R Speculation

Originally posted by Chris 249 FWIW I don't really believe that it's a fair test.... if one had two sailors of identical ability the one who spent the extra cash to have a Radial rig lying around would have an advantage.

Vindicated at last. I always felt that people who spent more cash and bought new boats while I was stuck with my old tub were cheating!

But most of the talk has been about series. There are plenty of one-off races at clubs where there will be no question of 'changing' rigs - you'll have one for the one-race event. If you're off to the Bloody Mary and it's F.1-2 is 55kg you going to stick your usual '5' on when you could use a '9'? I don't think so.

The results of all these one-off races where lightweights use a big rig and vice versa to suit the conditions, as well as the clubs which permit switching in a series, will drive the PYs down. Fair or not, like it or not. If you don't switch, you will suffer, fact.

So if you enter as a full laser  to every race, but it's blowing 20 + knots and your boat and you have a smaller sail in the car! what is the difference to reefing a vision! wayfarer, 600 etc?

Edited by SimonW99 - 26 Sep 14 at 9:24am

Nothing to stop you using a Radial sail on windy days, but why count it towards your series score? We are constantly told on here that no-one about series position, so just enjoy the windy day as a one off race.

There is no such thing as 'rig switching'. It is class switching. To claim otherwise is disingenuous.

You may want to change rig/class to improve your enjoyment in varying conditions, but I *perceive* it as wanting to change to increase your chances of winning. And to quote the wise-beyond-her-years Cheryl (formerly) Cole "that much ambition is ugly".

RS know that launching a new class is difficult. Launching three new classes at once would be near impossible, especially ones that overlap. So, from a marketing perspective it makes sense to push them/it as one design, three rigs. And don't highlight the fact they are different by making them visibly indistinguishable. When it comes to class racing they will race as three separate classes but when it comes to mixed fleet racing I suspect confusion will reign and folk will abuse the system. I do feel this is disrespectful to club racing though. We wonder why club racing numbers dwindle?

I hate to bring it back to the same old argument, but if the handicap system were more defined by the boat performance quotient than the averages of pond life, it wouldn't be a problem, the handicap would take care of it, particularly if the crew weight range were defined as part of it and there were strict guide lines appropriately used.