The RS400 Rumours thread.

A few 400's with smaller female crews have been using 2:1 jibsheets successfully. We use autoratchets on the jibsheets as well as on the kite sheets, but we have normal 1:1.

The plus point of the RS400 jib is that in general, the crew can get away with being a lot less subtle with the jib than boats with more adjustable sheeting.

I suspect simply making the jib smaller would ruin the way the boat goes upwind playing the main in strong stuff, but I can't back that up with any science at this point, except that being developed from a Merlin background, the jib will have got bigger than a Merlin one for good reasons.

How do the jib:main area ratios on other boats compare?

Originally posted by timeintheboat MB the RS300 is the only RS mainstream boat that has gone through a rig (sail) change AFAIK (can you still buy bothe sails for the 300). I've had least three different Laser sails in my time - hence my evolved OD remark. The RS200 and RS400 are now as was - unless some one is going to tell me otherwise. Also (not you) isn't the "gap" between the RS400 and B14 the 59er?

I've heard a lot about 59er's but never actually seen one. Do they really exist ? :-)

Are there any on the South Coast?

It takes a lot more than a subtle improvement for a new class to take off. Many of us will work around the flaws of the boat in exchange for one-design racing.

Originally posted by timeintheboat MB the RS300 is the only RS mainstream boat that has gone through a rig (sail) change AFAIK (can you still buy bothe sails for the 300). I've had least three different Laser sails in my time - hence my evolved OD remark. The RS200 and RS400 are now as was - unless some one is going to tell me otherwise.Also (not you) isn't the "gap" between the RS400 and B14 the 59er?

Well the RS200 changed its kite set-up from 1-2 patch
making it easier to launch and recover, so a performance
advantage there. The new Epoxy foils on all RS's (i
think) are proven to be quicker. The new 300 sail is
exactly the same as the old one, just different more accessible fabrics. It is proven that there is no
performance advantage (unlike the 200 kite patch upgrade)
So i think the 300 has developed less then the rest of
the RS range, its just the sail looks like a more obvious
development, even if it isn't.

So what are these rumours? because they most certainly are not putting
trapezes on the boat!

The jib loads are not high on the boat. i know a couple of 7-8 stone girls
that sail the boat and they cope fine! As RS400atC said, there are ways of
getting around sheet loads if they are found to be a pain.
The biggest load is the mainsheet load, which in anything less than 10
knots is BLOODY is incredibly high!

I dont think there are many improvements that can be made to the 400 in
my opinion. The amount of people that come away from 400 sailing
saying that its one of the best boats to sail is testament to a great design.
It is an old design, but apart from the mylar mainsail, the boat does not
look dated, its a good looking boat. I would like to see a window in the
mainsail so that the leech of the jib at spreader height is visible.

I think the class is getting stronger again and this years nationals is
looking to be quite a showdown.
Last years nationals at mounts bay had some of the best amateur racing
in the country. The top ten was very competitive.
They have just had an event on the IOW with some very competitive
racing with five different race winners for the six races.
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGsOBPrqTRg

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by Jamesd I think the class is getting stronger again It is not, however, selling in healthy numbers, and appears to be fairly consistently on the wane. A relaunch before all momentum is lost might be an interesting alternative to seeing it follow ISOs and 4 Tonners into oblivion. It seems to have at least partially come off for the Tasar and Byte. This started because of a rumour about a replacement plastic mast, which was something I hadn't heard before, but I made the point that *were* the mast to be changed then at least the mainsail should be changed to match: no point in spending 1500 quid on a plastic mast if it just replicates the characteristics of the tin one. If you are doing that then you may as well look at the rig throughly, and yes, doing something about those mainsheet loads was pretty high on my list.

If the new mast made my boat uncompetitive, I'd be annoyed.

Until there were a fair number of upgraded boats to race against, I would not be keen to spend £1500 to go  slightly faster, well actually £1550 for a mast, £600 ? for a main, that's 50% of the value of my boat. I would see no point in beating the fleet in my club by having better gear. I would have the choice of level racing in my club, or on the circuit, whereas at the moment we have both.

LDC's problem is they don't sell many new boats.

The CA's problem is that people don't join the circuit etc with the 700 odd existing boats.