Swift Solo

Originally posted by Ian29937 Or you can have a simple equalisation system based on your weight and leverage as per the 700 so that the rig can be optimised for a range of sailors.

And provided that the sailors believe it will work then it will be seen to, as weight is such a tiny factor in performance compared to skill.

I shouldn't be at all suprised if it were the same for development classes with customisable rigs actually, in my years in Cherubs I never saw much evidence to suggest that boat speed beats talent over the long haul.


Edited by JimC

Originally posted by Guest#260 Strawberry old boy your are making your self look a bit daft with these sweeping statements.

I am expressing an opinion, the point of an open foum. To have a counter opinion is one thing, but to personally attack someone's opinion.....more fool you.

Originally posted by Guest#260 The Musto rig is made by Selden (the Proctor brand has long since passed) and I find it very tuneable; as is the rig of many other SMOD's.

What a pety criticism! It is still the same company! The quality doesn't change just because you put a different sticker on the front of the mast!

Originally posted by Guest#260 You can still adjust rig tension, rake, spreaders, lowers, heel position etc ... Just because we cant change the section it dosn't mean it not tunable. Rick

My argument, possibly expressed poorly, was that a development rig will be far more "personisable" than any SMOD rig could! Also, as far I know, the Skiff and 700 rigs can't be adjusted on the water can they?

Therefore for example, if you were to say power on plenty of cap tension to depower the rig upwind, this would an absolute dog when your searching for power downwind.

Edited by Strawberry

Building lark? many people are drawn to classes because of the building opertunity and rigging problems? what rigging problems?

Originally posted by Prince Buster okay maybe a bit of a sweeping statement but i just can't see it getting off the ground against rivals such as the MPS and 700

The fact everyone hates them is the very reason some people love them......

Originally posted by JimC And provided that the sailors believe it will work then it will be seen to, as weight is such a tiny factor in performance compared to skill.

I absolutely agree that skill always counts as the biggest single factor in sailing but the impact of weight is not tiny.  If you are outside the weight range of a particular class, you are banging your head against a brick wall which for the vast majority of us, skill alone won't break down (unless of course you are an Olympic superbeing). 

I used to sail Lasers and became very disillusioned knowing that the conditions would severely impact the results of the racing

• watching lighter people of similar skill to myself, pop onto the plane earlier and disappear in certain conditions whilst I was stuck firmly in displacement mode.  
• knowing that I would simply monster the same people upwind in a blow

The 700 equalisation simply widens the competitive weight range of the boat and makes the playing field so much flatter, to the benefit of the racing.  I have seen none of the weight based performance differences of the non equalised classes I've sailed and in my opinion, having experienced it, it does work very well.

In my head, certainly, but that doesn't make it less true.

Ian