Fall, 2002 Newsletter
Mike Fahle (Mikefahle) on Sunday, October
06, 2002 - 11:16 pm:
Mystere 4.3 Owners’ Newsletter - Fall 2002 by: Mike
Fahle
GREETINGS - The racing season ends next week in Ohio which is actually a
bonus since the Mystere 4.3 group at Alum Creek recently got our class invited
to the “Alum Cup”, otherwise the season would have already ended.
So if you are not ready to be done racing this season then come to Alum
Creek next weekend for what could be billed as “the last chance regatta”,
at least here in Ohio.
ALUM CUP - Dates: October 12 & 13 Location: Alum Creek Marina, on Hollenback
Rd.
Times : Saturday 9:30 skippers meeting Saturday 10:30 first race Sunday
10:30 first race
Fees: I-LYA members $10.00 Non-affiliated individuals $15.00
EVENT REPORTS –
CAN RACE - Last year the Mystere 4.3 class owners were invited to race at
Port Clinton Yacht Club (PCYC) with the Interlake fleet there thanks to
Doug Young. It is a race from near the beach to a big navigational buoy
near the end of Catawba Island and back (about ten miles). This year they
invited us back on Sunday, August 18th. The day was light –medium wind;
just right for being between hiking and trapezing – usually hiking.
The wind was from the Northwest so that each way was a very close spinnaker
reach or a looser jib reach. The big surprise of the day was when Brad Culbert
flew by everyone from back in the pack sailing just jib and main, establishing
a nice lead almost out to the Catawba Can when he capsized. We learned later
that he was well lathered with sun tan lotion and slid right off the trampoline
when his boat started to heel. He had been laying across the tramp on his
back looking at the sails and just fell in! He showed blazing speed on the
whole class before swimming and this was his very first race. We have to
get him out again to learn his secrets. After the race we had a great pot-luck
lunch with the Interlake sailors and then the awards presentation by PRO,
Doug Young. Results are posted on the owners’ website (http://mystereowners.org/mystere/).
ALUM CREEK - This is always a fun regatta just north of Columbus, Ohio,
counts as one of the OCRA season counters, and is held on one of the best
inland lake venues available. The wind was from the SSW and light each race
and often pretty frustrating, especially when the wind would take a break.
One sailor lowered his jib while sailing downwind on one occasion to try
to get the spinnaker to fill when it temporarily became nearly a drifter
and that worked to see the spinnaker better, too. The RC was able to get
two races in before lunch and when they tried for more in the afternoon,
the wind puked! So they sent us in to prepare for the party at (Mystere
4.3 owners) Anne and Duncan Spillman’s new house. The excitement that
evening was when the kids found a swarm of bees that attacked them while
they were playing in the woods! The next day, the wind was very light in
the morning with fog and the racers needed to be coaxed out to race. Then
the wind did about a 120 degree shift and settled in from the NNW with a
little increase, making the weather mark placement closer to shore and causing
some real “swirlies” there at times. It required being able to
“keep your head out of the boat” and handling the boat well without
too much attention which was needed to look for the wind on the course.
Results are posted on the OCRA website (http://www.sailocra.com/).
SNOW FLURRIES - This is a long running regatta that used to have a large
one-design section to go with the large “big boat” section on
separate courses. The one-design portion was not held for a few years, then
started up again with mostly just Interlakes. Now it is open to beach cats
and is an OCRA event. It is also another one day event and was the last
OCRA event this year. The Mystere 4.3 class was seven boats out of fifteen
total cats, so our class is dominating OCRA and allowed for some nice one-design
racing. With two more boats we would have been awarded the trophy for the
class with the most
boats. The racing featured trying to sail the Mysteres through large waves
on the Lake Erie south shore
that were left over from a pretty brisk Northeasterly that was rapidly easing
into the hiking only stage and then, for the third and last race, into the
“please keep blowing!” stage. Mike Fahle tried to get out early
only to just get into the trapeze, sheet in, and promptly pitchpole upwind!
The boat just drove right into a big wave, probably amplified by the Jet
Express ferry boat or something similar, and when the wave hit the main
beam the boat slowed so fast that he couldn’t uncleat the main before
being launched toward the bows. Working to redeem himself for such an embarrassing
episode, he led the Mystere 4.3s at every mark but one in the three races.
Jamie Diamond was shamelessly conducting head games on Bob Everson between
races but he did show significantly better pointing ability upwind, right
after working on his standing rigging to increase the rig rake (see article
below). He finished second each race and Bob would have been third for the
regatta if he had not been over early one race. Instead, Lou Young (Doug’s
brother) took third. Lou owns a Corsair F-28R that has won the Nationals
and routinely wins the PHRF multihull class in distance races on Lake Erie.
The results are posted on the OCRA website. Carol Fahle provided the scoring
and RC services needed to pull this “extra” regatta off for OCRA.
BOATS/OWNERS - The new boats are all sold and two boats in Port Clinton
have recently changed ownership. The mailing list reflects the changes but
here are all of them for this season for your information: (Please let Mike
Fahle know of any others not listed here)
Owners of new boats: Todd Hart – Manteo, N.C., Jon Britt – Duck,
N.C. , Phillipe Ritter – Fort Worth, Tx., David Rain – Lutz, Fl.
, Bob Everson - Liberty Township, Oh., Tim Pickering - Delaware, Oh., Jim
Higgins – Charlotte, N.C., Paul Hubbard – Cleveland, Oh., Eric
Farnsworth - Madison, Wi., Mike Fahle – Toledo, Oh., Jamie Diamond
– Columbus, Oh., Paul Steed – Glen Ellyn, Il.
