New Posts New Posts RSS Feed: Ramblings on Dinghy Development
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Register Register  Login Login

Ramblings on Dinghy Development
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 10>
Author
  Share Topic Share Topic  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
pondmonkey View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more
Avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 11
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Ramblings on Dinghy Development
    Posted: 21 Feb 13 at 1:46pm
Sure no worries, PM me whenever...

Jimbo
Back to Top
Kev M View Drop Down
Far too distracted from work
Far too distracted from work


Joined: 05 Dec 11
Location: Landlocked
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 346 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Kev M Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Feb 13 at 1:42pm
 
Originally posted by pondmonkey

  

 i use it on windsurf masts and booms, it has rubberised clamps which are pretty easy going.... If you want to borrow it and the Go Pro for a couple of weeks or so, PM me your address... no sweat if I don't clog up You Tube and Facebook with my crappy video footage for a bit.

Not sure how I'd missed this, sorry James.  I'll definitely take you up on that offer once I've got a boat to strap a camera to.  Should hopefully all be sorted in the next couple of weeks.  No need to lend me the camera though, just the mount.

Cheers,

Kev
Successfully confusing ambition with ability since 1980.
Back to Top
oldarn View Drop Down
Far too distracted from work
Far too distracted from work
Avatar

Joined: 10 Apr 07
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 440 		Post Options Post Options   Quote oldarn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Feb 13 at 12:01pm
Originally posted by RS400atC


There are several Altoists on here.
In my view, the fact that it is neither a mainstream asy or a conventional kite means it will never settle happily into PY racing with either.
It's the old problem, if you are not looking for high  level fleet sailing, the logic behind buying a new boat can be pretty tenuous. I'm sure fleet racing Altos would be interesting, but I can't see that happening aound here anytime soon.

RS400atC, I recall you passing this view some months back but I decided then not to comment. In fact one of the main parameters of the AltO design was to make it give performance in all wind strengths and on any course type such that it could be club sailed against other club classes. It was also designed to be sailed competitively with average crews. Thus the asymmetric for easier spinnaker sailing, but in addition and importantly, such that it performed over wide off-wind angles, and therefore the swinging pole.

Surely it is preferable that a class can sail to its PY in any wind and on any course and in my opinion always settles happily into PY racing.  Surely this is in contrast to large asymmetric classes and foiling moths, for example, which usually don't sail in light or heavy winds and are thus not maximising their time on the water when club sailing and so not enjoying the challenge of trying to beat others in any wind and on any course.
thefastexcitingrunningasymmetric
Back to Top
G.R.F. View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 10 Aug 08
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4028 		Post Options Post Options   Quote G.R.F. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 6:32pm
I did, a lot of money got spent on that integrated carbon spinnaker chute and pole swivel, but the kite that came with the V2 (an RS700 kite wasn't quite as long a chord with a short high clew, didn't function nearly as well as the Alto kite, I should have swapped them over and tried the Alto kite on the V2 whilst I was still interested in taking that route.

The Alto is great because it's a two man boat. the V2 came about to try and overcome the physical limitations that hamper my single handed dinghy sailing aspirations (short, light, too charismatic Wink).

The V3 if it ever gets off my sketch pad will address different issues and hopefully be lighter, more multi water functional, be as at home on my little lake as on the sea and be actually possible for one man to right if ever it did fall over, the principle failing of the V2.
https://www.ease-distribution.com/
Back to Top
rb_stretch View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 23 Aug 10
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 742 		Post Options Post Options   Quote rb_stretch Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 6:21pm
Little bit of clarification as I don't know if I caught it in the original thread.
If the Alto was so close to what looks like an ideal boat for you, what extra were you trying to acheive with the V2? Why didn't you steal some of the Alto ideas that work?
Back to Top
G.R.F. View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 10 Aug 08
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4028 		Post Options Post Options   Quote G.R.F. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 4:09pm
Had a thought, maybe I should get some tape drive sails for it, do they make them in 8 track?
https://www.ease-distribution.com/
Back to Top
G.R.F. View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 10 Aug 08
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4028 		Post Options Post Options   Quote G.R.F. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 4:03pm
I should have known as soon as I decided to have a bit of a rest something would drag me back.. My feelings on the Alto are well documented and it's one boat, that given a half decent crew we're damn good at, it's getting a bit knackered now, but my sails are what I bought it with, the fact others may have different sails means of course that they are wrong since I got mine first Wink

I did get a later sail which was a bit smaller, built by monkeys with stiff none tapered battens that I hated and it had the wrong sail no on it, 107, I noticed my number that had somehow got switched with a demo boat turns up now and again, or did, haven't seen it lately. The current main is somewhere between the two I have I believe.

As for the VMG, no doubt if you get it heated up it's fastest route downwind is to bang 120 degree ish corners, if, in doing so as often happens you underestimate and fall short, as you close on the mark rather than having to hit the other corner, it is great to be able to swivel the pole and dead run the ten yards or so you may be high, thereby overhauling a competing boat that goes for the next corner and gybe. I know this to be true because we've done it on a few occasions racing similar speed assyms like 4000's, RS500's and the v3K which is much faster offwind if it's got it's tail up, yet we can on occasion nail it.

I'm sure in the fullness of time more of you will come to realise what I've been banging on about, boats like the Alto give you the best of both worlds, you can bang corners or soak and you get to learn as we did in windsurfing when to do which.

It doesn't surprise me that it works on rivers and estuaries and there is a bunch of them over at Wilsonian, which is as nice a club as ever I've had the pleasure to visit, one day I'll get over to sail there, even the breadknife liked it.

Mine is, as I said, getting a bit long in the tooth now and needs another overhaul and some new sails, if my crew recovers (he's got Crones disease, very debilitating) then it'll be game on, there is no greater pleasure than sailing the Alto with my board shorts round my ankles mooning the Bandits in the Merlin as we go by, humans were meant to do this, it is written. (Well it is now Wink).


Edited by G.R.F. - 14 Feb 13 at 4:04pm
https://www.ease-distribution.com/
Back to Top
Do Different View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 26 Jan 12
Location: North
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1312 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Do Different Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 10:25pm
"that's a far better and more sensible approach than everyone going off and buying a load of random classes and spending their evenings in the bar afterwards discussing the pros and cons of the PY system)"
Better? Sensible? 
All animals have a place in the natural world, I guess the question could be do you want be a sheep or a goat? Always in the flock or happy to do your own thing and coming together when it suits. PY, that's a thorny one, but not too much for a goat to chew on briefly for an amusing snack but never choke on.  
Back to Top
pondmonkey View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more
Avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 11
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2202 		Post Options Post Options   Quote pondmonkey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 3:25pm
Originally posted by gordon1277



Free the Kent 1.

+1
Back to Top
gordon1277 View Drop Down
Really should get out more
Really should get out more


Joined: 24 Mar 10
Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 665 		Post Options Post Options   Quote gordon1277 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 3:17pm
doesn't grf have non standard sails on his Alto or would that be of topic and a whole other can of worms.

Free the Kent 1.
Gordon
Lossc
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  123 10>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down

Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.665y
Copyright ©2001-2010 Web Wiz
Change your personal settings, or read our privacy policy