New ladies skiff

I'd say that the dreadnought is a good thing in a box rule class - it's basically paring away volume, weight and windage out of the bow whilst maintaining the waterline length.
Don't think it has to complicate build.
I think that reserve buoyancy is a massively misunderstood quantity in monohull dinghies.

It could be said that having such a feature on what is intended to be a one design class isnt necessary.
However I'd argue that being progressive and thinking about little improvements is good - if we all so negative then we'd have our one design racing American style in lightnings and thistles.

Having 10deg of sweep on your stem isn't going to win you the 14 worlds. Being great at 14 sailing, and having a great foil and rig package is.

Originally posted by Menace I actually meant the fashion over justification statement over the dreadnought bow, simply from the fact that if you don't need it, why have it when it complicates the build process and reduces the profit margins. In the same instance, if you had the boat without the different bow, it would probably fall behind the 49er FX and RS900 as another also ran boat and because it looks different, people may feel it's different. If you look at the 14s, it's still the boats with the more conventional bows that are doing the damage at the worlds, POW etc and I wouldn't have been losing any sleep over the fact that my 14 didn't have a dreadnought bow. Would have if it was an F18 though.   I understand the misunderstanding (Is that English?), however, as en ex boatbuilder, I can not see that this hull, would be any more expensive to build than others of a similar type. Jon I fully support the female skiff concept, and would have liked to go one further and go for a mixed skiff too, which in my mind you would have the 49er for the males, 49er FX for the females and then give the mixed teams the choice of which rig to go off, like in the 18s.

Originally posted by oldarn Originally posted by Menace Seems more like a fashion statement than something well justified. Ah but, it will help Volvo and RIB sales in these difficult times, oh and justify an ever increasing army of RYA instructors to justify ever increasing RYA fees. and further reduce parental participation and support in local club sailing!

I see your point, but feel you maybe too sceptical about the RYA. After all, it is ISAF, and the IOC that are driving this ladies skiff...

Looks a good boat to me, let's see where it goes..

Jon

Haha that must be it

Well first thing is that it is still early in the prototype stages, so whatever I think will probably change once the boats finished. I sailed the boat in Lyme bay with between 14-5 knots with another 49er helm (145kg together) and a girl (125kg together).

 

First off I thought it looked great, very different to any of the 9ers in fact I thought it looked a lot like a wider, longer, lower freeboard I14 and would go as far as saying that it feels a lot more like a 14 than a 49er to sail. Not that it is a bad thing by any means.

 

In speed terms it was ever so slightly quicker than the 29er XX upwind and quite a bit quicker downwind, but again the XX has had a lot of development compared to the aura on MK1 everything. With a bit of rig, sails and foil development it will get a good improvement in speed and end up some where in between the 29er XX and the 49er FX (little rig 49er). 

 

The boat never got close to pitchpoling, even when we tried trapezing off the front of the racks in 14 knots and big waves. Personally I would like it to be a bit harder to get downwind, no point an olympic skiff being easy to get downwind, cue GRF ramble...

 

Upwind it never felt like it was pinging along like the 49er feels, but the rudder balance was very good for a prototype. It did feel odd with the bow going through the larger waves in normal trim, after moving backwards meant that the bow was in the sky and we were not maximizing the waterline length.

 

Boathandling it was difficult, being a 49er sailor I am use to wings and really do not see the cons of the wings ever outweighing the pros in an Olympic skiff with 30 minute races. I do think that with a bit more time in the boat it will get a lot better but will it ever tack as well as a 49er?

 

All in all it was good, way better than the XX but personally I think that the 49er FX is the best of the bunch or a 15ft version made about 20kg lighter!

 

Remember this is a very biased short review, if I had never sailed a 49er this would be top dollar.