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2:19 If you’re flying too high, you can deepen the windward heel so that when the main foil breaches, it does so gradually from the tip. Loss of lift therefore is not as sudden. If I’m constantly fighting to keep it in the water, it’s time to adjust rudder and/or main foil trim.

20mph according to the GoPro. That’s not a record or all that spectacular, but it still feels exciting in the moment.

Hey, Larry. The winds were as steady as we get on the river. It certainly gets worse from the NE as it’s coming right over the trees before hitting the water. Puffy does indeed make it tougher.

No need to charter - we have a couple extra boats plus we swap in and out of boats as folks get tired. Dave is planning on bringing a Rocket also.

Ok: We’re doing it again 6-10 March 2024. See Sailing Anarchy UFO forum for details.

It’s always nice to get positive feedback, so thank you. If you have any questions about anything, please give me a call - can reach me on the sailing anarchy forum or the folks at Fulcrum Speedworks have my digits as well. Happy flying!

www.tinkercad.com/things/0VEcKL8P4LH-gopro-mount-for-ufo/edit?sharecode=PeH-9tVCqa3VAr4TXRSXM7Z26NfYT5gjaoH_wrhSLq8

Can't wait to hear if/how much this helped. Let us know!

A new boat is about $11k. You may be able to find a used one for $2k-$6k depending upon the condition and location.

I’d say 130 to 180. The fish-eye lenses minimizes angular changes.

Hey, Larry! It’s hard to say exactly what’s leading to the windward capsizes without seeing it, but I can suggest a few things to watch for. Generally, when I see foilers capsizing to windward, it’s because they either sheet in too slowly or don’t sheet in enough (or both). Let’s talk about the speed element, first. Especially when gusty, and occasionally when it’s not, I’ll need a quick dose of sheet-in to stop the roll to windward so will need to do a legitimate hand-over-hand. This is a little tricky in this boat when you’re trying to not impart any steering inputs at all; but you can let your tiller hand swing along the arc of the tiller extension without doing too much damage to the min steerage objective with some practice. And even if you put in some steering inputs, that’s a smaller problem than the rapidly increasing heel to windward; so do whatever you need to do get that main sail in. Next, a VERY common occurrence is stopping the sheeting in too soon. I’ve been able to show foilers videos of themselves crashing to windward and the clew is still outside the leeward corner of the boat!!! It’s like once they start rolling to windward they just freeze and ride it in to the splash down. You should be sheeting in until the boom reaches centerline. Keep in mind, your body/face may be in the water before this happens so I’m telling you to keep sheeting in even when you can’t see anything. Do NOT give up until the boat begins a rapid deceleration to full stop. Once you “save” yourself or even go from a body drag to back up on foils, you’ll realize you have more control of the heel and you just weren’t utilizing the full range of sheeting. And over time, your feel for how much sheet-in you need to maintain optimum angle will be refined and you’ll be able to stay ahead of any heel corrections/trim input. The only time I crash to windward is when the wind dies faster than I can get my body inboard. And it’s not really a crash - just a little dip, usually. If you have enough wind, there really is no reason you can’t stop it with main sheet. If you’re close upwind, you may also need to bear away toward the heart of the envelope when the wind dies while also sheeting in. I’ll say that again: sheet in AND bear away. It’s not an intuitive action, but it makes sense if you’re thinking in terms of “the envelope.” When the wind slackens, the envelope shrinks towards the beam reach. Anyway, I hope this helps. Cheers!

@@kellyfederal Thanks for the great tips, Kelly. I recovered from all but one body drag/dousing the other day by doing exactly what you said. Sheeting in more and more. The boat recovered nicely and was aloft almost instantly. Then the same thing happened. Those body drags absolutely drained my energy, though, so I"m trying to learn better about reacting before that happens. So let me clarify: The boat is off the water and feels like it's slowing down in speed. (Almost like a stall in a small plane feels like.) You just know the front of the plane is about to drop... you can feel it. On the UFO, the boat slows and I have that "about to stall" feeling, the heel to windward exaggerates and I get doused. More sheeting as it slows? Fall off more downwind? Some of both? I'll try again to get GoPro footage today. I bought a gumby mount I hope will work better since I'll attach it within arm's reach instead of way out on the sprit on the fixed bracket.

