The new B6

[Hendo]

I see four Top B6 teams on this line...

[Hendo]

So Terry G. has just posted his Go Pro Vid of the regatta and it rocks !!!
This is how it is done! Good on Terry and Evan.
Youtube: 2014 I-14 US Richmond Nationals.

[Hendo]

B6H2 Is back in the news! We now have the B6 winning the U.S. Nationals as well as the Canadian Nationals.
With a top team in Australia with a B6 it's only a mater of time another Nationals, and then the Worlds.
Thanks to Richmond YC for a Killer event. Sailing at it's best

I see four Top B6 teams on this line...

[joe.bersch]

I recall this start on Sunday. We (1191) let you (1192) live on our aft hip for about 4 minutes of intense sailing. You thanked us by finding some new 5th gear and suddenly in 30 seconds killing us! Fortunately we tacked right and crossed the fleet to a favored shift. Can you teach us how to find that gear?

It was great to see Cameron's new boat under construction today at the shop. It is no surprise that it looks fantastic. H2B6 number 10? That is a pretty cool achievement. How many B5's did you assemble? How many B5's were built in North America in total? I wonder who has built more U.S. 14's than you? Alan? Eric? Other Historians out there.

Keep up the good work.

Joe

[Hendo]

Well, well, Joe you always said the H2B6 I-14 felt like a i 15.
With Paul's revolutionary design of the B6 ,and his design of the T-foil Rudder,(patten pending).
We know the boat can squirt at times. Thanks for recignizing what we had..
I would say we found that fifth gear maybe three times. When it happened we were going easly a knot faster then anyone one the race course..
and the boats said they were going over 10 Knots up wind.
The problem is that we could't hold on to it! The Key is that Martin and I recignised it and made a note of it.
We are constently adjusting our settings to find the sweet spot.

The boat is a Rocket ship , The Pilots just need to control.

Hendo

[matt d]

We have taken our new (to us, Cameron's old boat; B6 hull 2?) out for a couple of afternoons now. One session was in a drifter, the other in winds that varied from 12 to 20 knots, both in extremely flat water.

The B6 is ridiculously fast! During the breezy session, upwind, with the vang maxed out before it was even in the proper de-power ballpark (we erred in one of the cascade line lengths) we were regularly sailing at over 11 knots, sometimes 12 knots, while still tacking through 90 degrees. On the Blue-Footed Boobie, our target boat speed was 10 knots. On one bear away with too much foil on our old boat would have gone down the mine, or tripped up and capsized, yet the B6 bow popped back out, and off we went. We were even beating F18s and classic Tornadoes in our Sunday afternoon beer can racing! (Granted the other boats weren't exactly World Champions).

I am stoked to see what this boat can do once we establish her tuning numbers, tweak the setup and put in some decent practice.

Paul Beiker - great design, Hendo - nice building!

[joe.bersch]

Glad to hear you are finding out so quickly about the fantastic characteristics of the new hull and rig design. I bet you regret winter is coming so soon. Wait til you get the uppers in the right spot. Oh that's right, you don't have to worth about that. We have found 8100 is a very good base rake setting in all conditions. 26-28 in very light, 32 when double trapping and 35 when starting to depower all the way till you consider raking back further at about 22 knots. We seldom rake further but when we do we go to 8050 and 35. The rest is all cunno and vang and board height. Easy.

Have fun and congrats.

Joe

[mcghan]

Hi Joe,

Yes, sadly our harbor is closing soon so the boat is already in my garage for some rigging adjustments before putting her away for the winter. Thanks for the numbers. I think we were a little bit more upright than that (maybe 8150) but the boat felt very balanced. It's actually very well mannered and easier to sail than I expected having only sailed a B3 until now.

I would like to improve on the systems and take-ups. They aren't running very smoothly. It's mostly a matter of tidying up the lines but I think simplifying the systems might help too. I noticed that the newer boats in the thread don't have the mid-rack access pods for vang, cunno, and foil. There are already quite a few by any more photos of running rigging setups on the B6s would be appreciated so I can compare the options before I start cutting lines... too late!

