1d 48 - Information

F

fvracerone1

New member
3
0
NEVER want to be over early if you have runners..... the poor bastard will go absolutely bonkers every time you gybe going back to dip and then gybing again upowind.............. take it from one that knows...

NM36

 
F

fvracerone1

New member
3
0
NEVER want to be over early if you have runners..... the poor bastard will go absolutely bonkers every time you gybe going back to dip and then gybing again upowind.............. take it from one that knows...

NM36

 
S

sailski

Member
266
0
Detroit
SailDry said:
davidbp said:
Hey all, I hope you don't mind me joining your thread on 1D48.

I own Emirage II, 1D48 #48003 in Long Beach, CA. I'm entering my 5th year campaigning this boat off So Cal, mostly buoys but some local offshore events (SB to King Harbor, around islands, San Diego etc). I'm a buoy racer first and can tell you the 1d48 is an absolute gas to race around the buoys. The boat points like a dream upwind, and in all but the heaviest surfing conditions, (20+ with surfing swells), the boat holds its own downwind too. If you like buoys, you'll learn to love all of the flexibility offered in the rig and the immense amount of power it can generate. But with the great flexibility comes lots and lots of tuning tips, boat handling requirements and attention to detail.

First of all, we've beaten all of the fastest boats in So Cal in one regatta or another, including Wasabi, the Kernan 44 during last year's Ahmanson Cup in Newport Beach.

For what it's worth, here's my two cents about the 1D48.

1. Rig: It is 3 spreaders with "jumpers" which really are just an independent upper spreader set. The mast is a heavy duty carbon section standing around 70 feet off the water. The right is fractional for headsails, with full hoist asyo's, a carbon pole about 20', with split running backstay bundles which contain uppers to the tip of the mast, mid points that run equal to headstay, and lower check stays. While all in the same bundle, we have additional adjustments on both the uppers to get more tip bend, and on the lower checkstays to hold the section straight for power, and allow forward bend for flattening the mainsail. This setup allows for the uptmost in opportunity for powering the rig up and down during the beats. We have a dedicated backstay trimmer upwind who, along with me (driver) and the mainsail trimmer are in constant contact. The backstay is being adjusted in all conditions upwind, as we are constantly shifting gears to get maximum speed and point out of the boat. Unlike current "easier rigs" with swept back spreaders and hydraulic backs, the 1D48 rig can be tweaked any which way to match any conditions.

2. Backstay issues: We have 1 person dedicated to the backstays upwind who is a member of the speed team along with the mainsail and genoa trimmer. Because the rig power is mostly controlled through the backstay, that person has to be trained to ease and winch in as required to match the main trimmer, waves, puffs, pinching, or footing conditions. Upwind we employ either another person to release the off backstay in the tacks, or as the driver, it is quite easy for me to release the off backstay. Because the boats have quite a bit of "shoot" in the tacks, we never spin the boat hard in tacks anyway, preferring to gain upwind distance so the backstay trimmers never have difficulty getting the new runner on before the old one is released. Also, upwind the mainsheet tends to hold the mast in position anyway so its very rare to have issues upwind. However, we have rule that the new weather backstay grinder will yell "made" when the new backstay is intact before the old one is released, both upwind and downwind. Remembering that when racing, we probably only jibe 2-4 times per race, the jibing isn't that big of an issue. I give an outloud 10 count leading into the "gybe - o " call as the wind comes dead astern. I then hold dead down as the weather backstay comes into place, the backstay trimmer yells made, and then I turn towards the new course. With as much practice as we have, we make this move very smoothly in all but the roughest, windiest (30+ and waves) conditions, where we will simply wait for the mainsheet to come in most of the way before securing the backstay and then steering through the gybe. Honestly, the issues of backstays (2-4 gybes per race), is more than outweighed by the added power of the fully battened, high roach main, and the incredible flexibility of the rig due to the backstay arrangement.

