Why RS300 aren't really selling....

 

Right then, a few things.  Firstly, excuse the typos on the original SA post.  I'd love to say it was late and I'd had a beer, more likely it was a cheeky skive at work and I did'nt read it first.

 

Secondly, I think the SA topic was something along the lines of "what's the hardest boat to sail".  Now indeed, I do come from a fairly skiffy background, but that's where you have the added luxury of small rigs to make things easier, and one, or possibly even two crew to blame in the event of a cock up.  And the skiffy style of sailing tends to suit me quite well. You know the one, "oh, if you really can't manage it, I suppose I best have the main downwind then whilst you put the flappy sail up.  And trim it.  And put it away again.  And when you do that, don't forget to bring the kicker out with you, but get it on smartly mind as this mainstringy thingy is pulling a bit.  Oh, one more thing, can I have the last of your energy drink please?"  So in short, give me the main and the kicker and some other brightly coloured string as well as the which-way-stick and it's never going to end well. 

 

Next, the hari-kari banzai skip I borrowed did need a few bits of additional string and fettling here and there.  And I'm sure the self retracting daggerboard was just some kind of safety feature to stop rescue crews thinking that an albino Orca had turned up in a Severn Trent pond.  And I'm guessing that the downwind progress might have been helped somewhat by a bottom pintle that was screwed on properly.  I'd just assumed it was a bit of slop in the T-foil mechanism...

 

I know they can be gybed sweetly...I've seen Messrs. Bolland do thier Flying Fifteen mooring buoy slalom thing many times.  But although a nice calm "OK guys, I think we'll just pop one in after this gust" seems to work beautifully in an 18, my 300 gybing mantra of "sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tnononononononoaaawwwwwwwwwfeckiiiiiiiiiiit" always seems equally predictable in it's results.  Perhaps a middle gorund of "gybey-ho" or whatever the RYA say it's supposed to be would result in slightly drier course alterations.

 

Finally, I came that close (yes, that close) to actually buying one as they are clearly the one and only rig-in-five-seconds singlehanded hiker that would actually keep me amused and more to the point tempt me out sailing in a F2.  And although I maintain that they do still look like a skip, it does kinda work.  But as has been echoed here, in a blow they do require talent, LOTS of time in the boat...and pies of course!  Now, I have no issues with one of those, and it's Fray Bentos related...

 

Thinking about it, I used to call the RS300 the "skip", but I will from now on call them the "C46".  Dunno if anyone watches Ice Pilots on Discovery, it's about an air freight company in northern Canada which uses old second world war piston aircraft, and the C46 is one of the uglier and more tempramental ones.  Every so often someone is asked to fly a vital consignment of marmite or something up to Big Beaver airstrip, and at the last moment the controller utters the words "oh, and could you take the C46 please..."  At which point they have thier own "sh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tsh*tnononononononoaaaaaaawwwfeckit" moment whilst looking almost as upset as a North Korean general after a bit of bad news as they realise that a) they have not flown it for 2 days and are therefore completely out of practice, and b) as it's blowing more than 15 knots, they will invariably end up limping away from a pile of twisted wreckage missing a limb or two because they tried a 10 degree course alteration without precisely the correct angle of flap on or something.  Trust me, I feel their pain....although I've never seen anyone hurting their b**locks climbing into a C46.

 

But yes, one day I could probably be tempted again!

 

(Note to those nice people at RS.  Talking of b**locks, the 900 does resemble the dog's version of those.  Very nice indeed chaps, well done!!)