[Rhodes22-list] How fast does your R22 go?

[TN Rhodey]

Sailing on lake/river I can motor 6 knots with my 6 hp motor wide open. This
may seem hard to believe but I have toppped 7 knots a couple of times under
sail. This speed was sustained for periods of around 5 minutes or so and was
on a run that turned into a reach that turned into a broach.

The first time happened in a race under very windy conditions (20+). I
posted this story 6 or so years ago. It was in January with temps in the 30s
and snow on the ground/. The conditions were such that we only had 7 boats
in the race. Two pulled out right after the start. A Catalina 30 shredded
their main. A husband/wife crew didn'tt think their marriage would survive
the race. We were now down to 5 boats.

I was sailing my R22 single handed with with 60% furled main and a 125 jib.
The RC didn't want to mess with buoys because it was so cold. The race
course was around Half Moon Island and back through the starting gate. It
was upwind towards the island. The wind was really blowing, the sky was
gray, and then it started snowing. I was over powered several times and had
a hard time keeping flat. By staying in the shallow side in the lee of the
island I was able to shorten the course and find some calmer weather. I
decided to unfurl the main to take advantage of the lull.

Once crossing the island I jibed to turn back towards the finish line. I was
no longer in the lee and the boat took off like a rocket. My GPS was showing
a steady 7 plus knots for minutes at a time with occasional bursts going
over 9. It was not a smooth ride as the boat kept wanting to head up.
Finally the boat was over powered and broached. Rudder control was useless
at this point and I rounded up heeling hard.. I furled the main back in and
ran the rest of the way to the line chugging along at 6 - 7 knots steady.
Note this is measured speed over ground. I do not have knot meter. I can't
remember the results but i remember I finished 4 out of 5. I beat a Newport
28 before they corrected the time! I think I corrected to 2 or 3.

Remember hull speed is only theoretical. The RC measured wind speed that day
at 18-23 with gusts measured over 30.

Fair Winds,

Wally

On Sun, Jan 25, 2009 at 7:36 AM, Metaphor <mwager at bluecrab.org> wrote:

>
>
> I had it up to about 70 on the way to the put-in ramp, but I got kind of
> scared when it started heeling too much around the turns, so I backed it
> down to the 50 mph speed limit...
>
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