Aero 7

Originally posted by Old bloke I think the problem with the Aero 9 handicap is not that it is wrong , but that the 9s perfomance and results are skewed.The 9 is ridiculously fast in light airs and confined waters, but as the wind increases others catch up.Certainly the 7 seems to go about as fast. In my case I go from beating 400s and merlins on the water to having trouble staying in front of young guns in Radials in the windy stuff. As a consequence, I think that most submitted results for the 9 are from small ponds, light airs or superheroes.

To be clear,  the 9 is signifcantly faster than the 7 in most conditions.  I sail a laser.  I will approximately the same speed as the 7's.  The 9's are always significantly faster. 

Yeah Paul - the problem is that when on starvation rations I am around 90kg and I know you will point to some chap who is 95kg and does ok in your fleet but we all know that being at the top of a boat's weight range is a duff position to be in. The D0 is a lovely boat but it has too little sail and not enough buoyancy for me - the Aero 9 addresses one of those issues even if the hull is too small but my sense is that the boat is more competitive on handicap on the 7 sail and the added PY for the 9 is not warranted so if you sail a 9 you get to sail in a smaller fleet at opens (as compared to 7s or my H2 for that matter) and you get to struggle against an unrealistic PY when at the club.

I guess its always hard to tell for sure but if I make the assumption that the people that show up at Great Lakes events, POSH, other large handicap events "tend" to be better than average sailors because it takes a certain commitment to head to Draycote, Grafham etc in the middle of Winter then I am always surprised at how the Aero's finish on the water with the 7's and 9's very close to each other accross a range of conditions.

The Aero 9 is certainly significantly faster over the water than the 7 in the right hands except when it gets really windy.