We have been lucky to see a bit of Tom C's testing of harness lines at Sandy and that is exactly what keeps happening! Coming undone prematurely that is.
I have also broken a few spreaders and lines at speed and this can potentially be as dangerous as what we're trying to prevent - not to mention arising the possibility of losing a "best run ever"..now that could really inflict some pain
I am just saying this can't be set on the soft side!
I am holding onto that piece of wood with a very tight grip at the moment sailquick
Andrew,
just as a matter of interest... how far apart do you normally have your harness lines?
are they that close together that they may be putting more point load on the boom than lines further apart?
i note a lot of pro's in the mags especially wave sailors have their harness line fixings almost touching each other...i am no engineer but wouldnt this put a fair load on 1 point of the boom arm? just a thought..
Hang on, I think Goo Screw has the point, the last thing you want is the safety release going off under normal sailing, could be more dangerous. So you want it set a safe margin above normal sailing forces. But isn't that way every other link in the catapault chain is also designed , or more correctly, evolved to? And just as you can't predict which link in a well designed chain will break we all seem to be reporting different rig components letting go - mast, boom, spreader or harness line or sail. And if any one breaks it will limit the forces on all the other components - and me.
To make sure the safety release was first to go we'd have give it a clear window to operate in by upping the strength and hence weight of all the other rig components.
I posted that one on youtube ages ago. I've got a whole library of old speed footage, if there's enough demand I can post some more.
The second last one is my classic 'fin touch and around the front' fall. Notice that the sailor either unhooks or the line or harness breaks. That is exactly how I would prefer it to end!
Great wipe outs for sure. Those sort of crashes are not as common now thankfully. Unless i'm watching lol.
At driven by wind. The second session produced some unusually crapola conditions for the Ray. Going down the course was a gauntlet of death chop 200 metres in.
I saw Bob Cunningham did one of the most brutal wipe outs i have ever seen. A deep low pressure was tracking into Scotland and was sucking all the water out of the Ray. This made is really shallow. It was gusting up to 45 knots and Bob was on his 5.8 fully locked until he decked his fin into the sand. If i blinked i would have missed it but luckily i didnt lol. His sail was in 3 pieces but his mast was intact. Bob was intact as well lol.
. Chris L knows exactly how that feels!
I probably do too but I think my subconscious has blocked it out. Probably just as well, I want to keep pushing it and I don't need memories like that in the back of my mind.
