Cirrus Icon Development

Thanks for the interest.

  The race is a multi-class pursuit and we have a good breeze forecast so will try and encourage someone to take some footage.

  The NS genes crossed with N12 and Merlin ideas and practice have produced a very capable hull but it is almost as long as a Tasar (and it is wider) so a fair way off the NS box rules now.  It carries crew weight better than the NS as well as it has more volume in the mid-sections and we have possibly an even finer bow.

  The one thing the NS’s might like to consider is the use of the ‘dangy’ jib pole system if it can be adapted to work with a rotating mast (Icon = fixed 50mm carbon tube).  It makes a massive difference and I’m very glad ‘they’ persuaded me to give it a test.  It is/was genuinely so good we then modified the rig around the concept enlarging the jib and reducing the main. 

  I was cynical before we tested it out as I was concerned about windage – sure there must be a small sacrifice but the positives massively out-weigh them.   So much more flexible than a whisker pole – the main benefit being we can drive the jib at all wider angles than close hauled with it and it gives full control over the jib leech tension at any angle.  It is a bit like a totally flexible barber hauler that also works at angles beyond the side of the deck – much easier to adjust and in fact the crew ‘plays’ it alongside the jib sheet.   ie from close hauled to dead run  - The crew can ‘feed’ the main at deep angles off-wind in a way not previously easy or even possible.

  Mike L.