Tested out the latest way to move along. Northerly winds felt like 5 to 10 kph at pedaling altitude. Tried the following variations: rig up – sail furled pedaling straight into the wind; rig up – sail set pedaling various points of wind and sailing from the recumbent seat; and self-steering engaged and sails trimmed for hands free. Looks like steady course.
A little further analysis by Scott using Thomas’s GPX file in GPS Action Replay:
Thomas (single-handing the Manu-o-ku) averaged about 5.6 kph upwind (for 12.7 km), 8.9 kph downwind (for 6.2km), and 8.1 kph reaching back and forth (for 7.8km). SSP says wind was 15-20kph out of the northwest — probably a pretty typical situation for our race (though there may be chop). Overall average of 6.76 kph over 26.9 km!
For light wind, those are some impressive tack angles (90-125, avg ~110). Impressively, most of that upwind work was without pedal power assistance! In terms of velocity made good (VMG) under just the 13m^2 crab claw, this is promising: 3.45 km/hr VMG towards Kenmore during those ~9 tacks (7.2 km in 2 hrs 5 minutes).
That’s enough to make progress against the average contrary current (max speeds 4-5 kph) we’ll see in Discovery Passage outside of the flow restrictions like Seymour Narrows. Of course, to be realistic we’ll need to do similar tests beating into Puget Sound chop…