Video of the week

The hull of the Punk certainly seems to slip through the water very cleanly, at least in displacement mode and provided you keep the gunwales out of the water (you can almost see the drag kick in when they dip, heeling to windward on the run).

Nice low freeboard too - my sort of boat! (I realise that contributes to the gunwale-dipping, but hey...)

I wonder if the aspect ratio of the mainsail isn't a bit high though (even allowing for a vertically-stretched picture), especially with the very limited amount of righting moment. When you look at how quick the Radial is with a very low-aspect sail (considering all else that's stacked against it), it makes you wonder

A french RS800 team training in Carnac last Week.

French Sailors Social Network


Edited by olivierl

Originally posted by Medway Maniac Originally posted by Daniel Holman That vid has some funny high distortion going on. The punk mast goes 5.36m above deck as compared to the radial at 5.20 and the standard at 5.80, so its pretty low AR, esp since it has over 40% more area than the radial, and 14% more than the standard. Since the foot is lower by about 15cm the c of e is about the same height as the radial and lower than the standard. Interesting figures - the Radial rig always looks so low. But with 40% more area at the same c.of e. height, you'd need a seriously depowerable sail to avoid the need for more lard. Not knocking the Punk, it's just a sad fact of physics that lightweights are on a sticky wicket if they want both 'fast' and 'easy' in a singlehander, as the RS100 once again demonstrates with its min. crew weight of 70kg. Of course, 'fast' is not as important as 'nice to sail', but there are times, such as beating up-tide or sailing a long course, when absolute speed is rather handy.

The radial is a bit shorter on the luff and longer on the foot (about 20cm?) than the punk, hence the really low squat look.

The punk sail is not quite there yet but still pretty nice, but more importantly you've got a much stiffer but lighter mast up there, so you can have a much less grunty / luff curve driven sail, and the lightness of the mast means that less force is being put back into the boat when the mast moves about in the chop, meaning the boat doesn't require such aggressive technique to keep it moving. I had one of the radial olympic squad girls in it a while ago and her comments were that "It just feels so easy!"

The radial laminate sail has been a revelation to me coming from sh*tty old dacron - it looks full to start in the light but it just doesn't stretch on the bias so the sail doesn't bag out as the breeze gets up, its rock solid. Plus the cunningham and outhaul adjustments are loads more effective. I'm confident we'll hit the ball out of the park with the next one.

Its inevitable that with something like this there will be a competitive weight range, but there are a load of features to broaden that out. Plus there are bigger / smaller rigs in the pipeline.

At the tiger I got about 10 people a go in the punk, ranging from the smallest girl in the lone feva, who I'd put at 50kg, right up to Sten, who is not a small lad. All had a good time and said it felt great. Although Sten was prob being polite, as he looked a little big in it for the 3kts during his ride on the saturday. Most of the test pilots went out on the breezier sunday.

She isn't slow upwind. Not quiiite as quick as the merlins that the PRO decided to handicap me with, but not slow. Comfy and light and responsive too.

Apologies, video thread hijack over.

Alex you should've come down and gone for a spin in her.
I guess you guys have a good handle on the relative performance with the regulars in the big 400 fleet.
I've done a fair bit of racing now against Phants and other stuff now.
I'd say I'm a little slower all round unless its purely WW/LW. The Phant is a longer boat, wider on deck, same wl beam, and stacks more sail. I reckon I can live with them upwind due to a few little design efficiencies, and ninja hiking in the breeze. Dead downwind I feel ok too, being able to get the boom out to 90, less aft rake than the Phant, but any reaching and they are all over me like knockers in a wind tunnel. I had to luff them all over the lake at the tiger.
I still believe that 1050 is right for the punk for the "average sailor" in a variety of conditions as assumed by the PY system. It "suffers" in the same way as the phantom or any other light s/h hiker by being a PY overachiever in the light, and underachiever in the breeze against a general handicap fleet.
I'd be keen to get a few people who aren't me to do some handicap races in her to populate this theory a bit.
That or build a huge class somehow.
And I'd like to do some handicap racing in Phantoms/Solos/Streakers to put some lines in sand. Perhaps I could arrange a swap sometime..

Will edit some Menai vid I got so this doesn't continue to be a hijack, sorry people.

">Wish I was there...