Lost Mojo..

Well on a windsurfer, you don't have any of these problems of sails not tacking, or flow not attaching quickly enough and you have a better feel for what's going on because you're holding the sail right there in your hands, so you feel everything.

I'm getting better at sensing things on the dinghy, but I'm still doing it largely through my butt. (Unless it's really light then i can't help myself but stand up and hold the boom directly, always works better for me.) So, a soft sail gives me better response and indication that it's about to stall and the tacking and gybing stuff, so all in all for me full batten OK on a board, but soft is better on boat.

Originally posted by Kev M What did you think of the 300? Was it your first go in one?

Yes and in all probability my last would you like a list? I barely got back alive.

tbh no sooner than I left the dock I remembered what happened last time I borrowed a boat, so was more concerned with getting back to its owner without breaking it.

I found slippy bits in it didn't agree with the shoes I was wearing, the sides so steep i could barely see over the top, never mind climbing the North Face, the wiggle stick so long I worried that it might punch a hole in the sail and a crash gybe, near death role, convinced me to quit whilst it was still the right way up.



Edited by iGRF - 19 Jan 14 at 10:05pm

Had an early one ages ago, briefly   Gybe it all day no bother, couldn't tack it for toffee in waves though 

Exactly that Rupert, that boat is the dinghy equivalent of a Div 2 Sailboard, which for those who don't know them were round bottom boards that were very very difficult to control off wind even by experts once the wind exceeded 4-5. But upwind were the nicest experience you could find in a race board, short of planing.

Quite honestly as impressed as I was with it's performance and it is fast, I have neither the time, nor the inclination to put into what it would take to become proficient enough just to climb up the side, never mind know what to do with all that wiggle stick and tbh if ever I got V3 built it would knock it into a cocked hat and be easy to sail anyway, so what would be the point?


(I'm guessing you have to sail them barefoot and with copious amounts of wax?)

Edited by iGRF - 20 Jan 14 at 8:51am

I'm glad boats like the 300 exist, and I'm sure I'm a good enough sailor to be able to sail it, if I spent long enough swimming, but I have to admit that I find I enjoy sailing less tippy boats more. I suppose I subscribe to the school of thinking which says you should be able to jump in a boat as a beginner and then stick with the same boat right through - the Laser is the most obvious example of this - beginner to Olympics. Given how many boats I own/have owned, I guess this is odd thinking for me, though the Firefly has been a constant from the age of 9.

I suppose all GRF is trying to invent is a boat which you can learn in which has the potential to go as fast as something like a Musto Skiff once you are able. For some reason the Cat concept, which appears, for open water at least, to do this perfectly, doesn't fit. Jo Richards must have had similar thoughts for the Vortex (maybe with very early/smaller beginners using the Funboat?!) but there appear to be a whole raft of design constraints that have defeated the brightest of dinghy designing minds, let alone our very own grumpy old man.