Cirrus Icon Development

Hi Russel,

The finalised Icon hull will be longer and wider than an NS hull, and be aimed at heavier crews than the typical NS team.  We also of course have less of those glorious sea breezes that you seem to enoy in Oz.  Consequently the sail area/righting moment ratio of the Icon is very typical of most dinghies here in Britain, whereas the NS is relatively underpowered.

One design hulls are not all about speed at the expense of everything else, unlike dev boat hulls.  Very fast, smooth and easy is better than very, very fast but tricky. Even then I am not convinced NS hull design has moved on dramatically in the last 5-10 years.  The Flight hull, which the prototype Icon is using, is a great allrounder that wins races at the highest level and is easy to sail whereas the Aero11a is outlawed, the 12 has not won anything, nor has the Moondance. The Tiger may have an edge in top end speed over some other designs, but looking at how amazingly flat it is in the bow I wonder at what price in terms of demands on crew skill and light airs performance? Certainly Landy was winning races in the NSW State champs just a year or two back in a hull identical to the Icon prototype hull. But at any rate, as I said, the final Icon is not an NS hull (although the prototype in the video is). 

I was keen for the Icon to have a rotating mast ansd this was tried and tested on the boat, but having sailed the NS and Icon I can categorically say that the Icon stick rig is easier to trim, easier to tack, lighter (fewer battens) and faster (due to the extra area). If the Icon was a development class a rotating mast would probably still be the fastest way to go, but its not, so the ease of the fixed mast and semi-battened sail makes sense. 

The NS is a great boat, and you probably think it is sacrillage to move away from the NS rig, but the development of the Icon is based on trying everything and keeping an open mind on what works best.  From the sails I've had so far, I'm convinced it will be something special.

Mike, the last video certainly appeared to show the prototype sailing well, but how did it go in the races in the clip? How was it compared to the other classes racing that day?

My views will always be clouded by the fact that I sail an NS.....a class I am very proud of, as it has now cloned two spinoff classes. When the Tasar was developed in the 70s, way before I was sailing an NS, it caused some ripples amongst the NS sailors at the time, a lot of which was 'political' as Frank B was still sailing NSs, but was promoting the Tasar, and many saw it as being disloyal to the NS class at the time. At least you won't have that 'problem' in the UK, as there is no NS class as such there.

By the way I  sail my NS on a piddly little lake here in Sydney (Chipping Norton Lake), and we often have very light breezes, despite what Peaky says, we don't always have those strong seabreezes out here.

In OZ, we use the Victorian Yachting Council (VYC) yardsticks, which has the NS on a 108 vs the Laser (full rig) on 112. At our club a lot of us sail our NSs single handed with the main only, and we use a yardstick of 110 for them then.

Lets hope the Icon gets better 'press' than the 59er, a class that appears to be dead in the water, why the Bethwaites never promoted it like the other 9ers is a mystery to me.

Without wanting to go too much off thread here I think in the Northern Hemisphere there was too much internal conflict with Ovingtons producing the B14 as well. How do you similtaneously market 2 classes which are both good weight carriers?