Cirrus Icon Development

Thank you.

I think it looks great, would love to have a go in it on our river.  Its easily driven shape would go down a treat.

... another excuse to say - simply TRY Icon. 

We were with another journalist today (testing alongside the X1 Riverboat btw) and this time we got some decent breeze, in the sun and on a warm day .... I think he got the point !  We planed upwind and blasted down again - fast 'n' easy.

Capsize ?  Come and try yourself.  Icon is wide..ish ( but still narrower than a 400)  but has by design low volume in the deck area plus a very light, long, and essentially sealed mast.  It is a doddle compared with many older designs and  has little inclination to invert however sluggish the crew. 

 'Sealing' the mast is blindingly obvious frankly if you can make it work with the overall design .... we have them with the Blaze and it makes that boat much much easier to recover and it was very simple to apply to Icon.  It should not be underestimated that for a great many club crews this basic characteristic is highly desirable -  if every capsize has the potential to become a real drama it is not only 'slow' it tends to limit popularity.

I raced Tasars years ago but the heavy (and open) metal mast, while extremely effective when the right way up, flooded very readily and inversion was fairly standard if you lost it .... same thing with most boats that have masts with lots of openings for halyards and other lines and wires but it was an Icon specification item to 'seal' it and keep it very light.  Of course the 2-sail rig approach makes this relatively easy.   Our carbon rig with a luff return jib halyard and external mast fastenings confers many incidental advantages - but they were anticipated at the design stage.  

The other point about the Aardspars slimline stick that we are using in relation to capsizes.... if it were ever to fill with water the internal volume is very low.  less water = much easy righting again.

Mike L.

PS - I'm sure Peaky will provide more on subject soon ....   

PPS - Just had a call from one of the X1 people to say he has a couple of pics from earlier that might appear here in the next day or so ...  He had a quick blast in Icon as well and at one point I thought we might just be able to provide the photographic evidence on the above subject !

 
 

Originally posted by blaze720   has little inclination to invert however sluggish the crew.

I'd regard that as making the boat fundamentally dangerous to sail on the sea. You can sit on an inverted boat for hours and be found easily, but if you lose contact with a boat on its side then you are just a tiny pair of heads in the water with a boat a couple of miles downwind and your survival chances are not so good.

Mike as much as i would like to have a go in the Icon, i am not in the market for one at the moment.  As such it would be unfair for me to waste your time.  (Test drive Charlie were a nightmare when i was selling cars) I need to teach child number 1 to sail in the graduate before i am in the market for a new boat.