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An article by Alan Carwardine, owner, skipper and
builder of Fireworks, the best performed MG In
1998/99.
Firstly, thanks to Yarra Bay
Sailing Club for a very well run NSW Championship
Regatta. Sailing with my son Ben, on the wire, we
were much better prepared than at Cleveland for the
Nationals. We had added a shute and had the boat going
like a train. That was our secret to success - we
certainly didn't always go the right way.
Fireworks is very fast downwind and upwind in moderate
breeze (which is roughly what we got).
The hull is a 16 month old Force
5 hull with a custom cockpit to give extra room and more
comfort for the skipper hiking (you have to look after
the boss). We're using a very good looking Force 5
mainsail with a big head in it and alter the batten
stiffness depending on breeze strength. Horizon in
Southport made us two fairly full jibs which suit the
MG. The spinnaker is a borrowed (thank you Don Murray) 8
year old Fraser. It still looks OK. We have Force 5
foils they're very short, just standard NS shapes, but
very light and stiff. The centreboard is 1400mm and the
rudder 900mm. The mast works great it is a Spunspar
bottom with a custom glass top (it's the third top that
1 have made for the boat) which is made with 'R' glass
unidirectional cloth (the stiffest non-exotic cloth you
can get). It is still not quite stiff enough, but has
great gust response. You can feel the boat accelerate in
the gusts and it's easier to keep the boat flat.
Upwind we try and sail the boat
as flat as possible - 1 don't think you can do that
without your crew calling the gusts and lulls all the
time. Ben is really good at this and the more time you
spend together as a team the more confident the skipper
will be in anticipating the next gust. We don't pull the
'Cunno' on much, but the vang gets adjusted up and down
the wind range. When 1 don't need to sheet off to keep
the boat flat, we use little vang but as soon as I'm
sheeting out for flatness, we crank it on to keep the
leech tension constant. From then on, the stronger it
gets, the more vang is applied.
Mast rotation is very important,
but every mast is different (especially ours!). It is
important to find that right spot and mark it. That is
when you have maximum leech tension without the mast
laying off at the top to leeward. When it is really
windy (22+ kts) we start to pull the rotator in and the
Cunno on hard.
We sail off the breeze very
aggressively, moving up and down the boat, in and out
and constantly trimming and steering to catch every wave
and get the boat on the plane. In one heat of the series
we put 2 minutes on the fleet in two reaches in 12
knots, just because of boat speed. When reaching,
we pull our centreboard up to the mast base, the outhaul
and Cunno go off, the jib gets barber-hauled out, we let
the leeward stay off 150mm and generally ease the vang a
bit, depending on how much we had on upwind.
Now that the series is finished
the asymmetric spinnaker is back on the boat and Ben is
now at the helm having a great time.
Once again, thank you Yarra Bay
and all the MG14 people who helped to run the
organisation and the titles. See you next season.
Alan and Ben Carwardine
PS
During the series 1 would go to bed every night thinking
of Keith and Bronwyn Chidzey who always beat us to the
first mark and wishing that they would drag their duck
around the course instead of just before and after the
race. 1 hear that Keith was the first to rush out and
order an asymmetrical spinnaker after the members voted
to allow them in association events next year.
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