3. Vangs blowing up at weather marks: Yes, that was a common issue on the 1D48's when they raced class. We simply extended the vang shock absorber another 5-8 inches so that it wouldn't pull apart when the mainsheet is eased. We also blow the traveller and the mainsheet at the same time when rounding the weather mark so that we can steer down around the mark. Also, the boats came with shorter headstay fittings to stand the mast up straighter, eliminating much of the weather helm if you live where the wind blows harder all the time. We sail with maximum rake back in So Cal because most race committees won't race over 25+ knots of breeze anyway, and we can easily drop power by bending the mast and dropping headsail sizes.

4. Other boats being as faster and easier: This is simply not true. The 1D48 is a stellar buoy boat and easily races with 50+ footers and TP52's in all but survival (downwind) conditions. SC52's, 50's, Kernan 44's, Shock 40's are all offwind, point to point boats. None compare to the 1D48 upwind or around the buoys. When you get offwind, even Olson 30's are fast boats. It truly depends upon what kind of racing you wish to do and what your rating will be. The 1D48 can be sailed to her rating in all of the races we have entered. Also, because the 1D48 has a pedestal for the primaries, the genoas and kites are much, much, much easier to trim than like a SC50 or 52 with hand crank winches.

5. Crew size: We sail with anywhere from 8 - 20 depending upon the race conditions and course. In buoy, we like 12-18 simply because more weight outboard and more hands for spinnaker douses is better. In point to point races, we'll sail with 8-10 and use the water ballast to be the great equalizer. It's really just about how many you need to douse more than anything else. Key positions are, pit, point, mast, main trimmer, genoa/kite trimmer, driver, and backstays. It really means just 1 more person for backstays versus other non-grand prix style boats, but the backstay trimmer is critical to upwind boat speed. By the way, because we don't need him downwind, our backstay trimmer becomes the afterguy/pole trimmer downwind.

6. Stickiness: The problem is the keel is so skinny (chord and depth) that it takes a bit of forward speed to develop lift. So if you sail boat too tight upwind it feels sticky. However, we've won many light air regattas against many much light boats by using our immense sail plan to generate our own apparent wind to rachet up our speed without pinching. Downwind, the masthead kites generate sufficient power to compete with others in our class.

7. No planing: This is true, the boat wallows downwind, but very fast. It isn't that it pushes so much water, as it just lacks sufficient planing surface to weight to surf. However, I know the owner of Sjambok in Germany and he has become very, very competitive in the English Channel and North Sea races with that boat by using bigger and bigger kites to essentially lift up the bow and lighten that boat. He added a 2 meter bowsprit and also a 2 meter plus penalty pole to get much larger kites than the "stock" 1D48. He has no problem hanging with much bigger, faster boats on point to point races in very nasty conditions.

8. Construction: External skin is kevlar, internal skin in carbon with prepreg by Tillotson/Pearson. The boat is a little overbuilt and is essentially bullet proof, since they were built for class racing, they didn't need to be too light Mast is overbuilt carbon and standing rigging is stainless rod. I don't think there is any way to remove the water ballast since integrally built into the outer walls of the skins. They might remove the pump and perhaps the plumbing, (double 4"+ piping with gravity exchange), but the tanks will undoubtedly in place. The standard pump takes about 15 minutes to fill one side, and I recommend a much faster, higher amperage pump, but you probably need to run the engine during pumping for something of that size. The large wheel is connected via line to a simple carbon quadrant (no reduction) making the boat very controllable. I don't think the boat with a tiller would be very fun downwind in a blow, due to the length it would need to be and the cockpit layout wouldn't really foster it (high sides, tight quarters). The rudder can break away, but that is matter of sailing the boat enough to know when you are in trouble and how to ease sails, head down to alleviate the pressure and cavitation.

9. Big Roach Main: It's fantastic! I came from Tornado's so that mainsail is a very automatic for me to understand. For some, it is difficult to trim fully battened mains since they don't luff. Not true, it just takes more attention to know when it is luffing and when to overtrim. The key is to bend the mast at the tip much, much earlier than most are used to. Because it is a fractional, not masthead rig, you need to flatten the top of the main to a board and let it fall open, while maintaining sufficient shape in the mid to lower sections of the mainsail. We've just purchased a Quantum mainsail which is based upon the TP52 mainsail (full battened, split running backstays). The sail is basically a boxey top so we need to flatten the tip early (10-12 knots true wind) while also downsizing our headsails.

