Topper Spice

Well I've spent the past half hour reading this and its been v entertaining - sadly there seems to be a view that there is a "best" class and if yours does not in some way measure up to a mark (or your personal prejudice) then it should be binned. One of the joys of sailing in this country is that there is such a diversity of classes there should be something for everybody's skill / enthusiasm / weight / wallet, so I'm not going to join in the knocking copy here, but try to correct some misconceptions about the Spice in this discussion in case someone out there thinks that the Spice is too old, slow, heavy, spongy, to consider as an intro to  2 wires.

1 The Spice is just a Buzz. Having sailed a Buzz (and enjoyed it greatly - another much underrated boat for newcomers to wiring/asymmetrics) - yes there are similarities - hull shape, layout. BUT its got a different construction, is longer, wider, much, much faster, but every bit as involving (lots of feedback, spray, etc etc).

2 Performance etc. PN 930, ISO 926, (Iso has waterline length advantage but smaller sail area). Heavy helm? Difficult to sail upwind? Like other classes the numbers make a big difference to how it sails. The ability of the nut on the tiller counts a great deal too - trim and balance are critical to getting it to really move upwind.

3 Going Soft? Mine is about 7 now (had little maintenance and been out in all weathers) - boats made in the first production run 9 years ago are still looking as good and solid as when they were made and still as fast too.

4 Why would anyone sail them? I can only speak from my experience but when I bought mine around 4 years ago, they were the ONLY 2 wire boat I could afford, and the only one that my crew and I were the right weight for. Now there are other classes but people may not/ don't want to/have time or cash for/ continually keeping up with the latest class development. Oh and they are still a lot of fun

I'd love to see the class have carbon rig, hull etc but the class is sailed by those who have the current boat and don't want to change something that works for them plus updating would be time consuming and costly - would put the class in direct competition with other classes eg 800, Cherub and would have no guarentee that it would attract new people into the class (it didn't work for the Boss......)

5420,

I think you may be missing the point. Ian said he chose the Spice because it was 'the ONLY 2 wire boat I could afford, and the only one that my crew and I were the right weight for'. Not everybody has or is even able to justify spending 5 thousand or more on a boat, which may not even be used regularly.  

When you have a budget of say two thousand for a twin wire boat for lightweights, what would you suggest?

Being in a similar dilemna at the moment I would be interested to hear your response.

 

 

Like I said almost said - Diversity is the Spice 0f LIfe  

....and as if to prove that 2 wiring is the way to go there's a new (ish) kid on the block the 29Xer - so someone must think there's room for all  

rich96,  I can only concur with your comments, and applaud your lucidity and honesty. 

I think it is also useful to note that most of the big major winter opens were won by the more "traditional" classes, especially the Fireball (or furball as we like to call it).  For whatever reason (and good manners prevents me voicing some) the 29ers and those kinds of boats did not appear to be able to "hack it". and at best were "also rans".  The boats are fine.  Perhaps they are just a little beyond the capabilities of the people who sail them?