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Originally posted by Chris 249 What's the situation with Finn and Europe rudders; they are more open aren't they? Are they cheaper to build or are they built to extremely tight tolerances mandated by foil shape and not a rulebook?

I understand the Europe foils are if anything worse. When you look at the profile of the 470 foil you can see its hardly a case of just running the sander up and down to polish it. But yes, Mr Wight could give a better answer.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why the 470s don't ditch all their interior layout rules and replace it with something that's properly engineered and lasts, but a completely undeducated guess would be that the investment required by small builders in small countries requiring a completey new set of deck mould tooling could be part of it.

And do you think that Olympic campaign 470 sailors would stop replacing their boats so often even if they did last better? While there's no doubt that some boats do clap out a lot faster than others I do wonder if part of it isn't that when people are desperate for any edge then even the slightest perception that the boat might be even fractionally less fast than it was when brand new might be enough to stimulate then wallet opening reflex. After all if the boats are identical and you just transfer all the settings over a new boat is a really easy decision - you're faster as soon as you slide the rags up the mast of your new SMOD.

If on the other hand you're going to commission a new design in a development class you've got to figure you're going to spend half a season off the pace hile you work it up and tune it, so if you buy a new development boat every 6 months you'll probably never be fast...

So I do wonder if the reason why most development boats seem to have such a long competitive lifespan is that there just isn't the incentive to change the boat regularly, so then you pay extra for a much longer lasting construction, and so it goes.. Most of the serious one design sailors at my Club have had three or four boats since I built my current Cherub, although to be fair, mainly due to rule changes, she's no longer a realistic outright Championship contender.

Thanks all.

I agree with all you said about strict ODs and competitive lifespan, Jim (although I've never gone into the question in depth with those who'd really know).

Actually when I interviewed Chris Nicho a while ago he was at the end of a period of testing that (he thought) indicated that a 49er was only lasting six months or so as a fully-competitive top-level boat - and Nicho is not a gear freak. But he also said that the competitive level in 505s and in the 18' skiff, even in Grand Prix days of pro sailors and lots of TV, was nothing like the competitive level of the Olympic circus -  which makes it hard to compare development classes and the major SMODs.

must be difficult hanging on at that speed

Or stopped a bit too quick