Very much looking forward to lining up with some I14s in the spring to see how we compare!

Cheers,
Doug

[Hendo]

Team Blue Footed Booby,
Congrats on finaly stepping up your game and yes, Game on..

[evsjo]

Having crewed on several B6's with the mid-boat control lines and several B6's with all controls up on the forward rack strut, I think the mid boat controls are definitely the best way to go. I wouldn't suggest changing it. The controls are always right at your feet when two wiring and right by the skipper when the crew's on the fore deck.

This is not the case with forward controls, and the crew constantly must move up to adjust vang, cunno, etc. Without the hydrofoil, easing vang and cunno on these boats at the top would be sketchy like the 49er.

[mcghan]

I agree. I think it's just a matter of cleaning up the routing and possibly putting the take-ups in the racks. I'm curious about how others are routing the continuous lines through racks and around the back of the boat.
Thanks.

[Shu]

There are some photos of how I rigged the control lines and take ups on the Shu2 on page 24 of the "My New Boat" thread. All three control lines run through the racks, but only the cunno take-up is in the rack. The other two take ups are in the centerline kick rail, but they could all be moved into the racks. It's a very clean set up. If I were to redo it I would have the control lines go over the rack tube from their respective cleats, and disappear into the rack tube on the outboard side. I like Joe Bersch's current set-up, and Chris Johnson's as well. Maybe they will post pics of theirs (hint, hint).

[Hendo]

Great thoughts on controls , if i can get the lines to roll over the rack and go in the tube on the outer edge they are easier to grab.
Oh by the way, Hull #10 is rolling along.

[joe.bersch]

Doug:

First off 8150 in light air before you are double trapping is an incredible mode. We have found it is a. Very narrow range, however, and that you soon want to be back a bit further. Our conclusion is raked back at 8100 and light on tension (25-28) is nearly as good but more versatile since you can always pull on more tension when the breeze comes on. As indicated at 35 on tension you are good til perhaps 20 knots or so.

We generally felt the same way about our pods and the take ups on Hull 1. No question about the location. I strongly agree with Evan about the forward location although the U.S. National's winner is rigged controls forward. Mid location also allows the skipper the option of adjusting which is often a good option.

Not sure I have any photos of my rigging. My boats is in Long Beach but perhaps Cameron can get some photos. Our control lines come over the rail and enter the rack tube through a bullseye on the outside of the rack tube. Take ups are 2:1 bungees in the rack tubes. Our control lines are continuous and exit the aft end of the tube and cross over to the other side. We epoxied in a 1/4" G10 tube horizontally in the rack standing proud out the back side and the lines just bend around the tube to the other side. Immediately in front is a horizontally mounted tube to which we dead end blocks and or dead end bungee. We have a similar horizontal tube glued in the front of the tube for the same purpose. Hopefully, you can visualize how the takeps are rigged inside.

Biggest advantage of this system is how clean and easily adjustable it is. Everything runs super smooth and you only have 1 "part" of the control line to grab so you are always grabbing the control side never the take up side by accident. Biggest theoretical disadvantage is a twist up of the control lines/ bungees which we have so far not experienced.

You will find that the new super stiff high hounds rig demands a lot of control line adjustment. Best to get it sorted. Meanwhile, the best technique with your system is to pull the controls on through the rings on your rack. It will automatically cleat. To ease, grab control line between ring and cleat but pull slack into it against take up before easing. Hope all of that makes sense.

Good luck.

[mcghan]

Thanks Joe, that helped a lot. I moved vang and cunno take ups into the racks today. Those are running very smoothly now. My B3 had them in the racks too and that kept things nice and clean.

Out of curiosity, on your boat, do you run the lines directly from the end of one rack to the other or do you run them down the rack struts to the floor to get across the transom?

Appreciate the help!