faster nevertheless. Other factors apparently make it so.

My point is that different circumstance will favour different optimal attitudes sometimes even ones that would clearly be considered inferiour in other straight line situations.

Wouter

As I said Wouter, this is the "IDEAL attitude" which is a bit like taking the results from "ideal" tank testing of a hull and expecting it to perform to those exact standards "out on the water" with no compromise for water, wave, wind, etc effects on that hull.
Sailing is, if nothing else, a compromise at all times between the "theoretical ideal" and the practical application of balancing the ideal with the "real", never the less, when positioning the crew weight, trimming the sails, etc, the "ideal sailing attitude" of the boat has to be always foremost in the awareness of the sailor if he/she is to achieve the best possible performance out of their boat.