Dinghy popularity

I think that is the first cut prototype jib. The cut has changed since. The icon jib zips up the forestay, catamaran style. Rig tension is via a lever on the forestay. Jib halyard tension is effectively Cunningham.

It has become part of the charm and attraction of the what should I call it, pastime perhaps better than sport, of bimbling in the boat park, hours of my time probably even more than forum time and that's saying something.

I know it's pointless, from my days at the top of my game when I wouldn't even waste time on an adjustable outhaul or downhaul system and quietly chuckled at anyone who thought that settings and adjustments would help them to victory, but now it is part and parcel of the activity, hell I've even spent time when it's proper windsurf windy fiddling with some nonesense I couldn't quite get right.

It's the same gene that puts men in their sheds, but I agree it is probably a tad self defeating and certainly not the province of the newcomer, I only do it because my arrogance dictates that I know better than any of you anyway coming from that superior sailing breed as I do..

Originally posted by iGRF Nah I can't resist... Having said that, it really doesn't matter in the overall sense of this thread which is how or what would make dinghying more popular and there is no doubt to my mind that boats like this would if they were more common.

Er actually I thought it was over sheeted, the clew too high, the leading edge sagging and would really benefit by a bit more overlap, nothing to do with windsurfing.

Windsurfing did march ahead a bit in the eighties and nineties, but I'm prepared to accept not much has gone on in sailboard development in recent years and in some areas, some folk have caught up, I still reckon I've got a faster sail that would make those stick insects go a bit faster but that's just semantics.

But as so often is the case, 'they' get stuff nearly right but not quite and having gone through the mill of trying to get something built I now fully understand why things are the way they are because of the whole disjointed nature of no single entity doing the whole thing and them inevitably being a clusterf**k of all mannner of input.

Yeah, cos overlap is so out of fashion!