The amount of people asking about ROAM’s sailing performance has been crazy. I guess being the first of any new design to hit the water I should have expected it. However it is not a question that you can answer in a sentence, or a conversation or even a full evening over a bunch of beers.
The best way I can come up with to demonstrate how ROAM sails in a manner that you could compare to what you are currently sailing, or against another boat, is to do some mini case studies on particular points of sail.
So we have created “What’s your angle?” We will include these segments in the Episode Series and also put them up on the website. This way they can be watched individually for those who really only have interest in the sailing ability of our Global adventure vehicle in variable conditions.
The first “What’s your angle” was in Episode 5. Deep down wind the boat makes miles easy. However with the main sail up you can’t run dead down wind. At the moment without any downwind sails we struggle to make a decent downwind VMG if the wind goes near or under 10 knots. Once we have more than 15 knots we are off, by over reefing the main we get plenty of wind in the genoa and its really comfortable up to about 20 knots TWS. After that its fast, real fast, particularly with some seas behind you. Reef the genoa and things settle down again pretty easily. There is some footage of ROAM surfing at 18-21 knots in Bass Strait in solid 25 knots TWS at the end of Episode 5.
The second “What’s your angle” is in Episode 6. We are ghosting along upwind in 4-5 knots of breeze. The boat just glides upwind in light airs. The sails are magic. Tacking angles are good and leeway is minimal. I will do an upwind case study soon with more breezy conditions. If we work on tacking angles of 110 degrees over ground we are usually pretty close. I love sailing in 5-10 knots of breeze when the sea is dead flat and the boat is just sliding along but still making decent mileage.
The third “What’s your angle” will slot into one of the later episodes but can be found here. It’s the dream angle that in reality is hard to find on a passage. Beam reach in 10-12 knots TWS where the sea state is still comfortable….. We got these conditions on the West Coast of Tasmania of all places and had a magic sail from Nye Bay up to Macquarie Harbour. On this day there was a NW cold front due in the arvo so being able to sail quickly on the light Westerlies and South Westerlies ahead of the change was awesome. On a beam reach we can make 80-90% of TWS from 5-15 knots. AWA is 60 degrees. So far our top speed on flat water is 16.4 knots on this angle with one reef in the main at about 20-22knots TWS.
Hope this helps, feel free to ask for a particular point of sail you are interested in. Even better any tips for us to get more out of the boat. We are still feeling it out and learning what she likes and doesn’t like so much. More angles to come!
Mick, Out