Oh, man, DanielSan… First off, thank you for this input. I’ve heard that request many times, and I hate to let people down. The truth is: I’m really lazy when it comes to tuning, so I feel I’m not a good source of info for that. The only tuning guidelines I adhere to are: 1) In light winds, crank on shrouds, a little down haul to take the wrinkles out, then outhaul; and 2) If heavy winds, crank on outhaul first, then down haul, then shrouds. Basically: light winds means I want a stiff mast to capture every ounce of energy; heavy winds means I want to dump energy, starting at the top of the mast. I’ve never messed with that formula and I foil ALL THE TIME. Dave came down here and we put a RigSense on the shrouds so he could walk us through the settings. Some folks recorded his discussion, some took notes; I faded into the background at that point because none of those readings/measurements meant anything to me. I don’t own a RigSense, won’t ever buy one, because I FOIL ALL THE TIME already. The heavier you are, the more important it is to have a stiff mast especially in the lighter breeze. But you don’t need to know the specific psi to crank on shroud tension. If Dave and I were going head-to-head, his pro tuning would, no doubt, eek out an extra knot or two for his boat (while we each are at 17-18 knots); but at that point, top speed is not the concern - it’s staying on the foils, as it is for SailGP, Americas Cup, and any other foiling race. So my advice regarding rig tuning (and foil tuning) is this: get the big tuning pieces right, then just focus on and enjoy the flight. Over time, you’ll start to refine the feel for your own boat (according to your own dimensions) and you’ll start dialing in all the settings that’s right for YOU. I do these videos purely for the benefit of the community. If you think a rig-settings video would be useful, let me know and I’ll do it. Thanks again for the input.

Good questions, Larry. Here are some take-aways: The only camera was mounted on my boat, and we swapped out on the water so we could 1) get some good footage of each of us and 2) evaluate the other's setup. // My experience is that there is a potential for different settings across the board for an individual boat to "feel" in tune with what I want it to do. So I am not looking at a specific shroud tension, rudder trim setting, etc. Once the boat starts planing, I'll know what it needs for ME -- might be different for you. But I know, based on the wind conditions (and what they're predicted to be), what the sea state is (how quickly I'll need to take-off) and how the boat is behaving under me whether or not I need to make some adjustments. // For this day, both our boats were set up with main foil pin in slot #2. (We started from the dock in #3, but as soon as we got into the exposed river, we opted for #2 though we knew it would delay our take-offs.) We both had shroud tension cranked on first, followed by downhaul and lastly outhaul, so we had power potential in the rig. When I swapped into Ben's boat, I made NO adjustments; and I don't believe he made any in mine. So we were pretty close in our settings. // Which boat was consistently faster? As you can see, when we're both in the breeze we're pretty equal. Ben is still relatively new to foiling, so I have an advantage in finding that "power pocket" which can eek out an extra couple knots as long as you can hold it. Although, even though I thought I had totally rolled him, he only had to bear away five degrees or so to keep clean apparent wind...and next thing I know, he's back alongside matching my speed. In my opinion, "speed" on foils first means staying on foils. If anything, that's where my advantage was on Sunday. Look at my hands compared to Ben's: smaller, smoother inputs...fewer splash-downs. He JUST started foiling, so he's still refining all that. Does that help, Larry? If not, let me know and I'll try again. Cheers, Kelly

@@kellyfederal Very helpful! Thanks, Kelly.

Hi, Riccardo. Yes: this is a smaller sail for use in high winds. It was the first time that I've used it. It does require more trimming, but it makes the loads much more manageable.

Yes: was a light-wind evening, but plenty of fun and foiling to be had. No crashes to show you, Ron. Seriously, it’s a rare occurrence these days. When I do “crash” it’s usually due to me missing/dropping the main sheet, and the only result is my torso gets dunked; but then I let my PFD do the work of righting the boat so I don’t even have to pull my feet out of the hiking straps.