RS300 vs Blaze

It planes from about 3 knots(boatspeed). If you sit near the back it looks like a more traditional boat on the plane, but that digs the transom in and slows it down.

In some ways it's almost frustrating because dramatic pictures of the 300 with spray flying everywhere are very rare because the hull shape is so effecient.

Spray = wasted energy and the 300 produces little spray. It just goes like the clappers. So far we've clocked 16 knots downwind and perhaps more impressively for a hiking singlehander, 8 knots upwind.

Raced against a Blaze for the first time the other week and I was astounded how wide it was when I passed it (pursuit race before anyone starts!). Not sailed one yet but it looked like a mini ISO hull shape. Looked pretty forgiving and could be fun in a blow.

Having sailed on the same water at the same time, I think the two are a completely different kettle o'fish, to coin a phrase. By the time the 300 is fully powered up and becoming a bit of a handful to all but the best in the fleet, the Blaze seems to be just waking up. To be honest, there's no comparison - very very different boats. No doubt many Blaze sailors would consider the 300 twitchy, unstable  and overly prone to nosediving. With the shoe on the other foot, I have no doubt I'd find the Blaze heavy and unresponsive.

Both have their merits and neither should spend any time denegrating the other. They're just too different to compare.

Originally posted by getafix there is a lot of sail below the mast track and no really satisfactory way of securing it to make it useful area upwind - of course downwind it's a bit more useful but can't help thinking most Blazers would accept a long bolt rope on new sails, if the mast chosen by the class supported it.

I take a short piece of shockcord around the mast - just under the lowers - and through the eyelet for the downhaul. That stops it drifting away from the mast quite so much. Also experimenting with a sail slide attached to the same eyelet. These aren't great solutions, but better than nowt I reckon.

Col

Originally posted by getafix The Blaze should probably accept a Carbon mast (with the same sail)

That's one thing there really is no point in doing. The advantage of a carbon (or part carbon part glass like the byte) spar is that it can have different and much superior bend characteristics, giving better gust response and all sorts of goodies.

But this only works if you have a different sail, certainly different luff round, and best to have different panel curvature, leech profile the lot - just the sort of thing the Byte class did.

If you aren't going to change the sail there's no point in changing the mast for plastic until such time (if we ever get there) that a plastic one with exactly the same bend characteristics is cheaper than a tin one.

Originally posted by jeffers a carbon rig requires much more rig tension

Why?

Getafix

The various Open and Nationals results this year show that well prepared Mk1's Blazes with a recent sail are still very potent when racing with 'X's.  Everybody would prefer a newer boat of course but the fact is there is very little difference in racing performance.  The X has a slightly thicker centreboard (25mm v 21mm) as you say for reasons that now escape me and this might give a bit more lift upwind but its straightline performance is possibly a fraction slower all other things being equal.  ie extra chord can be fine upwind in some conditions but just adds to drag when powered up. We cannot adjust foil chord of course although most understanding the same issue flatten their sails when it blows - not just for contol but also for speed.  Really really fast sailing machines have small, low chord, foils and small flat sails for high wind maximum performance. (Re the Blaze - I'm told that the later X centreboards do fit in Mk1 hulls for those who might want to know)

As for carbon masts - well if they were issued 'free' all would want one - they don't seem any faster in most conditions on the Blaze but they are easier to live with in gusty conditions.  However they are very far from free still and we do want to continue to offer a lot of performance for a reasonable cost - carbon is great but maybe not quite great enough to justify just yet.  However the CA does review all options periodically.

A new Blaze builder is expected to be announced by early September at the latest. 

Mike '720'