The rise of the OK

On single sail boats you need the boom over the quarter (as opposed to centring the boom as you would on a two sail boat, which you obviously know). A traveller of some kind, allows you to set the boom angle independent of sheet/leech tension (to a point). In the Blaze we never use kicker upwind, the transom bridle allows the boom to be over the quarter and the sheet to control leech tension/twist, this wouldn't work on an OK with the boom needing to be on the deck upwind so the traveller simply allows the sail to be sheeted down without pulling it too far towards the centreline (as you said, a pre-selected sheeting angle). When I sailed an OK everybody had a centre mainsheet if the class allowed it these days the skiff style off the boom or Laser style hybrid systems are in favour but some of the old classes (Enterprise) have finally allowed centre mainsheets so a measure of their effectiveness might be gleaned from knowing what percentage of the top Ent helms use a centre mainsheet compared to aft mainsheet.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 02 Dec 19 at 11:30pm

"thanks, hadn't spotted the traveller, so can Solo's be sailed in the same way?"

Basically, yes. The traveller doesn't need to be full width of the thwart on the Solo, but is adjustable (mine has control line each side, some have one continuous line that controls distance from centre).

As there is still the final block mounts on the plate case, it's not quite a simple system - sheet in hard and you tend to centre the boom.

Coli

Originally posted by iGRF   Oh and has it a carbon mast?

There’s no doubt the Solo and OK do both pretty serve the same market (adult singlehander racing), one locally in the UK and one more widely spread around the world. I did have a Solo at the same time as my first OK and the idea was to get better fleet racing up here in Scotland. Unfortunately I didn’t get on with the Solo. It seemed really cramped at the back with the way the centreboard case extends far back in the boat especially with the kicker on. I also hated that coffee table centreboard capping and ended up getting badly bruised shins every time I sailed it. It also felt quite ’dead’ compared to the OK. Not sure if it was the fully battened main or whatever but I found and still find the OK really engaging to sail. There’s lots of subtleties to it and while I seem to go a tad better  every year it’s really hard to say what I’m doing better. In short I just find the OK fits me better, the sailing style suits me better and it puts a smile on my face every time I sail it which is something the Solo never did for me. Plus I’ve always loved sailing at events with people from other counties (and not just Brits on tour to somewhere nice like Garda).

And to be clear that's not to knock the Solo in any way – it just didn’t suit me and there’s room for both. If anybody’s interested the class does have a demo boat which is currently at Stokes Bay but can move around the country if anybody wants to borrow it.