Muppets in Irons.

I find the trick with the 8.1 is to be very precise with your tacking especially if you are a little on the light side and don't sheet in until you know you can hold the boat flat. With the rig being so much taller than the radial and the standard there is a lot more 'leverage' up top so pulling it flat with the same potential righting moment gets much harder much quicker.

I also find that grinding on the cunningham helps as getting stuck in irons in the 8,1 is usually because you are overpowered. It may help to ease the kicker a little before you tack too.

Aside from that I find the 8.1 a dream in an F3. I am overpowered in a F4 and anything more than that I tend to stick the standard sail on and go and play with the lightweights.

As you weren't tacking, sounds like you were headed. Something else that happens all the time on the pond, have spent far too much time with the boat on top of me sitting in the water waiting for the reverse shift (or the more likely windward capsize). It's why the technique of easing out and not taking the full lift/gust is good .. when you are headed you can sheet in more.

I am 5' 9" and have been 15 stones (95 kgs), or just less, for the past twenty five years.  I have had my Phantom for eight years. I am an average club sailor and get hammered at open meetings as I just don't have the knowledge, skills and ability to do well.  I have found that the Phantom sailors at open meetings, which I have attended, vary greatly in weight from around 13 stones to over 18 stones. It seems that the 'good' sailors can do well at most weights in that range.  The Phantom is a great boat and has the flexibility to adjust the rig, or choose the sails, according to the sailor's height, weight and ability, in the prevailing conditions.  

I have sailed in a lot of very strong winds at my club, over the years, and unless it is blowing a hooligan, I can usually survive. When I say 'survive', I can usually get around the race course but probably with a poor result. The boat is a 'handful', for me, once it gets over F3 - F4 but I still love the boat. I just enjoy the sailing and the racing.  As a late starter into sailing (mid thirties), and now, at my age, I know that I am unlikely to ever get any better.  I get my satisfaction from the racing and knowing that I have done my best.  I also sail at a great place in a beautiful area, along with a lot of very good sailors.

The Phantom, like a Laser, is not the boat for everybody as some people like kites and trapezes and say that they get bored with simple una-rigged boats, particularly downwind.  

I have been the only Phantom at my club for the past eight years except for a short period when a young 'giant' had one but hardly ever sailed at the club.  He has now sold it and sails elsewhere as he is away at university. As 90% of racing at my club is handicap racing I do find that I have no other boats to compete with, on the water, unless there are some RS 200's racing or a Finn (we only have one of those too).  We have a decent Laser fleet but they get their own separate start.

Ian  (Yorkshire Dales S.C.)

Ian