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I have yet to push the boat anywhere close to some of the pictures I've seen. Best wind so far is low ten's maybe eight degrees of heel. Is there a heel angle where she starts to stiffen up and settle in? The boat is very responsive and great fun to sail, definitely not like the keel boat's I've sailed and crewed on in the past.

Just wondering what others have found as the sweet spot up wind and down.

When sailing off the wind in planing conditions, I think flat is best with the bow up slightly to get the forward chines out of the water. Up wind, I'm not sure what the sweet spot might be. I just try to keep the boat powered up to push the forward chine through the water. When the boat heals and the forward chine digs in, it tends to steer the bow to windward so you have to counter that with your rudder and maintain enough power to push the forward chine through the water. As you heal over, the curve of the chine toward the bow rotates and orients itself more fore/aft so there is less bow steering. Light air, up or down, gotta heal over to get the ass out of the water. Maybe even shift weight forward. But then you have the chine working against you. ymmv

Ron

..I test sailed on a PDX boat recently in puffy,high teen winds.
....my and other impressions were that the boat found a nice track upwind,,,active on the traveller for the puffs though

Ron Bowman wrote:When sailing off the wind in planing conditions, I think flat is best with the bow up slightly to get the forward chines out of the water. Up wind, I'm not sure what the sweet spot might be. I just try to keep the boat powered up to push the forward chine through the water. When the boat heals and the forward chine digs in, it tends to steer the bow to windward so you have to counter that with your rudder and maintain enough power to push the forward chine through the water. As you heal over, the curve of the chine toward the bow rotates and orients itself more fore/aft so there is less bow steering. Light air, up or down, gotta heal over to get the ass out of the water. Maybe even shift weight forward. But then you have the chine working against you. ymmv

Ron

Agreed,
+ be careful to keep her super flat under kite and be prepared to rag the kite--a bit of heel is ok, a bit more and you're going to round up or take a swim. Jon, Critical Twist is going to be very forgiving, and even with really silly mistakes is not going to give you a hard time --she will let you know with plenty of warning what she does and doesn't like if she's anything like Shazza and the others which Critical Twist 99.9% is (0.1% is the port holes . It's only in race conditions that you may be tempted to push past where you know you shouldn't really go.

Great advice from those who have pushed the boat harder then I have. So far she hasn't shown any undesirable tendencies. We plan on flying the pink and green spinnaker this weekend for the first time. Exciting times indeed!

I've had good luck upwind keeping the knuckle in the water. Especially when there is any kind of chop involved. I rounded my forward chine which Ron did not. So that might explain why I have not experienced the forward chine trying to take over (as much as he has I think). Love to see a pic of Critical Twist with the sails up.
Kevin.

Hi Kevin, could you talk a little about how you rounded the chine in the build section? I think I'd like to do that.....

I think that chine falls under trade secrets. but if you divide chine in thirds, forward 1/2" radius, aft sharp as possible, middle transition from one to the other you would have what I have. I rounded the aft chine for glassing and then built it up with fairing compound afterwards.

Kevin.

Great stuff guys. Can someone post a few pics of the different Chinese sections.

TexLex