One point of note for anyone considering a focus....
But before I go into it I need to caveat it - it could yet prove to be inexperience on my side!
It does tend to suffer from excessive "snap weather helm" (which I am reliably informed is the correct nautical term for
the action of a yacht when hit by a significant gust of wind causing it to turn directly into the source of the wind - and
stay there - until you haul in the sails , straighten the rudder and wait for the wind to define the next choice of direction!)
I have read online that the best way to reduce this is to lean the mast forward somewhat more (2-5cm) when setting up
but I haven't really had time to prove it.
I have now done away with the factory "bathroom chain" that attached the front of the jib boom to the deck and replaced it with
110lb break climax kite bridle line as I was sick of having to re-crimp the damned chain every outing!
Quite by accident I discovered that shortening this new line by about 5mm results in a dramatic increase in forward speed but the
yacht is more reticent to "goose Wing" on downwind runs, tending to keep both sails on the same side.
Having seen many yachts with them I also fitted a "tracer" of ripstop to the mast crane as a guide to where the wind was
coming from. My largest local sailing venue (Llantarnam boating lake in Cwmbran) is proving to be VERY frustrating for yachting and I'm tending
to switch my venue to the smaller pond at fourteen locks canal centre (1m north of M4 J27) which isn't as big a place to sail but has better wind.
The prevailing winds hereabouts are from the north in winter and the west at other times of the year. Cwmbran lake is situated in a south facing valley
and is flanked on either side by tall trees - particularly dense leylandi trees. These cause a lot of odd gusts and dead patches which you can
see on the surface of the water. a run of more than 100m has thus far proven impossible! hence the tracer to better understand what is going on.
But what is interesting (to me anyway) is that I expected the tracer to spend the majority of its time streaming horizontally out to the side
of the boat as I run across wind...but it doesn't ! It seems to spend the majority of its time
vertically upright ????
I assume therefore, (please feel free to correct me) that this is caused by my mainsail, rather than taking the wind and dragging it across the
sail and aft producing forward motion, is pushing a significant component of the wind up the mainsail causing an updraft that the tracer is sitting in ??
If this assumption is correct I assume I have to adjust the sail in some way to change the "section" of the sail to reduce this , producing more forward
motion . Can anyone shed more light on the matter please ? Its certainly not what I expected to find !!
regards
BB