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SUPERTED IV ENDS SEASON IN STYLEThe 2002 season has been a successful one for Maxi 1100 Superted IV owned by Matt and Jean Findlay from Marchwood Yacht Club near Southampton. Superted was overall winner of Class 1 in the south coast’s premier two handed series run by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. This popular series consists of eight races half of which are passage races and half of which are inshore or round the buoys. Two discards are allowed. Around 30 boats competed in class 1 which was won by Superted with four firsts, a third and a fourth, comfortably fending off some strong opposition from J105’s, J110’s and other go fast racers. Earlier in the season Superted sailed by father and son Matt and Matthew also won class 1 in the two handed Triangle race, (Torquay, Cork, Treguier and Torquay). An overall win was lost only because we took shelter in Falmouth (while out in front), to sit out an imminent gale which did not materialise. Superted uses Vectran/Kevlar sails by Sobstat with a 105% jib. We carry a medium and heavy spinnaker and this year added a removable furling Code Zero made by White Sails at Warsash. See pictures. The zero has an area of around 57m (IRC formula), and is made from taffeta backed Mylar. It’s mounted on a Facnor furler (SDG2000PC) which is shackled to a specially designed fitting ahead of the jib. The luff of the sail is set up very tight, and the fitting transmits the load directly to the stem head. The sail gives good additional boat speed between 55 – 90 degrees apparent and we’ve used it up to 18 knots apparent wind, though its designed for a bit less! (It also goose wings very nicely when cruising, and is easy to furl away). It has taken a couple of years to really get the boat to go and to optimise the sail plan. We’ve found that  there is a very fine line between pointing and going
fast with the small jib. It’s a lot harder than using a large Genoa. In our
quest to overcome the light wind blues, we considered going the large Genoa
route, but opted for the code zero approach as we are geared up for short handed
sailing and wanted to avoid head sail changes and the increased handicap. As a
result our rating of 1.000 makes us very competitive in stronger winds, and
generally we can hang on in there even in the lighter stuff. I am sure the 1100
will also be competitive with the large overlapping Genoa provided it’s fully
crewed and the headsail is changed efficiently when required. We would be very
interested to hear the experience of those using the Genoa and to exchange
views.All this sounds very racy. It is, but in fact we equally enjoy fast cruising. We’ve notched up around 10,000 miles in the last three years! Happy sailing. Matt and Jean Findlay. |
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