RS aero

I think there are clubs where it gets taken very seriously - which isn't the same as pot hunting at all - where swapping boats in a series wouldn't be the done thing.

Our experience was that it only takes 1 or 2 people to "play" the system at a club which is normally pretty laid back about such things for boat swapping to actually put off other people taking part, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.

Of course, the people swapping boats probably don't see it in the pot hunting light at all - they are simply sailing the boat that will give them the most fun on the day. And to be fair, I've not seen much reduction in the amount of changes of boat since we changed the rules back, so that may well be the primary driver - the pot winning being a bonus that isn't there any more, by that route.

Capsize recover technique- if you're bigger than the kid in the vid, climb over the back apparently:

Not quite true. if you get hold of the mainsheet even big lads can get over the side. Over 90kg and the stern is the easiest, but then again stern is the easiest in the Supernova. We did this test specifically and in some ways its easier than plenty of existing boats because its easier to move into a position to the wind. There is a good description of pretty straightforward steps to accompany the videos on the Facebook page :- 

Not a lot of wind in that second vid, yet his 60kg took an age to pull it upright, and the board is far too high for me to want to pull myself up onto it.

This bloke has written a blog on capsizing the Aero

http://propercourse.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/rs-aero-capsize-recovery.html

As I was warned by one of the instructors, it was not easy for a heavy person like me to get in over the side of the boat. This pre-production boat did not have grab rails so the only thing to grab was the hiking strap and every time I tried to pull my weight into the boat using that the boat capsized again on top of me. I tried and failed three times. Please note that I weigh 190lbs but have never had this problem before with Lasers or Sunfish. As I was swimming around the boat to the daggerboard one time I momentarily lost contact with the boat and it started being blown downwind away from me. The boat was on it side and the boom was high in the air so the sail was helping to push it downwind too. I think the only thing that saved me was that the masthead float was acting like a sea anchor and by swimming hard I managed to catch the float and then work my way down the mast to the boat itself. Without that float I don't think I would ever have been able to catch the boat, and this was only in lightish winds. Goodness knows how fast the boat would sail away on its own in 20 knots. I guess this is one of the consequences of the boat being so light.

So, he capsized  the boat to windward trying to get in over the side.    Now, with the hull in the air ( and the sail) and the mast lying on the water to windward, the boat easily blows away from you if you let go of it.   In this position, even without a mast head float ( which he had) it is very unlikely that the mast will sink since the leverage of the hull on it's side will prevent that happening.

In my opinion, this boat needs to be made to turtle; and turtle really fast.   Or you need to wear a surf board leach.