Flatpack is off the market

A couple of sniffs, but no-one serious - so Flatpack is getting bit of a facelift and a change in colour, a new mast and rig and will be back on the water for the June Long Weekend.

AUS31 'Flatpack' is for sale

AUS 31 'Flatpack' is for sale

Flatpack is the first of the MECHAR designed Flatpack boats (follow the link to my blog on my signature for a history of the boat, info on the design and heaps of pictures).

• Built in 2009
• Carbon foam sandwich construction all built around a carbon spine
• Minimum weight
• C-Tech Mast
• Alexander Sails
• MECHAR foils
• On beach trolley

Available at a very good price (under 10k) for the next month, as I have a window of opportunity to build another one before Germany next year (and yes, I'll be building another flatpack).
PM me or email me at internationalcanoe at hotmail dot com if you have any questions or are interested in purchasing the pocket rocket with plenty of development left in it.

Cheers

2010 Nationals

Well it wasn’t a great Nationals, results wise.
A third and a second were the best I could muster in a full range of conditions.

The positives:

• The boat is equally as fast as Phils over a range of conditions around the course
• I was using my old small set of Alexander sails and still did okay
• I still have an IC (which in the conditions, and given our current world champ damaged his beyond repair, is something to be happy about).

The negatives

• I really hadn’t sorted a few things out on the boat properly – laziness, lack of motivation, and a focus on family and Uni meant that a lot of my changes and fixes weren’t completed or tested very well
• I really haven’t spent much quality time in the boat this season.
• I had no where near the pace that Hayden had in the windy stuff – but then again, I never really have in those conditions (thinking back to Mannering Park and the Worlds)

Where to now:
I have a month of shed access before the home renovations start (and the shed fills up with furniture). In that time I want to strip and completely rub back the boat and reskin it with a lightweight carbon cloth (vacuum bagged down) to:

• Add some strength to the hull where I think I have sanded back through carbon previously
• Clean up a few bumps and lumps in the hull
• Achieve a better finish to the boat presentation wise

Any suggestions or comments on this?

I am also going back to Dave Alexander and sitting down with him to go over my mast and rig set up and get a set of sails sorted out and the mast dialled in. I don’t seem to be very good at this, and want to work with someone local to get it right (Dave A was in Sydney last year which is why I haven’t done this already). I should add that I mean no disrespect to Lindsay Irwin, his sails are great, it's just I'm not good enough to explain whats working/not working so we can get things right from interstate.

I have a leak

Wow, we have had some pretty windy racing the last 3 weeks (I believe my brother is some sort of wind god - if he shows up, the wind really howls).

Anyway, the boat has been going well - and has been feeling really good. I've added a tiny bit more mast rake and it's feeling good up and down wind; possibly lacking a bit of power off the wind but that could be my decision to use the old Alexander Main from the 2008 Worlds with the new Irwin Jib - resulting in me being a little undersize. But this combination is working better for me than the new Irwin main which I'm hoping Pete will buy for AUS32 (as it's been looking good and he's been fast, while upright, with it).

Anyway, I have noticed i am taking on water and I can't work out where. It started about three weeks ago on that hard Port River race, and the last two weekends have been similar. Now all three races I have spent time on my side so it may be hatch cover not sealing correctly, and this is kind of backed up by my just having pressurised (http://www.windline.net/proj4.htm) the boat and gone over with the soapy water; but no bubbles. So next Saturday I will put a bit of vaseline on the hatch covers and see if the issue is there - else I am scratching my head!

Had another interesting issue last week aswell, the tenon part of the mast stump came out of the mast stump on me when dropping the mast (and remained fixed inside the stump). So I'm going to have to knock out the mast plug fitting from the mast and get the bit out from the stump and put the c-tech fitting back together. Take note that it is held in by a bolt so maybe put some thread lock on it before fitting your mast plugs people.

3 IC's, 2 hangovers & 20+knots. Yeehaa

If only we had packed up at this point. It blew hard! 25 knots with 30+ gusts sorted us out, I broke the carriage, Kyle (blue Nethercott) is just broken and Pete (yellow flatpack) capsized and pulled out early (which was a smart move).

The gusts with big windshifts simply 'snotted us'. I broke my carriage on a screaming reach in a gust when I had to take evasive action of a capsized fireball (what is it with me and fireballs). I plowed the end of the plank (with me on it) into the water hard and the carriage made a very loud crack noise. Turns out I've opened up a corner, which I'll try to repair before we leave for Yarrawonga on Friday. I don't think there is a weakness here as such, as I've don't think I've ever gone that quick in an IC before and I slammed it into the water hard to avoid the collision.

I need to better sort out my vang still, I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and putting on a radial track system before the Nationals.

Quietly progressing

Been a bit quiet on my blog, Christmas can have that effect, but I've been sailing when I can and look forward to racing resuming next weekend. I've found a configuration with my current rigs that seems to work best: My old AUS018 mainsail with the new Irwin jib - this seems to perform best in all conditions but does leave me .8m^2 under size. Not sure if I will have time (or access to a sailmaker) to sort this about before the nationals in 7 weeks.

Got out for a great sail yesterday before the 40+ degree heat kicked in, the boat is really feeling good and I am really hoping I can run with Hayden, Phil and Alex at the upcoming nationals. I'm also hoping to see if I've pegged back anything on Hayden over the Australia Day weekend at Yarrawonga (we all know how much I love lake sailing.....). Hopefully I can run with him on speed, if only to prove to myself that the Flatpack is a great boat let down by the nut on the tiller.

A year after starting the build, I finally get some bullets!

The boat went really well but I was a bit rusty:

Race 1 started in about 4-6 knots, and I was starting with Pete (in AUS 9) a bladerider, about 7 finns and 6 OK dinghies. I shot out to an early lead despite feeling like my pointing was a little low and soon had about a 2-300m lead over the fleet. However I sailed into a hole on the right of the course and rounded the top mark behind several of the Finns. I overtook the Finns on the reaches of the first triangle but on the 2nd upwind leg I had a shocker and let all the Finns and nearly all the OK’s through on me (basically I just parked in a piece of glassy water). I caught all but 1 of the Finns and ended up crossing the line 10 seconds behind him. In those light and flukey conditions the speed difference upwind between a Finn and the IC was small – I would accelerate quickly but stop quickly while the Finn would point slightly higher and maintain momentum.

Race 2 was a windward leeward 3 loop sprint race – I had my racing brain in gear this time and had a few more knots of wind (it was now about 10-12 knots) – I hit the start line with good speed however I missed a lift and let the fast finn pip me at the top mark. Again sailing the angles downwind I had him at the bottom mark and then just powered away from him (like an IC should). Once the IC was planing I found I was pointing as high as the finn and still footing fast. On the second loop my rudder popped up and I sailed one long tack to the top mark with it not in the water – but by overstanding the mark I gave myself enough time to push it back down, tack and sail to the finish.

It was great to get some bullets, and I now need to spend some time in the boat getting back up to speed – it will always be tough to win on YS on short course racing but I was pretty disappointed with 19th and 15th respectively overall (http://www.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/results/adelaidesc/2009/club/north/singlehanded/series.htm )– the only small positive on my results is that we have some hotshot laser and Finn sailors at our club at the moment.

On the boat: the boat felt great, but in the light stuff I was using huge amounts of Cunningham to get the battens to pop (infact after stuffing around releasing and tensioning the Cunningham – Iended up just racing with it on). Next week I will fit the other set of battens Lindsay sent to me.