Alto - Why?

Whilst it is true that big fleets attract more boats in a virtuous circle, there are plenty of reasons for not feeling bound to buy a large manufacturers class.  First, despite the opinion of most on this forum, there are an awful lot of people who do not travel and just enjoy club racing.  Many of these people are even actually quite good.  More and more frequently (like me at Chew and GRF at Hythe) if you sail at your club, you are in a handicap race.  So it really doesn't matter if you sail  rare boat or a popular one, you are still not getting the benefit of large fleets.  And if you are going to race in a handicap fleet, you may as well sail the boat you like (and can manage), rather than what 'fashion' or peer pressure demands.  Yes, I would love it if another NS14 joined Chew, but ultimately I'm not depending on it.  The boat I sail is good and pleasurable to sail in its own right, I don't need another 50 identical boats to make sailing worthwhile. 

So I applaud GRF for buying an Alto.  I think his reasons were similar to mine (but I wanted a boat I could sail with my wife) in as much as many new designs are either too extreme, too adapted to one set of conditions, and require too much swimming.  Many of the older designs are better suited to normal weekend sailors in terms of size and all round ability, but why buy a 50 year old design? Maybe the Alto is a modern day Fireball.  For sure, it'll never be as popular because the FB is now established and there are more choices etc, but that doesn't matter.  If you have the choice of being the only Alto or the only FB at your club, many would choose the simplicity of the assy kite, the self tacking jib, the carbon mast, the see through sails etc that the more modern design offers.

Would you bother sailing as a normal asymmetric or would just point and go? 

Originally posted by Ross <p ="Msonormal">Would you bother sailing as a normal asymmetric or would just point and go?<span style="">  </span>

That's obviously going to depend on the course, and the windspeed, lets
look at my typical fleet of competition.

I'm up against quite a mix.

They are a Lazer 4000, An Iso, 470's, 505's, A Bandit 200, RS300 & 400,
Supernovas that can win over the water as well as handicap in certain
conditions, a celebrity death match between 2 Lasers, plus a sprinkling of
Blazes, Buzz, Laser 2's, 2000's & 3000's that don't complicate the front
end of the fleet, but will hazard the start line and intial getaway, then
there's dumb and dumberer in the B14 who you have to watch like a hawk
in case they spot the start sequence is actually running. Then if it's sunny,
Dr & Mrs Death will turf up in a quite aggressively sailed Laser & Laser
radial and of course if the wind blows exactly 9.75knots the MPS can be
launched. cancelling the Celebrity Laser Deathmatch and presenting
another candidate for glory.

The Race for Line honours will be between us in the 500 if we're wired up
or there's something wonderfully tactical going on, the one or other of the
470's the 505 if he's cleaned his glasses and can see the mark, the MPS in
9.735121 knots, The RS400 unless Dave the Dolphin intervenes, a 4000 if
she gets her tacking angles dialed and doesn't leave 10 boat lengths to
clear each mark and stops shouting at her poor wife battered crew and
husband to be. Or the Supernova (Ex youth champ) or Laser if the wind
steps in or not alternatively.

They all have different lines to the next mark once the 1st beat has sorted
out the upwind speeds and its this area we'd like to have more choice.
When we windsurf, we can choose to go low and deep or high and fast, in
the RS500 the low and deep aint an option unless its v windy. The key is
the tactical ability to sail as high as the 4000/ISO's or maybe match the
505/470's going low and deep. If we get the downwind shifts (IF there are
any) we can generally do it, but lots of times its just a steady sub Force 2
when we can't plane and the 505 or 470 will just trickle past presenting
the minimum wetted surface that a high volume rounded hull does.

Why I wouldn't mind betting there will be times when even a 49er will be
bested by high volume minimum wetted area even with a smaller rig..

Does that help explain my thinking?

Originally posted by Chris Bridges Originally posted by hum3 Originally posted by Chris Bridges Other small classes will always be up for sharing events so thats quite easy to get around. If you say so! Why wouldn't they? If its a small class sharing an event won't really be a disadvantage, and on the plus side they get decent venues, good socials etc.

Yes - the points I made earlier. It's the 'quite easy' bit I was referring to.

Many decent venues have to be booked up years in advance (taking decent organisation), and to be accepted by a good venue the classes usually have to have a good chance of getting a turnout, otherwise the venue will say 'no'. Don't think all clubs are jumping at the chance to hold events. The good ones tend to be quite picky.

Also, the classes joining up have to be reasonably compatible in terms of the type of racing and participants for socialising - asymm vs sym vs no kite, course type, even average age of the competitors for example.

Then the classes need to TRY and not hold their event at the same time or a week before of after another class event or a larger event that might pull sailors away. Dinghy weeks in the summer, pursuits in the winter for example.

Then you have to try and get a good geographical spread of events, and events close to their natural heartlands to get people to come.

That is what I was talking about... I don't think regularly co-ordinating event for more than three separate classes would be easy at all, unless they shared most of their events, in which case you could argue that they should have one class association to generate economies of scale if they work that well together.

Anyway, back to the Alto. Can see it becoming a good club racer, and that isn't a criticism. And my opinion matters as much as most in here - not very much!

Have the flares actually been cut out though, or "filled in" to form the chine instead?