two-sail dinghies

As for SMOD 2 sailed boats, the Firefly is one, of course! Topper tried to bring out the Topaz Duo a few years ago, but that was just horrible. Maybe the reason is that 2 sailed boats tend not to be about absolute speed, but about close quarters sailing, and the advances in boat design recently with asymmetics have been all about speed in a breeze. Certainly, on a small lake in the light stuff it is difficult to beat an Albacore or Firefly on the water, let alone on handicap. And the only ones who can sometimes are Ents and 12's. On the sea in a bit of breeze, it is a different story, of course, which is why there are 49ers out there!

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by gordon In the Star the process is somewhat different: the best crew weight is the highest weight allowed by the class rules, and everybody tries to be at that weight. If the class rules allowed more weight all crews would increase their weight, and the boat would go faster. I believe that's true for most leadmines.

Yes it is, otherwise the only people sailing keelboats competively would be very large and invariably male. Gordon seems to be arguing that the Star is unusual in having a weight limit; that is not the case.

 

Edited by Stefan Lloyd

I sailed a two sail dinghy once.  It felt fast and responsive upwind.  It also presented a tactical option on the first donwind leg, either pretnd in the bar later that it was a bit tight, or go back tail between legs and attach the kite...

I agree. I will be away for a few days but wheni get back I will post my thoughts on weight limits and the decreasing size of sailors.

To get back to the 2-sail dinghies. There seems to be a lot of people sailing them, a big demand for tactical sailing (downwind legs become nautical chess-games when a gybe incurs no speed penalty). So why aren't the SMOD builders interested?

Gordon

Originally posted by gordon In the Star the process is somewhat different: the best crew weight is the highest weight allowed by the class rules, and everybody tries to be at that weight. If the class rules allowed more weight all crews would increase their weight, and the boat would go faster.

I believe that's true for most leadmines.