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iGRF View Drop Down
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Posts: 6499 		Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Nick Craig
    Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 9:24am
I think the Alto for all it's faults that I now find irritating (self balers, low freeboard, overall weight) is probably the least weight sensitive boat I've come across, a bit like the five oh which always favoured a light(ish) driver and big crew, we're still enjoying sailing it with Trev at the lighter end of the crew spectrum, but it's the sort of boat that you can sail to counter whatever weight disadvantages you might have.

It's the thing I find most difficult to overcome in single handed sailing, it's not always possible to sail in a way which overcomes height and weight disadvantages in stronger winds without say typically just ending up in irons.
Racing sailboards, sorry I have to come back to this, but when it's windy and you're light you just stuff it and sail high and the heavy guys get to sail free and fast, whereas the opposite is the case when it's light, you get to sail free and they have to stuff it and the game they must play is to start under you, point high and try and keep you off the plane.
I can't seem to port that methodology into dinghies and it is exactly what kids have to learn to do when they're too light, well in sailboard racing anyway.
So tell me what do you teach them? AFAIK unless I'm not getting it, sailing an over canvassed dinghy high you do tend to irons, I've seen lots of far better far more experience adult helms ending up in irons in stronger wind races so I can't accept it's just me.

Edited by iGRF - 18 Oct 13 at 9:25am
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 9:34am
Originally posted by JimC

Big boat all round, saw JB stating recently it was longer than a 49er, and certainly more rocker and curve in sections so be surprising if it doesn't carry more weight.
Yeah, I suspect the uncertainty caused by a few owners faffing with wires was the thing that finished it off, but you know if enough big sailors had been buying them it shouldn't have mattered.

I'm pretty sure the 59er rig was designed for a crew weight of 150kg, but the hull was designed to carry upto 170kg, to allow for a little pork. Still, I wouldn't say that 85kg each is a big boys boat, but it is probaably less weight sensitive than most.
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yellowwelly View Drop Down
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Posts: 2003 		Post Options Post Options   Quote yellowwelly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 9:35am
for all the jesting, the one thing I cannot deny is that the Solo carries a very broad weight band.  70-90kgs seems to be about right, with 10kg either side only carrying penalities in the really wind weather or the marginal planing weather.    The reason?  The ability to change the rig and buy one that suits you and your sailing style.... a fundamental point we so readily dismissed when buying all the other SMODS we've seen come and go.  

From a personal point of view, I really, really wish we had OKs racing - that would push those numbers up 10kgs and I wouldn't struggle in the prevailing conditions I typically sail dinghies in; but alas, we don't, so I'll just have to struggle on trying to deal with those semi-planing reaches!
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Posts: 1635 		Post Options Post Options   Quote blaze720 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Oct 13 at 9:48am
....  I can't accept it's just me

No it is not just you.  If I'm right the EPS is fully battened, this will tend to make things a bit more difficult especially if the balance is a bit marginal (ie rig too far back relative to plate .. or vica versa !) .  This can mean that 'feathering' the main when overpowered is much more difficult.  Without a jib (as on a 2 sail boat) to wrestle control back you can occasionally get caught in irons. 

Years ago the Blaze with the original rig was a tough nut to crack in breeze.. for exactly this reason.  That is why we switched to the semi-soft sail that has been standard for well over a decade now.  You can feather it upwind, the front 'gives' when the rig is stuffed up high into the wind.  This massively reduces drag otherwise caused by the full width battens doing their best to maintian that nice aerofoil shape you bought ... it does this regardless of its orientation to the wind of course.  This slows you down even more, the rig loads up more etc etc .. and you get caught in irons. 

The way out is to quickly raise your centreboard (this reduces the laternal resistence AND moves the centre of effort aft) .. the bow drops away, you get the rig working again and off you go.  ...  Dagger boards are a bit more problematic of course.

In short the semi-soft mains are much more forgiving ... and you will get caught in irons a lot less or not at all if the basic geometry and balance of the boat is otherwise good.   If you look around the better classes for higher winds 95% now either have a 'modern' semi-soft sail or are 'traditional' soft ones ... or are underpowered the rest of the time ! 