10. Downwind: Yep, the boat won't plan so the harder it blows, the more you aim at the mark. However, the boat still generates apparent wind, so we sail more to a constant speed, varying the angle by 10-30 degrees up and down to keep the boat moving at constant speeds. We'll catch waves, drive deep, and pop up to keep the speed, we just don't catch as many, or pop onto a plane. However, in buoy racing, the amount of time our competitiors have spent planing has been very minimal, so I don't see this as a big disadvantage as compared to their ratings, which no doubt take a hit.

11. Fun: I love buoys, so the 1D48 is always in the hunt with bigger, more expensive boats. If sailed well, you always stand a chance to win in any conditions. They point high so you can get ahead on the first leg of the race. There's always lots to do to tweak something to go faster so your brain cells will always be working to go faster. The polars are very well developed due to the professionals working them very hard over the years. The old ockam systems still work to get any amount of data you need from the instruments. However, we're still faster paying attention to the old basics of telltales and speedo. It's a fun, powerful, fast, high pointing gas of a boat.

It is truly sad to see the photos of Blue totally bashed up. If you can get her at a good price and back out onto the water you'll never be sorry. Beautiful looking boat, great sailing boat, and fun around the buoys.

I hope some of that helps.

Best wishes to you.

David Bassett-Parkins

Owner, 1D48 Emirage II
Click to expand...
I must be on the wrong website. Great post, reminds me of the old days on SA.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Saildry, great post. I was the Captain on Hull #1 LEading Edge right out of TPI. Reading your post brought back a lot of memories about the boat. Would love the chance to get out sailing on one again if any of you owners ever need crew.

 
K

KiwiJoker

Super Anarchist
3,734
324
Auckland, NZ
Enjoyed this thread. Followed the 1D48s until the class fell apart. A concept for sponsored competition ahead of its time.

Several posts here have referred to the strength of the carbon mast. I remember one race on Narragansett Bay when Harry Cudmore's crew failed to get the runner on during a rather fresh downhill run. I swear the mast tip went forward three metres out of column! More reminiscent of a Laser mast than an ocean racer's.

 
C

chris3dl

Member
328
0
sailski said:
SailDry said:
davidbp said:
Hey all, I hope you don't mind me joining your thread on 1D48.

I own Emirage II, 1D48 #48003 in Long Beach, CA. I'm entering my 5th year campaigning this boat off So Cal, mostly buoys but some local offshore events (SB to King Harbor, around islands, San Diego etc). I'm a buoy racer first and can tell you the 1d48 is an absolute gas to race around the buoys. The boat points like a dream upwind, and in all but the heaviest surfing conditions, (20+ with surfing swells), the boat holds its own downwind too. If you like buoys, you'll learn to love all of the flexibility offered in the rig and the immense amount of power it can generate. But with the great flexibility comes lots and lots of tuning tips, boat handling requirements and attention to detail.

First of all, we've beaten all of the fastest boats in So Cal in one regatta or another, including Wasabi, the Kernan 44 during last year's Ahmanson Cup in Newport Beach.

For what it's worth, here's my two cents about the 1D48.

1. Rig: It is 3 spreaders with "jumpers" which really are just an independent upper spreader set. The mast is a heavy duty carbon section standing around 70 feet off the water. The right is fractional for headsails, with full hoist asyo's, a carbon pole about 20', with split running backstay bundles which contain uppers to the tip of the mast, mid points that run equal to headstay, and lower check stays. While all in the same bundle, we have additional adjustments on both the uppers to get more tip bend, and on the lower checkstays to hold the section straight for power, and allow forward bend for flattening the mainsail. This setup allows for the uptmost in opportunity for powering the rig up and down during the beats. We have a dedicated backstay trimmer upwind who, along with me (driver) and the mainsail trimmer are in constant contact. The backstay is being adjusted in all conditions upwind, as we are constantly shifting gears to get maximum speed and point out of the boat. Unlike current "easier rigs" with swept back spreaders and hydraulic backs, the 1D48 rig can be tweaked any which way to match any conditions.

