Devotti Single Hander

Opps sorry.

Speed reading during a break at work...

basically a magnum 8 moth with an assymetric?

I think you are wrong ...

At the 1999 (I think) RS200 Nationals held off Weymouth beach (the far end with steep shingle) we came back in one day and a nasty shore break had developed whilst we were on the water. Many boats got damaged coming in; the main failure was to the moulding holding the pintles; this was caused by the rudders being levered up against the surf. The LDC team I believe repaired over 20 boats over night so no-one lost any racing; hats of to them for that.

The other case I have seen of wide spread transom/rudder damage was at the Fireball worlds in Durban in 1994. We had to launch through full on surf, just down the beach they were surfing!!

The boats that had fixed rudders had "no" problems just sailed out through the breakers then put their rudders on; some of those with lifting blades broke blades and transoms either as a result of the boat getting battered backwards and the rudder slamming to full lock and causing damage or through too heavy handed steering snapping the blades. We had a lifting blade and left it in the boat and sailed out rudderless.

A dagger rudder is a lot less liable to breaking the blade and the transom and is easier to steer with when not fully lowered; plus it's a firmer hold when sailing.

So, the Fireball adding kite & spinnaker wasn't a step change?

What about the N12 going double bottomed?

Plenty examples of a class making a step change in it's rules ...

Getafix

Blaze Weight ..... yup there are some heavier early boats out there but plenty of light ones ... as in many other SMOD classes if you bother to weight them (we have !).   Older hulls can put on a few kg but much of this can be removed by improving hull ventilation. We did weight all entrants at one of the bigger meetings (and their hulls) in 2008 and we think it is something a few other SMOD classes might like to consider.

I've selected individual hulls from other SMOD manufacturers as a punter in the past and I know plenty of others who have done the same. Cirrus decided this was not an acceptable way forward ourselves as it is a complete pain to 'manage' and it always leaves the suspician that YOU might get 'a clunker'.  It is so much easier if every buyer is certain that they have an identical chance as far as new equipment goes that is. 

The Blaze is weighted with centreboard in and all lines and fittings and the CA minimum is 72kg - nothing special.  We quickly switched to Epoxy to allow Rondar to easily build below weight and then bond in correctors up to this minimum.  The minor variations you get with epoxy and the greater variation you can get with polyester in hull weight are simply removed if you build/supply this way.

This is with wings .... 2.5m width does come at some weight cost but it does give the Blaze its 'go' whenever there is a decent breeze!   Take them off, leave out the centreboard and corrector weights and we could claim a daftly low weight  !  Incidentally the 100 will have an identical hull BUT the minimum weight can be lower and still allow us to net out any build variations.  

All makers can claim lighter weights but get the everyday production SMOD on the scales whenever you get a chance and check a few claims out for yourself. 

Cheers - Blaze720