V Twin

I remember visiting the SECC in Glasgow for the Outdoor show a few years ago. This use to be a big show with a good number of boats when i was a kid. I was confronted by roto moulded boats and inflatable canoes. On speaking to a knowledgable chap in the marine business who is now retired he said that this is what sold and therefore what was worth displaying.

Originally posted by Rupert   Quite agree. BUT, learning from the failure is pretty important, too. I should imaging your project has shown you that maybe, just maybe, there are reasons why some very clever people have designed or built things as they have?

Hi Grf
your comment about laser may be true but not with the EPS after all sometimes even us Luddites get it by voting with our cheque books.
Good luck with the V Twin I am sure a man of your vast knowledge can fix it.
Try eating loads of pies and then buying a phantom.
Regards
Gordon

Hi Grf
if you look at the Phantom website there are pictures of little monsters New Ovington hull being fitted out by James Jarvey, also in the photos section some new boats are seen with numbers over 1400. Not many I admit but still a few trickling in so your source is not correct.

The design and build ideas I was referring to weren't really for the big stuff - you have made it quite clear that neither old designs or the current crop of new designs are what you like, so the big stuff you'll have to come up with yourself - but the little stuff; why boats have string where they do, why sails are cut as they are, rather than windsurfer style, why some fittings are made as they are. Things that a couple of years ago you would rant about for hours, but now maybe, just maybe, you can see might work?

The trouble I can see is that you rather like the all round abilily of some of the older designs, but because they are old, and heavy, they don't tick the boxes. Faster more modern designs are faster because less compromise has been made for seaworthyness, so they become harder to sail, and are therefore branded impossible.

Your design is a fantastic attempt at a "third way" as Blair liked to put it. I do wonder, though, whether you'd have been better off going the Alt0 route - choosing a proven design, experimenting with it, lightening it, but always having a benchmark with which to compare the changes.