R Speculation

Originally posted by kneewrecker  And who cares how fast it goes- a Moth or Windsurfer would piss all over it (and the D-Zero too before any partisan accusations are launched), as would a ride-on lawn mower and a mobility scooter....

Yes, you're right. It's all pointing in the direction of the OK. Established international competition, Nick Craig as your benchmark. Why wait for a new class to establish itself?

I don't understand anyone who denies that boats are bought and sold according to PY these days, witness the growth of the Phantom, Solo and Streaker classes, the Phantom may be a nice boat but you can hardly level the term 'nice' to either of the other two.

Whereas both of these boats being discussed here are nice, very nice, the choice between either, pretty much purely aesthetic, right up until the moment in my case they both accepted 1010 as a feasible yardstick for the likely application and target market. OK so that now plays right into the marketing hands of RS given their capability to provide that holy grail of 'class' racing that y'all still seem so obsessed about, quite why, since all it does is commit results to body proportion, I really don't get.

If class racing were my goal, then my option is Streaker down the Lake and Laser at Hythe, since we now have a dozen Lasers at Hythe and there are a few Streakers so if my Laser sailing colleague and I both bought Streakers we'd have an embryonic fleet at the lake.

But I quite like the challenge of sailing to a boats handicap, provided of course that the handicap is fair, reasonable and accurate, but it changing all the time is not something that is positive. Bas is coming to our club to explain it all, extraordinarily patient and kind chap that he is and hopefully we'll have an enjoyable evening chat, banter, beers, pie chips and mushy peas and my opinion of the system may alter, I doubt it, but I"m going to give it a good go. But that still doesn't solve the issue of these self appointed rulers of the competition universe deliberately spiking new boats for whatever the reason.

I'm sure I'm not the only person now delaying a decision, and it won't just be the Zero, the Aero also is now suffering the same problem, so in the meanwhile I shall go on perfecting ways of making my particular sows ear into as silken a purse as possible.

Originally posted by iGRF I don't understand anyone who denies that boats are bought and sold according to PY these days, witness the growth of the Phantom, Solo and Streaker classes, the Phantom may be a nice boat but you can hardly level the term 'nice' to either of the other two.

People who have sailed both sometimes describe the Aero as more skittish, or unable to sail in the groove.  Whereas the Zero really is a refined, more ergonomic Laser - some might therefore consider it 'dull'.  To another person those Aero attributes could quite easily be described as lively and sprightly- certainly never boring, if somewhat frustrating if you want to 'lock in' to an upwind leg.   I'd suggest sailing it and deciding for yourself, if the aesthetic or the social aspect doesn't provide a clear personal favourite between the two like it did for me and a couple of other guys here. 

Edited by kneewrecker - 25 Sep 14 at 11:09am

Originally posted by kneewrecker Originally posted by Blue One The thing is, even if I love it( which I think i will) I would still wait to buy one until the class is established and the py has settled down. Am old and boring! not at all- old and boring would be getting a Solo iirc your advice at the shoreline  Regarding the class, I'd have no hesitation in this respect.  It's a proper owner-operated class association which should bring you some comfort.  Secondly with regards depreciation issues, sure it's early days, but I think the quality of the build should keep the value in the class for a long, long time.   My only outside observation would be they are missing a trick with not making it open sailmakers and widening the promotional platform at industry level... but hey, that's not my call and by no means is that suggesting that the North Sail is in some way inferior or lacking.  In fact the one I used was as sweet as my HD Solo Sail.. which is the best sail I've ver used on any watercraft and sourced locally, therefore will trump a SMOD one from North or Hyde every time.   As for the PY... you would buy a boat based on it's PY?  Seriously....?  Looks like Grumpf is gaining influence amongst you 'real sailing men'.

Seeing as this is the aero thread it's worth pointing out that the aero is an epoxy boat with plenty of carbon so should have great Longevity. Also the RS class association is very good at class support. The North sail on the Zero is very good, you hoist it and it sets. The North Dacron sail on the RS is different. Hoist and it isn't set. You need plenty of Kicker, but then it works very well. Different approach, but similar result. A sailmaker may make an improvement on either for a given weight and type of sailor, but that's not one design in its purest form. I prefer the one sail for all approach otherwise you end up with a quiver of sails and always thinking you might be losing out to someone with a different sail. Keep it simple - one sail for all.