We have had her out to 35 knots so far
In the bay we have had her out in up to 35 knots. She was smoking right along. She behaved well and was easy to helm and sail in all regards. We had a little too much sail up. I think the main needs one more reef beyond the skimpy two that we have. Also we have a stay sail that will go into the newly repaired Palmer Johnson box and should allow us to reduce even more sail from the pointy end. (however at this point the main is the culprit for sure.) We kept the heel down for most of the sail, at times being overcanvassed did lead to more heel than would be good for speed, but mostly we just cruised along.
AS for how fast we were going..... Well the paddle wheel on the instruments fouled some interesting gunge so it didn't work. And I thought that my instruments were not working, until I figured out that a guest had managed to turn off the GPS somehow. (GPS feeds the data to a cockpit display) So I don't know how fast we were going. Better than 9.5 judging by the stern wave.
Another day we had her out in 25 or so knots and were doing in excess of 9.5 knots by both the GPS and the Paddle wheel. Didn't seem like top speed, we needed to get some more of our sail handeling and selection worked out on that day. There was a stern wave, but not much of one.
The ring or U frames, or chainplates or whatever you want to call them are welded from two pieces of aluminum plate at either the factory or by Sparcraft, judging from the finish, and the quality of the welding I suspect the factory. The penetration measured on the welds from the factory was 1/32" not a typo .031". All of the 46's that I have looked at so far 4 or 5 of them have fractured this weld. It doesn't seem to make a huge difference for the boat in normal usage.
However I tend to take my boats off the beaten path and out into big blue water. I knew that I was not going to sleep with them fractured. Sooooo..... Bob Lavazzo, (by far the best welder I have ever seen), came over welded them with 100% penetration, (Hence the cutting of the V's to accomplish the penetration desired), and then we sistered them.
The thought behind the sistering was that it eliminated any possiblity of point loading at the joint between the two plate pieces, and only doubled or trippled the time it took to do the job.
It was a long day of welding for Bob, about 6 hours of it to be exact. But the results are awesome, and I feel better about the boat and her ability to handle anything that might come our way.
I will get the GPS turned back on and deliver more numbers as soon as I have them.
Guy