Racing Classes Review

Never thought I would necessarily agree with Jim !  But he is right on this one.

I'll stick my neck out now and tell you that the Blaze/Halo model would/does make a reasonable spinnaker platform - but not a great one.  We tried it remember .... and concluded that primarily we wanted to plane upwind very easily, and that comes with a tall powerful long luff main and abundant leverage provided by proper wide wings or trapeze.  But this rig and approach means you still have that very powerful main offwind.  Then you add a large enough spinnaker to do the asymetric thing fully and guess what ... it becomes a little less easy, especialy in a reasonable wind and on typical club courses.  Windward/leeward is fine.  But that model is not for everybody or practical for every club.   You actually need more than the 2 hands standard issue most are blessed with and/or an even more leverage.  And that is around typical can type courses with a wing width of 2.48m !    

The bottom line is that a lot of people will go for a spinnaker singlehander in the near future of course, but we suspect they will still be in a minority in 3 years time, in 5 years time and beyond 10 years time.  When we do it, if the segment really is proven as 'the' way forward beyond initial enthusiasm, we will produce something really quite exceptional in terms of spec and performance as that boat has still to be done by anyone and the current boats may well develop/prove  the potential as pioneers.  But if the long term likely sustainable figures ldo look all 'Norwegian Blue'  or more enthusiasm than realism we will stick to our 'wait and see'  conservative guns ... we don't intent to stay a niche builder and therefore are selecting the next couple of projects with very great care.  

The Halo derivative is a natural incremental development of the Blaze, the spinnaker option is not, and like Devoti or RS we would develop a specific configuration including a new and specific hull if we go that way in the future.

In the meantime, if only for comparitive purposes, come along and simply see what you can do with Halo.  I suspect many will quickly understand why we went this way once on the water.   

Jim had his ++ a while back, Halo is different in many ways of course but the thinking is similar.   

Mike L.

          

Originally posted by Merlinboy I think you are massively missing the point Jim, the difference is an old blaze could be converted meaning its cheaper then buying a new boat, so yeas a viable option for those wanting something that ticks the boxes

The last thing any class association should be doing, especially for a numerically small class, is reducing the number of boats racing in class. If you take a small fleet and divide it in half you have two tiny fleets, no racing and very soon no class in either specification.

FWIW the reason for rebuilding the IC wasn't that I didn't want a new boat, but the very pragmatic one that I couldn't get a new boat to the the shape I wanted without having even longer off the water and I wanted to go sailing.

the Blaze hull needs something to keep the nose up downhill it constantly submarines

B***ocks you really are showing a lack of boat craft and know-how now !  The reality is that if you do the wrong thing consistantly with any reasonable powerful boat you will end up wet.  You should have come along to even just one meeting and you would have learnt so much - not all of it boat specific by the sound of it.  If you are heading down the mine regularly  you are most definately doing something very wrong.  It is nothing to do with helm weight either ....  

We wish you luck in the future in whatever you end up with but please don't bugger around with the Blaze just sell it and enjoy your new boat (please !!)  There is a real shortage of good used Blazes and you will possibly get most of your money back.  And Halo would be as useful to you as a Phantom by the sounds of it - you are not the target or design weight by a country mile !  Leave Halo to the grown-ups.

Oh and I was intending to be so reasonable - never mind it has to be said.

Mike L.

 



 

         

Originally posted by blaze720 you are not the target or design weight by a country mile !  Leave Halo to the grown-ups.

He seems to think that all boats should be aimed at him, not me. Given that frankly there's more interesting boats that suit midgets like himself than "larger gentlemen" such as myself (especially in the double hander market), he's basically crazy.

Originally posted by G.R.F. What he said above And, because I'd be just as bored going downhill in a Halo as I am in a Blaze, I very much regret not bunging the vareo conversion on it, but I got involved in the Autumn series which I came very close to winning (would have been the first time)then the season ran out. By next year I shall in all probability unless Steve gets well, be in the RS100 and the Blaze folk will have lost another potentially enthusiastic follower. However, I may not like what they end up with contrary to what JC thinks imo the Blaze hull needs something to keep the nose up downhill it constantly submarines, there's certainly enough volume, the rocker would respond well and the mast would take it.

GRF - I always get gtreat enteratinment fronm your posts - whether they appear valid or not but sometime I just think :

So another boat is wrong - thats the MPS, the RS 500, the Alto (or parts of it) and now the Blaze !.

I personally find it difficult to really criticise aboat until I'm so good at sailing it that it is limiting me (as opposed to me limiting it - which is pretty much every boat I've owned).

Until you can sail any boat to its potential its an easy cop out to moan about it's limitations and design flaws.

Virtually every boat I've owned has had 'flaws' when I've bought them:

RS 600 - too many to mention

Contender - low boom, poor in light stuff etc

Tasar - Dodgy boom spanner etc

Laser - Sheet gets caught on transom etc

Funnily enough all of these issues have gone when I've put the effort i to learn to sail them properly. This had normally meant spending lots of time with people who already know the class.

Why not just buy a boat, learn to sail it properly (at a good circuit level) and get on enjoying it. It may then be that suddenly many of these 'design flaws' disappear when you get to sail the boat well, especially if you attend some opens and seek advice from those that can sail them already ?.

I know its a controversial route (buy a boat, practise with others, learn to sail it properly) but its been used by a few people successfully in the past !