Edition
Boats for sale
| Laser 140101 Tynemouth |
 |
| Laser 28 - Excellent example of this great design Hamble le rice |
 |
| Rossiter Pintail Mortagne sur Gironde, near Bordeaux |
 |
List classes of boat for sale |
Ramblings on Dinghy Development |
Post Reply 
|
Page <1 78910> |
| Author |
 Share Topic Printable Version Delicious Digg Facebook Furl Google MySpace Newsvine reddit StumbleUpon Translate Twitter Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks Topic Search  Topic Options
|
|
pondmonkey 
Really should get out more 
Joined: 12 Aug 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2202 |
 Post Options
 Quote Reply
 Topic: Ramblings on Dinghy DevelopmentPosted: 13 Feb 13 at 9:29am |
|
I think the majority of Alto sales have been to a specific club on the Medway, so it would seem that they are drawn to it for fleet racing, as per RS400atC's point- albeit at a local level rather than national circuit. (For this I would clappy hand icon them, they've selected a great boat for their location and invested together for their own mutual benefit... just like the D-One guys in Lymington and the RS100s in Parkstone; that's a far better and more sensible approach than everyone going off and buying a load of random classes and spending their evenings in the bar afterwards discussing the pros and cons of the PY system)
|
||
 |
||
|
Andymac
Really should get out more
Joined: 04 Apr 07 Location: Derbyshire Online Status: Offline Posts: 852 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 1:15pm |
|
Stop teasing iGRF, you know he's on a sponsored silence.
|
||
|
||
|
pondmonkey
Really should get out more
Joined: 12 Aug 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2202 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 1:23pm |
|
thus doing the world of good for the Alto class
 |
||
|
||
|
gordon1277
Really should get out more
Joined: 24 Mar 10 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 665 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 3:17pm |
|
|
doesn't grf have non standard sails on his Alto or would that be of topic and a whole other can of worms.
Free the Kent 1. |
||
|
Gordon
Lossc |
||
|
||
|
pondmonkey
Really should get out more
Joined: 12 Aug 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2202 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 3:25pm |
|
+1
|
||
|
||
|
Do Different
Really should get out more
Joined: 26 Jan 12 Location: North Online Status: Offline Posts: 1312 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 13 Feb 13 at 10:25pm |
|
|
"that's a far better and more sensible approach than everyone going off and buying a load of random classes and spending their evenings in the bar afterwards discussing the pros and cons of the PY system)"
Better? Sensible? All animals have a place in the natural world, I guess the question could be do you want be a sheep or a goat? Always in the flock or happy to do your own thing and coming together when it suits. PY, that's a thorny one, but not too much for a goat to chew on briefly for an amusing snack but never choke on.
|
||
|
||
|
G.R.F.
Really should get out more
Joined: 10 Aug 08 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 4028 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 4:03pm |
|
|
I should have known as soon as I decided to have a bit of a rest something would drag me back.. My feelings on the Alto are well documented and it's one boat, that given a half decent crew we're damn good at, it's getting a bit knackered now, but my sails are what I bought it with, the fact others may have different sails means of course that they are wrong since I got mine first
 I did get a later sail which was a bit smaller, built by monkeys with stiff none tapered battens that I hated and it had the wrong sail no on it, 107, I noticed my number that had somehow got switched with a demo boat turns up now and again, or did, haven't seen it lately. The current main is somewhere between the two I have I believe. As for the VMG, no doubt if you get it heated up it's fastest route downwind is to bang 120 degree ish corners, if, in doing so as often happens you underestimate and fall short, as you close on the mark rather than having to hit the other corner, it is great to be able to swivel the pole and dead run the ten yards or so you may be high, thereby overhauling a competing boat that goes for the next corner and gybe. I know this to be true because we've done it on a few occasions racing similar speed assyms like 4000's, RS500's and the v3K which is much faster offwind if it's got it's tail up, yet we can on occasion nail it. I'm sure in the fullness of time more of you will come to realise what I've been banging on about, boats like the Alto give you the best of both worlds, you can bang corners or soak and you get to learn as we did in windsurfing when to do which. It doesn't surprise me that it works on rivers and estuaries and there is a bunch of them over at Wilsonian, which is as nice a club as ever I've had the pleasure to visit, one day I'll get over to sail there, even the breadknife liked it. Mine is, as I said, getting a bit long in the tooth now and needs another overhaul and some new sails, if my crew recovers (he's got Crones disease, very debilitating) then it'll be game on, there is no greater pleasure than sailing the Alto with my board shorts round my ankles mooning the Bandits in the Merlin as we go by, humans were meant to do this, it is written. (Well it is now
).Edited by G.R.F. - 14 Feb 13 at 4:04pm |
||
|
||
|
G.R.F.
Really should get out more
Joined: 10 Aug 08 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 4028 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 4:09pm |
|
|
Had a thought, maybe I should get some tape drive sails for it, do they make them in 8 track?
|
||
|
||
|
rb_stretch
Really should get out more
Joined: 23 Aug 10 Online Status: Offline Posts: 742 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 6:21pm |
|
|
Little bit of clarification as I don't know if I caught it in the original thread.
If the Alto was so close to what looks like an ideal boat for you, what extra were you trying to acheive with the V2? Why didn't you steal some of the Alto ideas that work?
|
||
|
||
|
G.R.F.
Really should get out more
Joined: 10 Aug 08 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 4028 |
Post Options
Quote Reply
Posted: 14 Feb 13 at 6:32pm |
|
|
I did, a lot of money got spent on that integrated carbon spinnaker chute and pole swivel, but the kite that came with the V2 (an RS700 kite wasn't quite as long a chord with a short high clew, didn't function nearly as well as the Alto kite, I should have swapped them over and tried the Alto kite on the V2 whilst I was still interested in taking that route.
The Alto is great because it's a two man boat. the V2 came about to try and overcome the physical limitations that hamper my single handed dinghy sailing aspirations (short, light, too charismatic ).The V3 if it ever gets off my sketch pad will address different issues and hopefully be lighter, more multi water functional, be as at home on my little lake as on the sea and be actually possible for one man to right if ever it did fall over, the principle failing of the V2.
|
||
|
||
|
Post Reply
|
Page <1 78910> |
| Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |
Bulletin Board Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 9.665y
Copyright ©2001-2010 Web Wiz
Change your personal settings, or read our privacy policy
Copyright ©2001-2010 Web Wiz
Change your personal settings, or read our privacy policy