V Twin

Originally posted by JimC Originally posted by pondmonkey Take the (heavy, old) 49er with its new rig, nothing seems to hold a candle to it for its size.   That's because its still pretty light for its size (it was *very* light compared to its competitors at Torbole), and none of the other ladies' trial entrants were anything like as big and especially long.

Originally posted by Ruscoe I happen to agree about weight, Whilst there are some classes I believe would benefit from substantial weight loss (contender) I think a bit of weight helps with a boats "idle" characteristics.  I like a boat to be slightly less full on in between races, I like to be able to have a bit of control whilst launching and dumping my trolley.  Whilst a light boat accelerates quickly I guess it does not hold its momentum in the lulls as well.  Not to mention, a higher minimum weight (as a general rule) should help with longevity.   As an example, I am not sure a 49er would be any quicker if it was massively lighter.  I should imagine it would be one hell of a handful and would possibly spoil some of the class characteristics.

I'm sure the Contender could take 10kgs off without any trouble, as most newer ones carry that much in lead, now, but what exactly would they gain? The (very small) speed increase wouldn't attract anyone else to the class, I'd think, apart from GRF? The class is all about fleet racing. People wanting to go faster presumably either by an MPS, a windsurfer or a Cat?

Originally posted by Rupert I'm sure the Contender could take 10kgs off without any trouble, as most newer ones carry that much in lead, now, but what exactly would they gain?

Edited by mongrel - 25 May 12 at 1:19pm

Waterline length is king in dinghies until doing upwards of about 15kts boatspeed. Most dinghies never reach this.
I have not trawled the stats but the standard 9er is over 9ft wide - that is a colossal amount of RM, and any less than that on the other boats would mean giving away a lot of horsepower.
The 49er isn't a cleverer or more modern design than most of what was at the trials, it is just a long boat with stacks of RM, facilitated by having solid racks to get side to side. With tube racks you'd need a tramp of some sorts to bridge that gap.

Whoever said that a 49er wouldn't go faster with less weight is mislead. Displacement is a massive factor on boats operating in the semi planing and planing regimes. Resistance is pretty much proportional to total displacement. A large part of that is made up by the crew, so it is diminishging returns - bit like a race car engine - but still a very big deal.
Weight loss may make it a little bit more of a pain when pootling between races,  but I suspect not a lot - that has more to do with the nature of the boat and the rig.