New Owners of 2001 boats (whose boat they bought): John Williams –
Pensacola, Fl. (Mike Fahle) John Knight, Cleveland, Oh.(Lou Young), Matt
Lescohier– Indianapolis, In. (Paul Steed), Tom Houston – Cleveland,
Oh. (Jamie Diamond), Bill Holt – Toledo, Oh. (Larry Logsdon).
SPARE PARTS - We have two spinnakers for sale: one .75 oz (light) that is
the original green color and one 1.5 oz (heavy)that is all blue. There are
two new style (nylon spinnaker material) snuffer bags and some new dacron
jibs available also. We also have spare battens, a few rudder springs and
screws, and hull plugs. Anyone interested should contact Mike or Carol Fahle
at: (419) 729-9965 and/or e-mail.
PLANNING – Mystere sponsors a National Championship series each year
in Canada. We can offer incentives again next year for regatta attendance
as was done last year (read previous newsletters) and hold our own U.S.
National Championship series at locations around the eastern U.S. where
there are owners willing to host such a regatta. We would have at least
five regattas - the North Carolina group wants us to come sail on the Outer
Banks for a regatta and John Williams wants us in the Florida panhandle
for a regatta. The owners near Lake Carlisle could choose an event for that
location and we could have two in the OCRA season counters, such as Ceasar’s
Creek and Alum Creek. We could score the events like we do the OCRA season
results with a throwout. Please provide your input on this plan to Mike
Fahle and/or throw ideas out on the Owners’ forum - Note the new website
address: http://mystereowners.org/mystere/
- and discuss this at the upcoming events so that we can plan for next year
in time for vacation schedules. Last year the incentive was based on the
BOAT’S participation which worked well and helped new people try it
out, so we should keep that. Let’s hear your ideas!
RIGGING MODIFICATIONS - Look for more details about rigging changes on the
owners’ website. All owners are encouraged to share their ideas and
developments with all the other owners to keep making the boats faster,
easier, simpler, better! Meanwhile, Jamie Diamond has been experimenting
with rig rake. Early results look promising. We will compare boat performance
at the Alum Cup and if his changes work, we will report exact shroud and
forestay lengths for everyone to copy easily if they decide. Here is Jamie’s
rationale and description of what he is doing:
I don’t know what length shrouds I ended up with. I didn’t touch
the forestay and I really need a longer one. Here is my rational: My goal
when setting up the Mystere 4.3 is to give it us much mast rake as it will
stand. By that I mean that I rake the mast back until, if I went any further,
I would not be able to get adequate leech tension when sheeting hard. This
is determined by raking the mast until the mainsheet blocks just touch each
other when you have cranked in on the mainsheet as hard as you ever will.
To get close to that I made the following changes:
1.) Replaced the existing chain plates with the 11-hole chain plates all
the way around (forestay and both shrouds).
2.) Shortened the shrouds by one swage. i.e. I cut the shroud as close to
the existing swage as I could, and then re-swaged it with as little additional
length loss as possible.
3.) For last weekend (and the upcoming Alum regatta) I added a really long
(approx. 2 inches) shackle to the top of the chainplate on the forestay
artificially adding an extra 2 inches to the forestay length.
4.) At this point the shrouds are pinned in the top holes of the 11-hole
chain plates and the forestay is pinned 2 inches above the top hole of an
11-hole chainplate.
5.) I changed the knot at the standing-end of the mainsheet from a bowline
to a stoppered half-hitch (saving about an inch of mainsheet stack-height)
6.) After all of that I was still not quite going block to block on the
mainsheet. (So I need to add a little more length to the forestay and take
the shrouds down perhaps one hole before Alum, probably by adding a second
chainplate to the forestay.)
The boat went upwind awesome. The rudders had a reasonably aggressive angle
of attack and yet were not stalling out. The boat tacked quickly. The only
bad news was I probably had between 5 and 10 lbs of apparent weather helm
which meant steering upwind was a pain, or maybe even painful. I will rake
the rudders forward significantly between now and Alum to relieve some of
the apparent weather helm while preserving the angle of attack of the rudders.
After Alum (over the winter) I will probably make a new forestay that is
at least 5 inches longer. I may switch out my bottom triple mainsheet block
to one without a becket. Removal of the becket and moving the standing-end
of the mainsheet to a fairlead bolted to the top of the camcleat will save
another 1 inch of stack height allowing even more mast rake if I want. If
the boat still seems happy with that much mast rake then I would then pursue
getting shorter shackles to hook everything to the mainsheet saving perhaps
another half-inch or so.
The reason I do this, the reason I want as much mast rake as I can, is that
the boat is a skeg boat. The best underwater foil the boat has is the rudder.
The second best is the skeg. So I want to put as much of my sail area (center
of effort) over the rudder as I can making it take as much of the underwater
effort as is possible (observable via it’s angle of attack), and letting
the rest of the boat drive through the water straight, minimizing form drag.
I will stop optimizing in this direction when the rudder starts stalling
too often or when the boat gets too underpowered to make up for the reduced
underwater drag.
Editor’s note: BTW, this is what we learned about the Hobie Wave as
well. People were even changing the tiller connector from on top the tillers
to on bottom so that they could rake back even further (the sail would hit
the tiller connector before the sheet was double-blocked). We shall see
if the boats behave similarly to rig rake.