D-Zero

Hi Dan, I can imagine the boom becoming less of a problem, certainly as it gets windier. In very light winds any shift backwards to get round the mainsheet dipped the stern, hence why I was getting caught in the block trying to stay forward.

On the toestraps that sounds like a viable solution. I simply had the single strap on my shins, which seemed to work, unlike a Laser. Must be down to the superior ergonomics - I was very comfortable.

90kg was a bit of a guess. What I noticed was that with my weight the bow was immersed quite a lot, meaning a lot of the flare gets immersed as well. I would be sitting pretty much with my feet just behind the mainsheet tower, just before the straps start proper, to give a nice clean wake.

Anyway all of this does not take away the fact you have designed a very nice boat. I'm just have to accept that there aren't many dinghes that stretch to us larger folk.

Had a great weekend racing at draycote at the dash, really tough conditions and hard to compete with a low py, but really happy with how the boat performed.  Me being the limiting factor!  Really starting to fall back in love with sailing now.

Originally posted by porkyman Im considering the zero and the aero.They both look great to me, although I have sailed neither yet. One concern I have about the zero, is the `cassette rudder`. I know many classses have those (or fixed), but i sail in a lake with a few shallows, I would worry about hitting the shallows at speed, and ripping the transom fittings off. I know the rudder blade can be raised, but what about sailing in unfamiler water ? I assume the rudder on the aero rudder can `kick-up`? Any thoughts ?

Originally posted by kneewrecker The Aero rudder has an integrated 'breaker' doesn't it?  I thought Grumpf was pretty impressed with it.  - I can confirm that you can sail the Zero with 1/2 rudder down when launching and recovering really, really easily.  You only need to lock your S-Foils into Attack Position when you are racing.

Quite light yesterday and sailed well out with half rudder blade down and could probably have sailed like that all day!
I must admit I raced yesterday and when we had finished instead of going straight in I sailed up and down the lake just for the fun of it. I haven't done that for years and in my humble opinion that is the difference between the D-0 and anything else I've sailed for a long time

As we sat steaming in the clubhouse between races last Sunday we discussed alternatives to our Byte/Lightning/supernova fleet and the subject of D Zero came up. How does one attract a demonstrator to our club in deepest darkest Derbyshire?