2. Backstay issues: We have 1 person dedicated to the backstays upwind who is a member of the speed team along with the mainsail and genoa trimmer. Because the rig power is mostly controlled through the backstay, that person has to be trained to ease and winch in as required to match the main trimmer, waves, puffs, pinching, or footing conditions. Upwind we employ either another person to release the off backstay in the tacks, or as the driver, it is quite easy for me to release the off backstay. Because the boats have quite a bit of "shoot" in the tacks, we never spin the boat hard in tacks anyway, preferring to gain upwind distance so the backstay trimmers never have difficulty getting the new runner on before the old one is released. Also, upwind the mainsheet tends to hold the mast in position anyway so its very rare to have issues upwind. However, we have rule that the new weather backstay grinder will yell "made" when the new backstay is intact before the old one is released, both upwind and downwind. Remembering that when racing, we probably only jibe 2-4 times per race, the jibing isn't that big of an issue. I give an outloud 10 count leading into the "gybe - o " call as the wind comes dead astern. I then hold dead down as the weather backstay comes into place, the backstay trimmer yells made, and then I turn towards the new course. With as much practice as we have, we make this move very smoothly in all but the roughest, windiest (30+ and waves) conditions, where we will simply wait for the mainsheet to come in most of the way before securing the backstay and then steering through the gybe. Honestly, the issues of backstays (2-4 gybes per race), is more than outweighed by the added power of the fully battened, high roach main, and the incredible flexibility of the rig due to the backstay arrangement.

3. Vangs blowing up at weather marks: Yes, that was a common issue on the 1D48's when they raced class. We simply extended the vang shock absorber another 5-8 inches so that it wouldn't pull apart when the mainsheet is eased. We also blow the traveller and the mainsheet at the same time when rounding the weather mark so that we can steer down around the mark. Also, the boats came with shorter headstay fittings to stand the mast up straighter, eliminating much of the weather helm if you live where the wind blows harder all the time. We sail with maximum rake back in So Cal because most race committees won't race over 25+ knots of breeze anyway, and we can easily drop power by bending the mast and dropping headsail sizes.

4. Other boats being as faster and easier: This is simply not true. The 1D48 is a stellar buoy boat and easily races with 50+ footers and TP52's in all but survival (downwind) conditions. SC52's, 50's, Kernan 44's, Shock 40's are all offwind, point to point boats. None compare to the 1D48 upwind or around the buoys. When you get offwind, even Olson 30's are fast boats. It truly depends upon what kind of racing you wish to do and what your rating will be. The 1D48 can be sailed to her rating in all of the races we have entered. Also, because the 1D48 has a pedestal for the primaries, the genoas and kites are much, much, much easier to trim than like a SC50 or 52 with hand crank winches.

5. Crew size: We sail with anywhere from 8 - 20 depending upon the race conditions and course. In buoy, we like 12-18 simply because more weight outboard and more hands for spinnaker douses is better. In point to point races, we'll sail with 8-10 and use the water ballast to be the great equalizer. It's really just about how many you need to douse more than anything else. Key positions are, pit, point, mast, main trimmer, genoa/kite trimmer, driver, and backstays. It really means just 1 more person for backstays versus other non-grand prix style boats, but the backstay trimmer is critical to upwind boat speed. By the way, because we don't need him downwind, our backstay trimmer becomes the afterguy/pole trimmer downwind.

6. Stickiness: The problem is the keel is so skinny (chord and depth) that it takes a bit of forward speed to develop lift. So if you sail boat too tight upwind it feels sticky. However, we've won many light air regattas against many much light boats by using our immense sail plan to generate our own apparent wind to rachet up our speed without pinching. Downwind, the masthead kites generate sufficient power to compete with others in our class.

