Solo Bloody Solo

Laser PY suggests it's faster than a Solo, if you can hold it off for several laps you're doing well.
The Solo doesn't point quite as high - unless you grind the nainsheet in. If you do, make sure you have boat speed first!

And wooden boats can be as fast as the frp ones - having held off a number of frp one's today.
Remember that the kicker needs to be released on reaches and runs.

No, I did have a look but forgot to come back, had a drubbing from my Laser pal after three laps of holding him off and it's a bit faster than a wooden solo I often race against so nothing wrong with it's boat speed, it's just not as quick as a Laser generally so quite a battle to hold them off if you do get in front.
It's a clean boat, I might keep it for a bit longer, there's something strangely compelling about it, despite all the gubbins. It kind of brings to a close my transformation from windsurfer into dinghy sailor, no denying it now...

[QUOTE=iGRF] Had no problem with them up wind or surprisingly on a dead run, but it was a reaching course and I had trouble with speed out of the turns one bugger even managed to go round the outside and still nail me, there seems to be a lot of boat 'under' the water with the subsequent 'football' effect. (If you'ever tried towing a round ball or buoy the more power it dives down) but the upside in the lulls, which sadly there were not enough of it was quite breezy, it does roll on when the Lasers slow down it's got good 'glide' potential, which would probably be a whole lot better once I've dumped all that lead over the side. ;-)
How much are they supposed to weigh? I should think over the years it can't have gotten lighter, I looked it up it was built by Speed sails in 2008 so it's over ten years old, you must be able to legitimately lose the lead as the boat ages.[/QUOTE

Its not a universal problem, but check the gel coat to make sure there us no separation and that you are not carrying water between the two layers.

You could think of a Solo mast as though it was free standing, basically pinned at the mast step and at the gate.  The shrouds (no spreaders) limit the bend to prevent the tube collapsing.

So according to that list this mast suits my weight?

The 14.1 measurement, what does that mean? 14.1, where is that explained to folk? and 9.8 Athwart? I assume it's 14.1 fore and aft, and the 9.8 is sideways, I wonder what the chances are that the sailmaker was given those figures and then even knew what they meant and what to do with them. I've certainly not seen any sign of it in carbon masts and luff curve matches in the dinghy sails I've seen to date.

Then I struggle with the fact that the mast is stayed, so is restricted, so it can only bend beyond the top in what we'd refer to as 'flex top' masts, then you have the fact the sail is fully battened and as such you wouldn't want too much flex other than at the head because the chord will get all out of kilter and you'll have all sorts of ghastly creasing.

Which is why the concept of 'constant curve' evolved so any chord degradation is uniform across the entire mast, again impossible in a mast such as these.

So back to my C sleeve, where is the 'sleeve', inside the mast? How far up does it go? Am i dealing with a flex top, I assume I must be. The mast must be stiffer in the lower area to resist the kicker forces.

I can't remember, are there spreaders on a Solo, to complicate things further? I don't recall seeing any, but if not why not, I seem to remember having them on the Solution, it's got an ally mast and they seem to think they're necessary..

Gets complicated all this doesn't it?

So you get to think as I do, it's 90% BS and best not to let it get in your head or you'll never sail confidently.