RS Aero - a new bandit?

thanks Rubpert - sounds good

so i get boom height is a compromise between performance and comfort# which side of the balance does the aero come out on?

Originally posted by hobbiteater how much headroom in these things, cant be doing with ducking

There is no cabin, so you should be fine...

If you mean the boom, it is a dinghy - you can't walk across.

There I was making what I thought was an obvious observation on length and it seems to have generated quite some debate. FWIW I'm with Jim that length really starts benefitting when wave resistance starts increasing. Don't know exactly what point that would be, though.

Certainly if you look at big keel boats, length has always been such an important factor. Modern lightweight flyers only really fly off-the-wind when they are planing. Every other point of sail and they struggle to overcome the length issue.

There are just so many variables Rupert, for instance all else being equal the longer boat has a sharper bow so cuts through waves better, all the rest of it. Extra length changes everything... We learned some years back, for instance, that in Cherub design wetted area is far less significant than it is in I14 design, which is why hull shapes that work for one don't usually work so well for the other.

My not-very-well informed guess is that I suppose length starts kicking in as soon as wavemaking is significant, which is going to be, I suppose, when you're about half way to theoretical max displacement speed, maybe around 3 or 4 knots? From there its going to get more dominant. Precious few sailboats get to plane so fast that they are not towing big waves around.


Edited by JimC - 10 Jul 14 at 12:58pm