Ali led an awesome calibration session today in which everybody who participated made big progress toward getting their boat set up right. There were 9 teams represented:
1. Parry Barclay down from New Jersey with 7100
2. Dan Esdorn from Georgetown with his new boat 8011
3. Keith Davids with the 2005 worlds-winning 8851
4. Bob Patterson with 7068
5. J Bergquist and Bryan Baker with 6987
6. Sterge Papadakis and Mike Renda with 7199
7. Evan Arras and Joe Morris
8. Ben Moon
9. Ali Meller and Mike Coe
Ali and Mike did not calibrate any of Ali's 3 boats because they were busy helping everybody else. Ali did a great job of organizing the event, and though we were a bit late getting started (10:30 as opposed to the planned start time of 9 AM), we still managed to accomplish a lot!
Ali Meller and Mike Coe read and explain the calibration instructions.
The calibration instructions and tuning matrix are online, and available at:
http://www.int505.org/200108Calibration.htmand
http://www.int505.org/200108NorthTuningMatrix.htmWe made a bunch of notes about how the calibration instructions can be improved and took some pictures which will be included in the new instructions once they are written. The raw pictures can be found online at:
http://www.int505.org/fleet40/Photos/training_events/calibration_3_18/High points of the discussion were:
1. Discovering that J's mast was stepped too far back and that with a measurement of 9'11 7/8" from the mast track to the transom, he was illegal (the mast step has been moved forward).
2. Comparing east coast and west coast rake numbers, and where exactly to measure the rake from on the bow (look for details on this in the updated tuning guide, with pictures).
3. Discussion of how to make a ram (mast bend) calibration that is REPRODUCIBLE ACROSS DIFFERENT 505s...this phrase is VERY important, evidenced by its relentless repetition in the calibration instructions.
4. Calibration of shroud tension by feel.
5. Discussion of various ways to calibrate the centerboard...the two most popular were using inch-increment lines on the back of the board and various angles. We decided to standardize on measuring 90 degrees as the zero and in 1" increments on the flat back of the board. So -1 is kicked forward.
6. A spirited discussion of jib barberhaul systems, including a cameo appearance by Ben Moon who told us about Nick Nelson's system on 8660. Sterge Papadakis (7199) and Keith Davids (8851) both have floating systems which can be used to inboard barberhaul the jib lead. Most of our boats have track which allow fore-and-aft control, but for forward tack boats in particular, some advantage may be gained by using an inboard barberhaul system. We decided to make this a topic of future discussion and add it to the calibration procedure and tuning guide so that we can take advantage of this possibility. Look for more info on this in the future.
7. We discovered that there is a pretty wide variation in the distance from chainplates to transom measured along the rail from boat to boat. We found the following measurements:
- Bergquist (6987 Lindsay) - 105"
- Davids (8851 Rondar) - 102"
- Papadakis (7199 Lindsay) - 104"
- Meller (8776 Rondar) - 105"
- Patterson (7068 Hamlin) - 104"
We concluded that these different dimensions will affect spreader settings from boat to boat and may make it difficult to reproduce tuning numbers exactly. We are not 100% sure how to accomodate these differences, but will work on developing a system for that. It would be interesting to have more numbers and to develop a system which allows us to incorporate these differences in the tuning guide.
Overall it was a great day because not only did everybody go through the calibration procedure on their own boats, but we also got a lot of information sharing going about the differences between boats in the fleet. This will be a big benefit because in the long run it will help us to understand better how to reproduce settings with the different boats, and allow us to all sail on the same page.
Finally, we really should welcome new boat owners Keith Davids, whose boat is set up euro-style (rigged to deliberately confuse foreigners), and Dan Esdorn who is resucitating an old Waterat out of Ohio. Ali and J helped Dan de-rig his boat and set up his spreaders. Ali is shown below with Dan's miniature hammer - it just goes to show how important it is to ALWAYS have the right tool for the job.
Hey what the heck kind of little man hammer is this, anyway?
