V Twin

Although cuddly Mr Fuller can be offensive at times there is no need to denigrate his experimental efforts. He is doing what many of us wish we were doing.

On another note and off topic but not worth starting a new thread for. Could Datchet SC revue the material that they make their dinghy park stickers out of, I have just spent half an afternoon removing  Dachet 2008, Dachet,2009 and Dachet  2010 from my new/old Byte!

So having not kept up with this thread ... 

Will we be able to see the boat at the Dinghy Show as I believe was originally promised?

All gone cold on the V-spin or is it being launched at the Dinghy show?  Thought not.  I'm still waiting for the launch date, the offer of rescue cover still stands!

Originally posted by rich96 ....... In years gone by I regularly sought out good older hulls and competed to a decent level (it certainly wasnt the hull that limited my sailing).   I also regularly got by with sails that had been used by others for just one or two regattas.   I'm sure that you could do perfectly well enough in open meetings etc in a Laser that cost less than a grand all in - you couldnt do that in a Solo.

Having to regularly seek out a fresh hull sort of gives the game away.
The guys with a hull under a year old have an edge over say a 4 year old hull,
who will have an edge over a ten year old hull, even if they are well maintained and down to weight.
That's less true of foam sandwich hulls, where a five year old hull should be just as stiff as a new one, unless it's been damaged.
That is just a property of single skin frp, it really is something we should be not building dinghies from these days.
But I don't really knock Lasers, you can buy one for  £1k, buy a Rooster sail and have great racing against people on similar budgets. Without any tiresome PY debate. Or you can spend £6k or whatever and know you are racing level with some very good sailors. That's not bad!

Originally posted by RS400atC Originally posted by rich96 I know its off topic a bit but the Laser bashing is all a bit daft.   The boat provides great racing on all sizes and types of water and performs well in all wind strengths.   It still must be the cheapest class in which you can be competetive.   .....     Is that true? Competitive life of a hull? Short! Competitive life of sails? Short. It is a great boat that provides good club racing for lots of people, but the serious players have to change their boats pretty often. Older hulls get progressively softer and uncompetitive. It would probably be cheaper in the long run to be competitive at national level in a foam sandwich boat like a Solo. At international level, Lasers are cheap to get into, but that's a level of competitiveness I don't aspire to. And buying the kit is only part of the budget of course. Another way of looking at it is 'how many opportunities for good racing do you get, vs annual cost', Lasers must score pretty well on that for club sailors, loads of events at all levels. Depends on what value you place on various events of course.