RS400 proposed changes

Originally posted by timg Turning it into a straight pole would ruin the deep soaking ability of the 400 and reduce the RTC appeal.

I dunno, the damn thing seems to me to make just enough difference that you have to use it, but not actually enough to change the polars significantly against other classes. It seems to me the reason the RS400 soaks so deep is that the hull is very good indeed at displacement/transitional speeds and rather mediocre in a planing regime, so there is little advantage to sailing the hot angles you would in boats that are better planing and not so good displacement.

Having said that pragmatically there's no way to change it: it would be major surgery on the boat to get a fixed pole to retract properly. In Nick's place I would only consider it for a major revamp (RS401??) with new moulds etc...

Originally posted by Mikey 14778 Not that I care, as I'm never going to own one, but how do you square the notion of One-Design racing with a big change to the cut of the main and the jib. Are you going to declare all the old cut sails illegal? - I don't think so. So now you'll have half the fleet with old sails and half with new ones, and the former lot will feel that the latter lot have an advantage. Then later on some bright spark will discover that the old cut of jib is better in light airs or summat, so they'll start hoarding the old jibs for use in just those conditions. Hmmm, windy today, I'll use the new style jib and the old style main. All the other changes might be justifiable in a one-design class as a performance advantage is not necessarily obtained with a carbon boom etc, but the sails thing just blows it out of  the water. The well heeled will bend over and buy the new sails, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the budget sailors just throw in the towel.

Nah, even if you're only a little bit competitive you buy new sails now and then and after a season there will be second-hand one available anyway. It's far more expensive/trouble to change class than buy some second-hand sails.

Nah, even if you're only a little bit competitive you buy new sails now and then and after a season there will be second-hand one available anyway. It's far more expensive/trouble to change class than buy some second-hand sails.   In my GP I bought a complete set of sails (mix and match sailmakers) which make my sails well below the average age of sails in the fleet for less then £250.

Edited by Mikey 14778 - 13 Oct 10 at 12:51pm

Originally posted by Mikey 14778 But the Fireball was never a one design class, was it?

Yes, and still is as far as I'm aware.

Originally posted by turnturtle .... It has it's pros and cons; but ultimately the class would make the best decision for itself and would no doubt use the Y&Y reaction for a gauge on 'outside opinion' only.

That's not really the case, it may have been prompted by a few owners, but it's the manufacturers who have gone away and created the prototype, without discussing with the wider membership of the CA until now.