Fourteen Knots

How fast can a Tiki 21 go? For my boat the answer appears to be 14 knots.

I had the opportunity for a short sail this week and decided to reach around and see how much I could get out of her. By chance, the conditions were ideal - the boat was empty and had new bottom paint, the water was flat and between the tides, and the wind was at or over 20 knots. So I eased the sheets and reached back and forth down to the the windiest part of Suisun Bay next to the Suisun and Montezuma Slough entrances. Here are the numbers....

 

These readings are GPS speeds corrected using the GPSAR software* and show a best speed of 14.08 knots (108 meters in 15 seconds) - but probably more relevant - a best average speed of 12.8 knots over 500 meters (547 yards), a best average of 11.7 knots over one nautical mile (1852 meters), and a best average of 9.4 knots over one hour (3600 seconds). 

Can my Tiki go faster then this? Fiddling around in the past I have found noticeable improvements on a reach using jib barber haulers which were not rigged for this sail. Of course it doesn't really matter, and I am delighted that the Tiki sails as well as it does - we carved some great grooves back and forth over Suisun Bay and she handled beautifully.

*GPSAR does not use the doppler maximum speed reading that is shown on your gps (these may or may not be accurate recordings of boat speed), but calculates the average speed between any two satellite position recordings.