MK 4 OSPREY

I was refering to the dark 'stealth sails' on lady in red. She is still your boat viola!

Is one of the numbers 1312, 1313, and 1315 the Hartleys boat, i also heard that one boat was shipped to Lagos and another to Belgium?

So have the folk who kicked up the s***fight calmed down?

We recieved our new boat on Saturday, woke up at 5.30 in the morning and were at the factory in Derby by 6 and packed up by 7 ready for the journey home which took till 10.30 when we arrived at shoreham in hte midst of a Fireball and Wayfarer open and commenced rigging. Dad had been to the factory a few times yet my first glimpse was when we took of the undercover. She looked absolutely beautiful - Hartley Laminates had done and exceptional job. She took some time to rig, especially the Twin pole self launcher system that Dad and mark Hartley created based on existing self-launcher systems (If you are interested a description shortly to be followed by pics are on the Osprey website- i don't believe there is any reason it wouldn't work on any other symmetrical kited boat).

We launched and when we settled down and started sailing she absolutely took off, even without getting on the wire (not particularly sensible in the harbour ). We got out to find perfect Osprey conditions of 4 gusting 5 in decent waves and then the fun really began - she planed on every point of sail, going like a train - accelerating and maxxing out at much greater speeds than 1259. These photos were captured by Warick Baker*  on a 3 sail reach shortly after getting out of the harbour:








(I didnt puke just a funny face). A
lthough we dont seem to be in these pictures (probably still fiddling with settings etc) we were grinning like monkeys for most of the blast and a fair while afterwards. unfortunately our blast was cut short by dad having to be home to go to some crappy middle aged persons gig in Petworth but it was still a brilliant day on the water.

Yes those are twin poles on an Osprey and if you look closely you can see the ball and socket joint where they go onto the mast ( no fiddling up there to expose my incompetence ).

I'd encourage anyone of the right weight to get one as they amazing fun and extremely well built .

**Warwick Baker takes pictures at the Open meetings at Shoreham and if you have attended any check you class websites or SSC's website as there may be some photos of you that you may want to buy. Thabks to him for the photos .

Try www.imageshack.us - it'll give you the html code to post a thumbnail of your pic. Then when you click on the thumbnail, it'll open up full size.

Nice looking boat - I had a great race with an Osprey at the filey regatta last year.