Feeling Rusty...

Mayb you should just burn the rules and do what makes sense and works best 

My day went reasonably well, it slowly came back to me,..

but it does seem like the 420 has some rules designed to make life especially difficult for the the crew.

Originally posted by winging it Originally posted by Skiffybob and of course, don't forget the weight in the bow of a chute with a wet kite in it. Very true, I have the chute from the Marauder in my shed.  It weighs a lot on its own, never mind full of wet kite.  and Jim is right about the job of putting it in.  I may actually just go for bags.

Quite so. I had bags rather than a chute in my last Lark (a few years ago now), decision taken following a particularly wet nationals when the waves wouldn't stop coming through the chute upwind. Bags are actually easier I find with a bit of practice. Certainly it makes for a more stable drop in a breeze as the helm can concentrate on positioning the boat for the leeward rounding instead of trying to drop the kite while steering with the tiller between his knees.

Oh yes, and somethimes the kite is too big to fit into a chute

It was a Wayfarer as it happens but it doesn't really matter what class it was, it was just strange that I hadn't happened to sail a boat with that config for such a very long time. Comes of mainly sailing high performance boats I guess.

Originally posted by Jon711 Why do not all classes allow chutes, it just makes the whole system so much easier and stress free?

Well there are lots of possible reasons that classes might think justify a restriction,

• the cost and hassle of building boats with chutes through a fordeck and bowtank - must be worth quite a lump on the cost of a new boat


• Spinnaker life


• Kite just too big to go through a chute


• faster handling


• one design - all boats the same

And anyway its just boring if every class has the same kit!
Having once made a through deck and bulkhead kite chute I vowed *never* to do it again. It was a ******* job!


Edited by JimC