Classic Boat PY's

Originally posted by Rupert [QUOTE] The Solo handicap really hasn't changed? Fully battened sail technology must have increased the boat's speed enormously.

The Solo has had fully battened sails since the 1950s! While there are clever things you can do with fully battened rigs these days that they didn't know about back then,(see square top thread) they all rely on changing the sail planform, and the Solo is one design so that doesn't happen! I doubt that the advances in soft sails since then have been any less than the advances possible to the Solo one design rig.



Edited by JimC

Originally posted by Rupert Having sailed Solos with both 1960's wooden battened sails, and modern sails, I would say the changes have been far greater than in the Firefly or the Enterprise since man made fibres came in.

Dunno, don't forget with modern battens and sail materials you don't get that awful "batten poke" at the inner end of the battens on Enterprise sails that you used to as soon as they had the slightest bit of stretch. That's a big advantage for soft sails that Solos don't get because they never had that problem anyway.

I would have thought that these clubs make returns for their season to the RYA (at least I hope they do) in which case the results from the big races will be included in their data, and will presumebly affect the recommendations they make on their forms. But the big races should have no more influence than that, as they show how the boats behave in one particular location on one day with one set of weather conditions. Puddleducks SC have a whole year of conditions, and 100 versions of Puddleducks SC all over the country have lots more locations in which to collect data. Just make sure your sailing sec sends in returns if they use the system. Or volunteer to do the job for him or her!