NS14 - Are they Good?

Well, at the risk of opening the PY debate (again) the Tasar has virtually the same handicap as the Merlin Rocket and there's not much between a Fireball and a Merlin.  The NS is a foot shorter than the Tasar and has much smaller sails, but is more highly developed so is (I think) a little faster overall.  Now, if you were to add a swing rig to it, the jib would act a little like a kite, so would have improved offwind speed.  Hence I think you could get sub 1000.

If you want to expereince NS14 style sailing with a good learning curve and no messing about with traps then the easiest way in the UK is with the tasar

old boats (some kevlar foam sandwich, others glass foam under 64kg) are still competitive- as I say on the other thread.

It is a simple boat to get in and sail but hard to master, hence allowing you and the er wife or like to develop skills and learn to plane upwind without the need for learning trapezing.

Also the NS14s and the tasar mostly go on top of a large car.

comparing tasar to cherub speed...
At the shared nationals in 1985 ish at HISC, the tasars started 5 mins ahead, and in every race, the leading cherub finished in front of the leading tasar.

Loco is a (slightly modified?) Phill Morrison 'Big Issue' design

Plans are probibly available through the designer for a small fee

Originally posted by JimC Whilst (no doubt to the wrath of its owner) I never regarded the recent N12 shaped Cherub as having the legs of modern boats in the Cherub line of development in outright speed terms it was by no means outclassed, and you certainly couldn't call it a pond boat.

Not the owner but the co pilot:

Straight line speed is always a very subjective thing, but from anecdotal
reports from those on the beach Loco has been termed as "the fastest
thing out there." She also came second at last years Nationals beating the
almost unbeatable Andy Paterson two times. And yes it was a light wind
Nationals as they have been in recent years. Which is one of the reasons
Andy's boats have done so well. He also suffers from the dreaded "it's not
that fast in a straight line" comment but has been the Nationals champ
for 5 years running. But the thing is that it is never the perfect conditions
for the ultimate speed shape, it is always constantly changing conditions
and you need hull shapes that cope with that environment. Like Mike said
the issue with a Cherub is not it's capability to achieve speed it is the
ability to attain that speed on a regular basis. If Loco is slower in a
straight line ( which I doubt ) it is only marginal. But it is certainly not
slower around the course. So I think you are right - she's no pond boat! I
think that supports what you are saying? ;-)