7. No planing: This is true, the boat wallows downwind, but very fast. It isn't that it pushes so much water, as it just lacks sufficient planing surface to weight to surf. However, I know the owner of Sjambok in Germany and he has become very, very competitive in the English Channel and North Sea races with that boat by using bigger and bigger kites to essentially lift up the bow and lighten that boat. He added a 2 meter bowsprit and also a 2 meter plus penalty pole to get much larger kites than the "stock" 1D48. He has no problem hanging with much bigger, faster boats on point to point races in very nasty conditions.

8. Construction: External skin is kevlar, internal skin in carbon with prepreg by Tillotson/Pearson. The boat is a little overbuilt and is essentially bullet proof, since they were built for class racing, they didn't need to be too light Mast is overbuilt carbon and standing rigging is stainless rod. I don't think there is any way to remove the water ballast since integrally built into the outer walls of the skins. They might remove the pump and perhaps the plumbing, (double 4"+ piping with gravity exchange), but the tanks will undoubtedly in place. The standard pump takes about 15 minutes to fill one side, and I recommend a much faster, higher amperage pump, but you probably need to run the engine during pumping for something of that size. The large wheel is connected via line to a simple carbon quadrant (no reduction) making the boat very controllable. I don't think the boat with a tiller would be very fun downwind in a blow, due to the length it would need to be and the cockpit layout wouldn't really foster it (high sides, tight quarters). The rudder can break away, but that is matter of sailing the boat enough to know when you are in trouble and how to ease sails, head down to alleviate the pressure and cavitation.

9. Big Roach Main: It's fantastic! I came from Tornado's so that mainsail is a very automatic for me to understand. For some, it is difficult to trim fully battened mains since they don't luff. Not true, it just takes more attention to know when it is luffing and when to overtrim. The key is to bend the mast at the tip much, much earlier than most are used to. Because it is a fractional, not masthead rig, you need to flatten the top of the main to a board and let it fall open, while maintaining sufficient shape in the mid to lower sections of the mainsail. We've just purchased a Quantum mainsail which is based upon the TP52 mainsail (full battened, split running backstays). The sail is basically a boxey top so we need to flatten the tip early (10-12 knots true wind) while also downsizing our headsails.

10. Downwind: Yep, the boat won't plan so the harder it blows, the more you aim at the mark. However, the boat still generates apparent wind, so we sail more to a constant speed, varying the angle by 10-30 degrees up and down to keep the boat moving at constant speeds. We'll catch waves, drive deep, and pop up to keep the speed, we just don't catch as many, or pop onto a plane. However, in buoy racing, the amount of time our competitiors have spent planing has been very minimal, so I don't see this as a big disadvantage as compared to their ratings, which no doubt take a hit.

11. Fun: I love buoys, so the 1D48 is always in the hunt with bigger, more expensive boats. If sailed well, you always stand a chance to win in any conditions. They point high so you can get ahead on the first leg of the race. There's always lots to do to tweak something to go faster so your brain cells will always be working to go faster. The polars are very well developed due to the professionals working them very hard over the years. The old ockam systems still work to get any amount of data you need from the instruments. However, we're still faster paying attention to the old basics of telltales and speedo. It's a fun, powerful, fast, high pointing gas of a boat.

It is truly sad to see the photos of Blue totally bashed up. If you can get her at a good price and back out onto the water you'll never be sorry. Beautiful looking boat, great sailing boat, and fun around the buoys.

I hope some of that helps.

Best wishes to you.

David Bassett-Parkins

Owner, 1D48 Emirage II
Click to expand...
I must be on the wrong website. Great post, reminds me of the old days on SA.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Saildry, great post. I was the Captain on Hull #1 LEading Edge right out of TPI. Reading your post brought back a lot of memories about the boat. Would love the chance to get out sailing on one again if any of you owners ever need crew.
Click to expand...
Get the Staysail!!!! sailski will understand the reference!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
P

pbd

Super Anarchist
1,435
340
Ca
Sailski if you are ever in the Greater Long Beach area let us know. It isn't unusual for me to crew on Emirage and while I don't make any of the crew decisions, Dave, the owner captain, is always up for bringing new people on the boat.

 
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