Demise of the Laser 4000

I have limited experience of assymmetrics so my comments are from observation, but it seems to me there are 2 cases where an assymmetric has a clear benefit:

Edited by pondlife1736 - 05 Jul 20 at 12:08pm

Originally posted by pondlife1736 Both of these are small niches I would suggest.

As the RS200 and RS400 between them clocked up roughly as many races in the PY system as the 5 most popular pole kite classes I submit the evidence doesn't match up.

Also an asymmetric kite is easier for the crew....one or two strings to pull to launch the kite rather than wrestling to attach a pole to the mast (although the difference is less in classes that have sophisticated twin pole systems).

In the early days of asymmetrics I ran a pole kits for a season in a new Cherub against an identical boat with a sprit kite. Same sail area (140swft kite), same hull design, similar rig, similar ability crew. That was with the highly efficient 9ft pole on the Cherub which was a single string boat in those days. The pole kite was never faster, not even in light airs sub planing. The real unexpected gain was how much better the sprit kite was at exploiting the gust front and shifts of light airs runs. At the time I made most of the same arguments you still see made in favour of pole kites, and I was utterly wrong. I'm not aware that any better comparison with such equal boats has ever been made.

That's interesting Jim and it does give you a pretty unique first-hand experience to draw from.  I wonder if you would have got the same outcome if you had tried it with say a Wayfarer World, what with the Cherub being a light and quick accelerating boat in comparison.  In the 400 it was always such a trade-off to decide whether to soak low, or go right up to get the apparent wind forward.  The good guys seemed to be able to sail high, light it up then bear off some 40 degrees or more straight through the lee of us lot trying to soak low.