Dodgy knee friendly single handers

Well its been windy every weekend so far this winter season and as much as I get lucky now and again, surviving is hardly racing and 6.5 sq mtrs would be an absolute doddle I reckon. But the only time I gave one a go it felt so, weather helm heavy which I put down to the blunt kitchen table foils.
Then last season we had a visitor witha Boatyards at Beer boat that you could see sat so much higher in the water even though the helm was heavier than the guy in the ply boat and it showed in boatspeed.
I'll be OK for a couple more years in the Solution, but I can see when the years do eventually catch up worse than they have to date, it'll be one for the future and there's a fair bit of activity down these parts, they've even had an open meeting at our place which I missed,and would have done if I could have blagged a boat.
They do need a carbon mast, they've gone with a carbon boom quite what that's all about I've no idea, the mast is more important than the bloody boom why they've gone for that just shows the typical dinghy waller nonesensical attitude imv.

Why bother going from a parallel tin mast to a tapered one? It will certainly make the boat more manageable in a blow but they'll all need new sails too as the curve will be different. Might as well go for a carbon stick straight away.

Fair enough, the only reason not to use tapered is cost so if supply is difficult then costs will escalate. I still think it is a missed opportunity to embrace carbon.

Originally posted by iGRF Why someboday hasn't standardised a mast and produced it in volume is so beyond me, the dinghy supply business is so pathetic and there is so much BS with claim and counter claim, all BS when you get down to the nitty gritty of their claims. The class should just find a similar dimension boat, and nick their mast, then re cut the luff curve of the sail, it would have to be re-cut anyway, the whole point of carbon is the actual possibility of depower from the head and the excellent gust response from a tapered. Hell they should just rip that C2 rig from that little boat whose name escapes me, the junior international that get used everywhere else but here.

Byte CII - or for adults Mega Byte


There is nothing wrong with the tin mast. Yes it doesn’t have gust response but not unmanageable with out. The tapered mast is undergoing tests and shows no discernible change. The tapered mast is off the VAURIEN which has numbers into 36,000s and very popular in Europe so easy to jump onto their volume.

Constantly messing about with traditional one design boat just drives the market towards SMODs

Edited by tink - 24 Dec 19 at 5:25am

Blaze carbon mast is twice the price of the M7 so I agree that cost is a significant factor. WRT weight saving the carbon stick is 2.5 kg lighter than the M7 on the Blaze so a good bit more than a couple of pounds. It's a significant saving and very noticeable when you are stepping the mast as well as on the water. The performance advantage kicks in for lighter sailors in F4+ so well before it becomes survival conditions and is more marked on gusty inland waters.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 24 Dec 19 at 1:05pm