R Speculation

Did you hear the reactions of the sailors as they came ashore?

All I heard were positive comments, apart from someone who had trouble righting and getting back in after capsizing. My son, the young chap standing on the centerboard in one of the photos however said that righting and reboarding was not a problem.

Most people were surprised at the power of the 5m rig, and there were some 75kg ish guys absolutely flying with it (the wind was gusting to about 30 mph). My son at about 55kg had a great time with the 5m rig, and was fully powered up at all times but he found the 7m a bit of a handful, though not impossible. To be fair, Jo Richards said that 60kg was probably the minimum that he would recommend for the 7.

One our experienced 600 sailors sailed the 7 and 9 and reported that the 7 was more twitchy upwind. Most people commented on how quickly the boat slows down when headed.

I thought that the sail logos all looked too similar, even quite close up. As someone who spends a lot of time on the committee boat I would like to see more distinctive logos to make it easy to identify what size rig is being used (unless of course they are all going to sail in the same fleet and use the same handicap).