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List classes of boat for sale  | 
Rise Of The Ok etc | 
 
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   Medway Maniac  
   
   Really should get out more  
   Joined: 13 May 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2788  | 
  
   
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     Topic: Rise Of The Ok etcPosted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:13pm  | 
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 Sorry Marke, just fully (I think) understood your point - we (the committee) should be saying "that guy is 100 points better than the other one, we'll allow for that...".  I'm afraid that would take a considerably braver man than me, especially if we had to allocate individual skill factors to each member. I do it, in fact, for pursuit racing, but it is kept totally opaque, buried in starting times that depend on boat PYs modified for the conditions, so that nobody is glorified and nobody shamed. 
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   winging it  
   
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   Joined: 22 Mar 07 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3958  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:19pm | 
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   In training I will often adopt pursuit style racing giving the less able sailors a 'head start' so they get to epxerience starting in clear air and learn defensive tactics to stay ahead.  The more able sailor then has to learn fighting through the fleet. 
   
   
  Works really well, nobody complains, most people learn something.  | 
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     the same, but different...
 
   
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   Medway Maniac  
   
   Really should get out more  
   Joined: 13 May 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2788  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:24pm | 
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 In hindsight?   Here's the very first V3k racing the first weekend it appeared.  Looks like a different sail symbol to me... ![]() And who "contacted all L3k [FTFY] owners..."?  The V3k was developed by the CA in conjunction with the builder, and the  CA was all L3k owners at the time.  Nobody was duped, everyone had input. Other readers: sorry about this slanging match, but KW's remarks border on the libellous, and mud sticks if you don't wash it off. 
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   marke  
   
   Far too distracted from work  
   Joined: 16 Jun 08 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 211  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:27pm | 
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   MM - actually turned out to be much easier than everyone thought.  It could be that we have a club where a lot of good sailors have sailed against one another for many years.  It also probably helped that we started doing this analysis several years before the RYA system changed and there were clear problems with the development classes and a few others which the racing sailors wanted fixing.  It also helped that we have a very detailed data collection system with all the data stored in a database so that we can analyse it easily (we have timings for every lap of every race for every competitor for more than 900 races all in a single database - and wind speed details for about half of them) 
   
   
  Over the years the RYA system has caught up with our local numbers (except for the Laser), and we are also pretty close to the GL numbers (which you would expect). I think if you have someone who has raced lots of different classes at your club and outperforms his PY by no more than 1.2% in all the other classes, and then steps into a new class and outperforms by an average of 1.6%, you have some reasonable evidence that there might be a case for a local adjustment of the new class. . . and so we do! I do think people expect bandits and reverse-bandits(!) to appear now and again - they start to get disgruntled if nothing is seen to be done about it over a long period.  | 
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   kneewrecker  
   
   Really should get out more  
    
   Joined: 09 Apr 14 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1586  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:31pm | 
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   sounds similar to a brief foray into a squash league I did once- us newbies started each game with a 5 point advantage. 
   
   
  As you improved this advantage was reduced and most importantly, getting it reduced was something aspirational- unlike dinghy sailing, where rather than thinking- wow, my class has really upped its game to get this PY drop - it's time to moan and whinge and call everyone else a gerrymandering mollycoddler....     
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   kneewrecker  
   
   Really should get out more  
    
   Joined: 09 Apr 14 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1586  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:42pm | 
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 Border on libellous?  Do they?  This isn't about how the class communicated internally, nor how the business strategy and ethics of lipsticking a pig fitted in with the prospect of terminal illness amongst the Laser 3k customer base.   It's about how the boat was perceived to the outside world.   To me, and I imagine a good few other sailors, it was positioned as the same class, albeit 'new and improved' like a Tesco sandwich.  Yes, you dropped the Laser trademark, rather by obligation I imagine, but essentially you were positioning as the same class going forward.   Asking Sailing Clubs to respect a class association or manufacturer's request to use and submit different results under different configurations or sail number cut-offs is one thing, actually getting them to do it is something completely different.    That is the biggest criticism of some newer boats to market who have, for whatever reason, not really thought out how their class rule intentions filter down to a local sailing club running PY racing.    | 
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   iGRF  
   
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   Joined: 07 Mar 11 Location: Hythe Online Status: Offline Posts: 6499  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:51pm | 
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   Ask them about the L3ks fitted out with all the V3ks running gear(bigger sails, gnav, bigger foils) and raced off the L3ks handicap, I very nearly did it as a gag to 'get' the merlin boys at their own game this summer.   
   
   
    Edited by iGRF - 07 Oct 14 at 12:52pm  | 
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   kneewrecker  
   
   Really should get out more  
    
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:54pm | 
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 a rather inevitable consequence as bits get broken and replaced....  so confusion reigns, either for a commercial agenda or from lack of foresight.   All in all- a great example of why a boat like the OK, which develops gradually over time under owner, and ultimately ISAF supervision, is a better proposition than ex-SMODS who don't mimic this and jump straight in with a sizeable adaptation and performance gain.   
Edited by kneewrecker - 07 Oct 14 at 12:56pm  | 
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   Medway Maniac  
   
   Really should get out more  
   Joined: 13 May 05 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 2788  | 
  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:55pm | 
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   Lots of 'traditional' classes have upgraded performance over the years - lighter weight, bigger/better sails - without making any effort to inform the public. 
   
   
  I've not heard any L3k owner raising the complaints you raise, despite having a legitimate interest. Actually, the whole thing might have come off more smoothly if we'd told nobody outside the class anything.  Aside from the change in sail cloth on the mainsail (I prefer the new Dacron jib to the Mylar one pictured), outsiders wouldn't have noticed any change, which is the way it's worked with Wayfarer slot gaskets, and other classes' weight reductions. 
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   kneewrecker  
   
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     Posted: 07 Oct 14 at 12:57pm | 
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 well then that's certainly to their credit- after all, it would be a bit pottle-kettle-black...  and I take you point, the other option was just do it, and accept the inevitable fall in PY over time as a result.   I wonder if that has a bubble-bursting moment though....  I couldn't believe it when someone sent me a link to the ********* class association, where folks were genuinely going to sell their boats as their handicap had been dropped!!!!   
Edited by kneewrecker - 07 Oct 14 at 12:59pm  | 
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