Bloody Mary Sailjuice

Originally posted by craiggo Originally posted by Rupert Agree you should run what you enter. Why? .

Because it just favours industry pro jocks with a ready choice, hence Steve Cockerel, who you would have thought would have run with the L4k, aren't they tryring to promote that, what's he doing on a laser radial?

Edited by iGRF - 11 Jan 15 at 4:29pm

I would say that actions speak louder than words. 

Nice post Jim, I think that the problem with most (not all) of the SMOD asymmetric classes that you list is that inevitably there is a need to take cost out of the boat in order to achieve the tasty price point, that is essential to sell the volume required by what is a chicken and egg conundrum.  The easiest way to take cost out is to eschew any exotic materials, either in the hull or spars, to be strong enough this requires heavy bucket and brush technology.   Likewise SMODs strip out all those fancy controls that make a performance boat easier and more enjoyable to sail, as well as rationalising rig layouts and using less stable but cheaper fabrics.

Originally posted by iGRF I can't have all this assym bashing, the only reason fireballs merlins and 505's survive is because challengers get immediately over handicapped. The boys did well in their V3000, one windy year, stop that right away handicap their arses, similarly the Alto which could also have rocked there yesterday, oh no, lets have that chopped down to size as well. Look to your frikken system which leans the playing field in their direction, its got nothing to do with fact or boat competence

It could be more to do with people actually enjoying sailing the boats they do? The 4000, 5000 and Iso all sold in enough numbers and for long enough that a handicap based on nothing but numbers was there for the boat - nothing to do with what "they" set. The 4000 especially did very well in handicap events, given conditions where the assy spinnaker wasn't blown away by the versitility of the symmetric one. Yet the classes still died.

Don't get me wrong - I love sailing with an asymmetric spinnaker - all that standing up in the boat as a crew, trying to put the bloody pole (on too tight elastic) onto the mast that the symmetric kite has is just scary in any breeze - but the assy (in the kind of boats I sail - slow and good on a small lake) just doesn't do the job it needs to when racing. As a fast cruiser, great.

I'm not convinced that the Alto method is the answer, but I would like to see a "third way" for those of us who are too bloody short to reach the eye on the mast with ease on any boat bigger than a Mirror! Crewing a 505 with the poles and extra guys and all that a couple of years ago was pretty easy (apart from the massive power, but that is a different story), but getting it set up right so it worked was not so easy - must be a simpler way to use the concept for a new class where you aren't looking for the last second of speed.

FB's & 505's looking great