Racing the Telstar

wingman71
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 1:52 am
Contact:

Racing the Telstar

Post by wingman71 »

I am starting a topic dedicated to racing. I primarily race, or practice to race, my Telstar. So far, with middle-to-back of the fleet results, but I have done extensive refit (will be documented next week) and have great hopes for a better year. I sail out of Annapolis and am the only Telstar in the multihull fleet. The largest contingent is the Corsair, with 3-4 Gemini, also. There are some a few custom boats, including one made of carbon fiber.
Most of our races are distance races. We have only one weekend that has up to 4 W/L races. There are several night races among the distance races. We actually have two fleets, one for the faster boats, such as the 31-foot Corsairs and the carbon fiber guy. The other is for us slower types, such as the 27/28 Corsairs, Geminis, one very odd small trimaran, and me.

I will report on my experiences and topics such as ratings and what I find that works and what does not. As a hint, catching a crab pot on the rudder slows one down!

Let me know if there are other racers out there that want to contribute and cruisers who are tempted to try racing.

John
wingman71
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 1:52 am
Contact:

Deleted

Post by wingman71 »

This reply is deleted by originator.
Last edited by wingman71 on Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ron
Posts: 1136
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:15 pm
Location: SW Florida
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by Ron »

John -

I raced my boat for several years down here, but eventually lost interest in it.

Problem 1 was the fact that the local sailing club does not allow multihulls to race in their existing PHRF classes. I've got a PHRF rating, but it does me no good. You need 3 multihulls to show up to get a start and that did not always happen. They also tended to screw things up, including moving our small group to another course which we could not get to on time. Gun went off, but we were still about 2 miles away.

Problem 2 -The Charlotte Harbor Multihull Association, which was started by people from your Chesapeake Multihull Association, was trying to get occasional and informal races scheduled. Very little interest. We occasionally had 3 or 4 boats show up, but we're down to zero now. Two of the guys who normally showed up passed away.

Problem 3 - On a 5 knot or less day I tend to roll out the screecher at the first mark and let the wind take me to anywhere but the 2d mark. I'd rather be doing 5 knots on a reach than crawling into 4 knots of wind with maybe 2 knots of boat speed.
Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #359 "Tri-Power"
seicam
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by seicam »

Could you share your PHRF rating (flying and non-flying)?

Regards,
Maciek
Ron
Posts: 1136
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:15 pm
Location: SW Florida
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by Ron »

It was 153 spinnaker and 177 non-spinnaker. Local region is West Florida PHRF. Other places may be different. But note that I was never able to actually use it down here. After a couple of starts, I imagine that they would have reduced it somewhat if I did.
Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #359 "Tri-Power"
seicam
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:58 pm
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by seicam »

Interesting. I've got 108 with no spinnaker. That never seemed fair to me, but I have no way to challenge that. Do you know if there is some recognized registry that could be used as a reference?

Regards,
Maciek
Ron
Posts: 1136
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:15 pm
Location: SW Florida
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by Ron »

Maciek -

Main problem is that there were only about 65 Telstar 28's made, and VERY Few of them race. The PHRF regions tend to apply the Telstar specs to their forms to arrive at the handicap number and you can't really do that with a multihull. With my 177 rating I'd probably win every PHRF class race that they let me run. But that's never really happened because they won't let me in. If they did my 177 would be changed rather quickly.

The 108 is probably a decent number. I could win some trophies with that. Last boat was a Catalina 400 with a rating something like 125. I'd gladly give myself 17 seconds a mile. On the other hand, these are upwind/downwind races. Not our best points of sail. Some of the quicker Corsairs have negative numbers - like minus 30.
Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #359 "Tri-Power"
vancouver
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:58 pm
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by vancouver »

The correct rating is difficult since our performance is so difference based on the apparent wind and velocity. On reaches with a fair breeze, I can sail with the boat in our club with ratings around 110. On the upwind legs if the winds are light or the seas high, I struggle to match the boats at 210. Downwind in light winds, I struggle. Downwind in big winds probably around 140, maybe a bit better. I am racing with a 120 and generally with our courses and winds, not so competitive.
Ron
Posts: 1136
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:15 pm
Location: SW Florida
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by Ron »

I've only raced the boat in Charlotte Harbor (west coast of Florida) - a large bay. The water is very protected so there is not that much chop on most days. A strong north or south wind with the tide going the other way would change that. Offshore would probably be similar. I did not compete with the monohulls under their upwind/downwind conditions and strategy. The faster multihulls that raced with then (but in our OWN class) take an entirely different route thru the course. Maybe 20 degree further off the wind going up, and 20 closer going down. We usually got to the marks before them, especially if the wind is in the 10 to 20 knot range.

But I stopped doing this around 3 or 4 years ago because they would not let us start if we had less than 3 boats.
Ron Marcuse
Telstar 28 #359 "Tri-Power"
vancouver
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:58 pm
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Contact:

Re: Racing the Telstar

Post by vancouver »

Ron, that certainly matches my experience. With 20 knots and a close reach or below, the Telstar is faster. I can also says that in 30+ knots of wind on a run, even with substantial seas, I was closing the gap on a 46' boat, 109 phrf. That was with 2 reefs in the main and a full genoa. But, then we turned the mark back to close hauled and I was left in the dust.

Terry
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests