jack is right, i have had very little luck going upwind against keelboats
with formula gear on long island sound over long distances. yes, i can
beat them upwind over short distances - say a few hundred meters - when
the wind is up. but i have never beaten them over the full length of say
a 2-3 km beat. i belive this is mostly because of the relatively
light wind on long island sound in the summer when the keelboats are out
racing.

formula sailors from windy places, like san francisco, regularly report
beating keelboats around the full length of windward-leeward courses.
a figure of 8kts was quoted in this thread as the crossover windspeed
where formula boards can beat keelboats. i would put the figure higher,
maybe at an average windspeed of 12-14 kts, with no lulls below about
10kts. this is to beat a good boat that is well sailed, not a cruising
tub with nobody on the rail. these conditions are incredibly rare on
summer weekends on long island sound - about the only time there are
boats out racing for me to tune against. the caveat is that i don't
have a 12.5 m^2 sail, my biggest is an 11.0. and, i don't get to race
formula very much, so my skills may be lacking. on the other hand,
i do own and race a variety of dinghys and keelboats, so i understand
the basics of racing upwind.

jeff feehan

Jack (Sarasota) wrote:
Both Jeff Feehan and I have reported on chasing keelboats around a course.
While it is true that either a longboard or a Formula board can have better
VMG on any point of sail than pretty much any monohull, those favorable
conditions often don't last for the whole course. It is not top speed that
wins the race, it is the average speed, and that is strongly affected by
good sailing as well has having the right equipment for the job. I feel
that I actually do better against the speedy dingys than the big, race
oriented and well sailed keel boats. Their VMG upwind can be very
impressive. If there is good wind, of course I am faster downwind, but the
trick is to stay close enough on the upwind legs.

Jack (Sarasota)

"Charles Ivey" wrote in message
news:7m3Ib.27894$HQ.23100@okepread02...

You are right Juri, the yachting world still thinks windsurfers are all 12
feet long and have retractable center boards with smallish sails like 7.4
and 6 m2. I like both sailing worlds and sail in both. Until the 70 cm
fins and formula boards came along, beating any performance yacht around a
course was almost impossible. Now for almost any sailboat to beat a

Formula

board around a course would require the winds to be under about 9 knots,
provided the board is sailed by a top racer of course.

On another point, for all out fun and feel for speed, the now old Flying
Dutchman was a fun boat and plenty lively, but perhaps not in today's

league

of high performance boats. Still, the FD in high winds was quite a

thrill.

And as to the reference to sailboats pulling water skiers, there are more
than a few that can do that including a venerable old Mallory and Adams

Cup

boat called the Flying Scot. I mention the Scot because these were raced
against M20's from time to time and I remember one collision. It seems

the

Scot is like a flying tank (planes easily but is a big hull) and the M20

is

more like a china plate. These two boats came to together on a plane and
the Scot T-boned the M20, crushing it like an egg. That may be the only

way

a Formula board (when powered up) would lose to a sailboat. No doubt our
Formula boards are the king of egg shells.

CI

"Juri Munkki" wrote in message
...

In article Andy Champ

writes:

WINDSURFER CLASSES CLASS D-PN WIND HC FOR BEAUFORT RANGE
CODE 0-1 2-3 4 5-9

Div II (SA = 6m2) SB-2 92.6 98.4 94.6 88.4 (85.1)
Div IIB (SA = 6-7m2) SB-2B 89.7 96.3 92.6 83.8 (82.0)
Div IIC (SA = 7m2) SB-2C 86.7 84.4 87.3

That puts the fastest boards about the same as a 470. faster than I
thought, but still not exactly world shattering.

Div II sailboards are from the early 1980s. Formula Windsurfing boards
can run circles around those, as long as there's enough wind, which
means about 8 knots minimum.

I'm not saying that they're the fastest thing out there of all
sailing vessels for a course...I'm just stating that the table
you have quoted is antiquated.

Formula boards go upwind pretty well. Not the best in terms of angle,
but very good speed, so the VMG is probably respectable. Local racers
seem to think that 49ers would be better in light winds, but formula
boards could win in medium to high winds. Even in medium to light
winds, it's very close and skill plays a huge part.

It's nice to see that a widely crossposted thread like this hasn't
ended up as a flame war - yet.

--
Juri Munkki What you see isn't all you get.
http://www.iki.fi/jmunkki Windsurfing: Faster than the wind.