GRF's rig school

My ex- girlfriend looked like Miss Piggy!  Hanging!

Grumpf, my point was about your general remarks, like the following....

"Why dinghy sails are what can we say without being too rude.... lets say they are in transition. ..... I've also noticed that sail makers and mast makers dont seem to be shall we say acting enitrely in concert with each other. No windsurf sail maker
would undertake a new sail without having the bend curve of the mast
described well before he started. Whereas you guys seem to alternate.
And it takes ages, look at the RS100, look at Mike Lyons and his Halo
project it's taking aeons, why? because more often than not neither one
nor the other seem to know what is trying to be achieved in advance.......lots of
not entirely efficient rigs. imvho. ...... where the sail is developed taking windsurf
knowledge on board the rig does tend to look a whole lot better than
where it isn't."

That stuff above, where you are (wrongly) claiming that boat sailors don't try to match mast and sail curve from the start, is where I was contradicting you.

One point that seems to be significant is there doesn't seem to be much evidence that boards have increased their course-racing speed any more than boats have. When the original Windsurfer came out, is was about as quick as a Moth. Now the fastest boards around a course are probably a tad quicker over 8 knots than a Moth, and miles slower in light stuff.  Sure, boards are good in high winds but that is intrinsic in the concept and the fact that many are designed only for high winds, unlike dinghies. And the boards can be pretty user-unfriendly, as we all know from the number of highly-stressed FW masts that snap. So are boats really behind in development?

The basic point is that boat and board designers and sailors deserve respect, not contempt.


Edited by Chris 249

Lots of what GRF saying is accurate to windsurfers. What we must remember is that on the whole a dinghy sail and mast has to operate in a large window. We cannot go back ashore and change the rig and sail because the conditions have changed. Thus compromises are made in both the sail and mast. Those compromises often show up as GRF implies as inefficiences.

GRF dinghy sailors do understand mast bend...the examples here made of the Finns....but we forget about the top laser sailors going thru 100s of top sections to find the one they 'like'

Well without wishing to rub to much salt in the wound, but this set up is
coming along well...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that an unstayed rig, loaded and not
distorted, so maybe it is possible..

But then they are involving more of their 'target market' in the design
process, not talking down to us from some Ivory Tower in Southern
Europe whilst virtual bullsh*tting us locally using our own forum, then,
trying to character assassinate anyone who would point out the errors of
their ways...

Now I have no especial love for LDC, but they are at least listening, and
they are at least considering beach launching light folk.

Edited by G.R.F.

Well I've no idea what they're finally going to settle with, they had two boats
the time I went, one had a forestay the other didn't.

Difficult to tell from the picture, but I can't see any obvious stays there..

Maybe it's the angle..

Where did the spreaders go?

I literally only noticed it a short time ago, all the other shots seem to have
boats with spreaders and shrouds.. But this shot?


Edited by G.R.F.