Mike L.
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Posts: 49 		Post Options Post Options   Quote OultonBen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 13 at 2:14pm
Originally posted by iGRF

...... 72-75kgs, above that your heavy ...... Above 85 kgs Your Obese
Above 95 kgs Your an Alien ...... 
Hi iGRF,
I can confirm that on 3 counts, dblrrghbbdgg, no OK that's 4 counts!
   #1    I am over 95Kgs .... no longer on-the-pace as a Fireball crew, fine in a Phantom and hopefully so shortly in a D-One;
   #2    My dad was an "Alien" ..... he wasn't entitled to a passport, and the front cover of his UK Travel Document proclaimed him as an Alien; all totally TRUE !
   #3    In my university days, many friends very kindly referred to me as a "Space Cadet" ?
   #4    dblrrghbbdgg, capiche ?
'nuff said ?

Now trawling through this lot which seems to have gone quite off the initial thread, presently on page-9, I shall report again on the man himself, back on thread with Nick Craig insider-info that you might really appreciate !
No-one can squeeze past ..... when you're as "Chunky" as myself !
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Posts: 49 		Post Options Post Options   Quote OultonBen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 13 at 2:41pm
Hi iGRF,
Back on original subject:-
Yes, Nick Craig is quite some sailor, and as far as some of this thread's finer points on honing the body and training to control oneself, I offer you this very recent quote about his Gold Cup Win in the D-One Class:-
Quote from paragraph 2 in Y&Y report dated just about a month ago;
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/172237/D-One-2013-Gold-Cup-at-Lake-Attersee-day-2
"... Nick Craig was the best of the GBR sailors on day two with a 3rd and a 2nd despite his toilet disaster while out on the water following his terrible bout of gastroenteritis ...."

Apparently there was copious Sh*t flying about ('scuse the descriptive choice of colour), and for a couple of days several competitors were affected;  however true skill and personal training wins-out, any personal coach would probably have run a mile !
Nick's earlier training in this respect was conducted during his recent OK Worlds winning experience in .... Thailand !
No-one can squeeze past ..... when you're as "Chunky" as myself !
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Posts: 40 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Nipper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 13 at 3:24pm
Back on the subject again, I feel Nick was born too late to be an Olympian. If he had been at his current level in the 1980's then undoubtedly he would have been a contender to go to the Olympics probably in the Finn, FD or Soling given his physique. That is when the GBR team used to have talented amateurs from outside the Marine trade, who would "give it a go" (Pat Blake, Roger Yeoman, Mike McIntyre, John Loveday spring to mind).
 
However since 1996, our GBR team has become a team of professionals, many of whom were highly talented in youth sailing and carried on, and took the sport to new levels. (Ainsile, Percy, Walker, Styles etc), and as Nick says, he was probably too late a developer to get in with this crowd.
 
I have chatted to Nick, and a more unassuming bloke you could not wish to meet. I have watched him sail his OK and 400 close up, and he sails so accurately, the boat trim, the sails, are all perfect all of the time, each wave is perfectly encountered.
 
I seen other helms who were exactly the same. I watched Jo Richards and Pete Allam sail their "aluminium" FD in '83, upwind in 20 knots, the boat was rock steady, no flogging mains, and similarly I watched John Merricks a couple times in a 420 and Fireball, and again his actual sailing of the boat was perfect.
 
In my opinion these guys have an innate skill or feel, but then that is developed by an awful lot of time on the water, and once you have developed that ability, then you have the time to concentrate on tuning and the tactical side.
Put that together, then you will be near the top as Nick demonstrates in so many classes.
39 years of dinghy racing and still waiting to peak.
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OultonBen View Drop Down
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Posts: 49 		Post Options Post Options   Quote OultonBen Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 13 at 11:19pm
The man himself ...... Oooh, this is a very rare view indeed, from dead ahead;  not many are good enough to get into this position!
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Edited by OultonBen - 22 Oct 13 at 11:21pm
No-one can squeeze past ..... when you're as "Chunky" as myself !
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