FREE VIRTUAL BEER for E29 racing tips

[Randy Rutledge]

I am racing my E-29 tall rig in club races on a lake in AL. The wind is light the majority of the time and the fleet I race in has Catalina 22’s 25’s and other light boats the heaviest are about the weight of my ballast, they have much better Portsmouth ratings than the 29. We race short races two buoy up and down wind then back up to the start/finish; I finish most races in less than 40 min and in the middle of the fleet. With the rating of .90 or worse and racing Catalina 22’s with a .98 I am giving them 3 to 4 min in adjusted time in a 40 min race.
All that to say I know I will not win the overall in the club series I just want to point as high and sail as fast as the 29 can. I have to be happy with feeling I sailed a good race and did the best the boat can do and enjoy the experience and learning.
I am looking for any ideas to help point higher, get more speed and then everything else rest on the way I use the equipment.
Sails 155 6.2oz, 155 4oz, 155 .75oz, 110 5.50z and a new main. Jib tracks on the rail, no inner tracks.
Questions: Will inner tracks for the 110 help pointing over the 155 enough to make up for the power difference? I am thinking of the 110 on the up wind and then use the .75oz drifter on the broad reach or runs since it can be deployed easily.
Is a backstay adjuster effective on the E29T mast? It seems very stiff.
Hints, suggestions or any help will be rewarded with liberal amounts of virtual beer!

 

[missalot]

Hi Randy,

I have a 29T, 1970 hull number 85. We have been spending years getting some speed and pointing. Our nemisis is the Catalina 27. We run PHRF, us 214, them 221. If you measure and compare measurements and theoretical pointing angles, we can't point quite as high. We try to concentrate on pointing as high as the boat will let us, but keep the speed. Our winds are usually light <10 knots. We fly a 153 head sail.
Here's what we've done:
-Rake is set so that we have about 3-5 degrees of weather helm in light air.
-Pre-bend is about 1/2 to 1 mast sections forward - set this by slacking aft lowers and tensioning the fwd lowers.
-Back stay(actually head stay) tension almost "floppy" in no wind, tighten to shape headsail as wind increases - roughly 1000-1200 lb-force max (for us) I made a real simple adjuster if you are interested I could send pictures.
-Headsail is tacked to the rail track. We have a 85% blade and have tried it on the inside track, but couldn't get the power we needed.
-spending the time to get the headsail blocks set so that the sail breaks evenly has paid off well.
-play with your headsail luff/halyard tension to get the draft forward to get the drive to windward.
-Reef, reef, reef - we throw a reef in when wind gets up to 12-15, yes we can sail with full main, but "standing up" we get about 0.25 to 0.5 knots faster.
-down wind/off the wind we dump the backstay tension, we normally are flying a spinnaker
-If you have fixed prop, get rid of it, the turbulence caused on the rudder will kill your pointing (not just the drag). I never believed it would have made as much difference-now the rudder feels like it is in "thick" water and responds much better. We took a 12 sec/mile rating hit, but it moved us from an average of 7of10 to 4of10.

I don't know if any of this will help, I don't drink virtual beer, as I'm on the virtual wagon. But, if you find yourself in Washington, shoot me a message, I'll provide the REAL beer and sailing.

 

[e38 owner]

follow up

Years ago at our yacht club the Ericson 29 was the biggest boat at the Club. In mostly light air condtions it had a very good record against other boats Catalina 27's with an outboard being the toughtest. We had ericson 27's Catalina 27's, 25's, 22's, Ranger 23's 26's 29's etc. A few years later the toughest boat in the fleet was a Catalina 30 with the tall mast and the bow sprit and after that it was a Santa Cruz 27. That boats was to light to be beat.

The Ericson 29 had the tall rig and also the standard boom from the short rig to give it a larger mainsail.

It had a backstay adjuster to adjust headstay sag.

We raced Phrf and in light winds a large headsail and a spinnaker was a must. In light air off the wind there is no rating that will make up for the chute.