Devotti Single Hander

To go fast you need to go wide and with a single hand
hiker your going to need to keep the power down low.

If you went 6 foot wide (racked hull with tramps) and
had a jib with the mast a decent way back to allow more
area in the jib then you'll be onto a winner. The jib
would help with upwind speed and allow you take that
area out of the main and put it at a much lower level. A
stayed rig is the way forwards as well, with caps. This
would allow you to properly control the mast and tune it
to the sailor. You could then also go mast head kite
allowing you to get a much longer luff length and a
shorter foot which would make gybing easier and the kite
would have less drag. With that set up you could be
sailing at much hotter angles and working the apparent a
lot more. Make it 60 kilos all up and I
would buy one!

Of course this could all be b**locks due to just
rambling of the top of my head.

Edited by Ross

In keeping with the principle of thread hijacking there is also the Canadian Stealth singlehander with kite doing well on the other side of the Atlantic



 

Looks nice... what about it Grumph?


Edited by Norbert

GRF

Could not agree more ... customers are always right. 

But let us tempt fate for a moment and I'll risk driving you into the arms of another supplier.  For example you tell us the centreboard is too big.. (or was that too small ?), but you would be the first in more than a decade to say it and a few of them at least have actually sailed the boat.  So are we supposed to produce a 'special' now  ? 

Hell no ! is the standard reply - that total freedom to specify exactly what you want comes mostly with a different model - the development classes.  Owners can get exactly what they want within a very broad rules set.  But, and this is not a criticism, they do pay quite a hefty premium for that flexibility.   Dinghy classes are formula's, some with very tight rules and some with much looser ones.    

I personally like the Alto - difficult time to launch it of course but that aside it will be very interesting for many.  Could it have been 'finished' faster - almost certainly but to continually 'pan' the builder here is perhaps not the best way forward or to progress things ....  We all screw up occasionally, even more so with development and test equipment, that is why it is called 'development' but most do respond so much better with less public rants against them.  Development is about constructive feedback and full involvement and meaningful 2-way communication    I am led to believe you have the first development boat btw (?) ... should have come with a standard NDA maybe.   Standard 'hearts and minds' stuff as well as the only way to run boat development.... or any other.

Yup -  if I have not delivered you to the development classes or another maker by now and you really do want to try a FrankenBlaze concept (not our preferred name btw) we can deliver before Summer as the Blaze is a production boat.   We can do specials but they come with the standard disclaimer that they are 'development' rather than 'class' boats etc even with a small centreboard if you want to experiment.  We do really subscribe to the customers always right principle .... they just might be.  So if you want to give it a go just add 'spec and cheque'.

Mike L.

 

 

 

Originally posted by Guest#260 I have no idea on thir business model so could not comment but I see little wrong with the concept and 200,000 boats seems to back that up ...

And the majority of those buyers are quite happy to have a simply constructed, robust boat with a simple, easy to use rig. There are plenty of ligher boats around with more modern rigs, but they don't seem to have consigned the Laser to history.

Originally posted by Guest#260 The Laser seems to have lasted pretty well with limited change ...

Yes but how many more could they have sold if they'd sorted the rig and
built it lighter...

And would there have then been all the spurious wannabe's down the years.

And how many more successful dinghy shops might there have been if
they'd built in a commercial margin?

Edited by G.R.F.