Plywood Kit Designers

With judgement, skill and appropriate use of brute force you can get a fair amount of 3 dimensional curvature in ply, and even more if you build the required area from two layers of thin ply rather than one layer of thick. Back in the day it was even by no means unknown to cold mould a small area where extreme 3D curvature was required and do the rest of the boat in ply.

But the shape of a Phantom, with large flat panels means that foam sandwich with better panel stiffness is going to be superior, and there's really no way round that. One only has to look at the way the Phantom PY plummmeted once foam sandwich hulls and carbon spars were widespread in the fleet.

However you can get too excited about boat speed if one is not a front of fleet sailor. Is it really more fun to be racing for 10th place rather than 15th? I suggest that if you are out on the water enjoying competitive sailing with congenial people then the job is done.

Originally posted by Noah Originally posted by mongrel Originally posted by Cirrus If you have a class that already has compound curves available via the composite route it still does not matter how tight you then set the measurement rules .. whatever the rules or wording you simply cannot make ply bend to match the compound curves that are very straightforward in an optimised FRP composite.  Er Contender? Not sure what the contender reference is intended to mean, but the wooden boats are cold moulded, aren't they - not ply. AFAIK Signore Bonezzi(?) in Italy still builds beautiful hulls but I bet they are eye-wateringly expensive.

So,  fast for most boats is stiff panels and high resistance to twisting assuming optimum weight and weight distribution

Originally posted by mongrel Wooden Bonezzis’ were plywood, still very sought after, as quick/quicker than the FRPs’.