MK 4 OSPREY

Bumble, The plank is on a very old 1953 boat . At Netley open there were two plankers both of similar age. They are not competetive with the modern Hornets partly because they have a slightly different hull shape and on my boat I darent wind up the tension to high. Also the palnk is significantly heavier than a trap and fore and aft trim is very difficult.

I sail the planker for fun and it is a great talking point on the beach. It is also rather frail so we have graded up to see if we can keep up with the fleet and now we have no excuse and we cant blame the boat.
The old boat will come out for the classic and vintage rally in August and we may take her out to play at weekends off the beach. 

 

Originally posted by Guest#260 Sounds a bit like what would happen if you trapezed of a wing ... except you are not as mobile.

And you haven't got the leeward side of the wing hitting the water and slowing you down, or causing wav e drag and aerodynamic drag.

I was watching Simon Allen on his canoe at the weekend (Hoo Freezer).  A brilliant hiking technique, his bum was over the end of the plank and his feet were easily over half a metre from the gunwhale of his boat - giving him catamaran like righting forces - way more than could be achieved with a trapeze.  Have you seen those boats go on a close reach?

Off topic I know but Rogerd.... do you sail a plank? The nationals didn't seem to have any planks sailing (am I wrong?). It could be faster, right? What's it like compared to the trap?

29er397 wrote: I believe we will be having 2 of these new boats at kielder this season. They already kick our ar**s so with this new design we're going to have no chance! is the PY expected to change much? i think roughly 920 would give us a bit more of a fair chance , not that i am complaining, the new boats look very nice!

Im with Pierre on this one, what you should bear in mind is that the Opsrey Sailers at Keilder are very good - but do not tell them that. Their results would distort any handicapp

Nick J