The RS100 Owners Thread

Originally posted by fab100 Oh, and let the kicker right-off! As often as not, if I drop it in on a 1-sail gybe, its cos i got a fail on that one.

Curious about that.

In a Phantom (which must have similar 1 sail speed to an RS100) if I do that then I have to go so far by the lee to get the whole sail to gybe, that I'm almost guaranteed a dunking. A bit of kicker makes the S steer much less dramatic.

For me the secret to one sail gybing is speed...even if you have to head up a little before the gybe to build it....

Originally posted by ChrisC I think he's has got a reasonable excuse - pretty sure he was Fireball National and European Champion (with Nigel B) when I first met him - and that was 30 years ago and a LOT of miles on the water at a very high level since then ! Makes my back twinge just thinking about it and I have only been sailing a hiking boat for just under two years now. You should think yourselves lucky he's sailing a 100 as I do recall he wasn't too bad in a 600 !!!!!!

I have just been made aware of the Winter Warm-Up at Datchet, which takes place every sunday in Feb with 2 races each day. £37 gives you entry to all of the races and boat storage for the whole series. What a bargain.

Edited by paolochilds - 20 Jan 12 at 12:02pm

Originally posted by Contender443 I sail a 10.2 and race regularily against a 8.4 and we have some pretty level racing. However due to some marathon training I am losing some weight and hope to get below 90kg. So should I consider the 8.4 rig.   I do struggle upwind in waves and in a blow so interesting to hear that the smaller rig may be an advantage. Does it also mean you can sail a tighter reach? We do a lot of triangle/sausage and trapezoid courses at our club.   Finally any tips on gybing without the kite? This has caused me more capsizes than anything. Perhaps I should get round to fitting that gybing strop.

My natural weight is about 90kg (14stone) and I'm 6'1" - I am very happy on the 8.4 in all conditions. Whilst I was able to handle the 10.2 in pretty much all conditions (i.e keep the boat upright) I realise now I wasn't able to really drive it in the way it can be. The 8.4 allows me to do this, particularly when sailing on open water.

The 8.4 is definitely a LOT easier to gybe, primarily because there is a lot less roach and of course the foot length is shorter. For me one sail gybing with the 10.2 in any breeze was a pretty brutal affair usually resulting in a swim !! The real killer was when the boom came across but the head didn't and the boom went back again ! There are some techniques that help (Paul and Alex make it look pretty easy) - I found that keeping some kicker on (definitely on the 10.2) reduced the twist, sheeting in a bit helps but the real key is the steered 'S' combined with a short sharp tug on the sheet (or gybing strop) - speed is of course the biggest aid as it massively reduces the loadings.

I think you will find it all much easier with the 8.4 as even with the kicker fully off there is still some leach tension and this sail is a lot less twisty than the 10.2. Still pretty fierce if it goes from shroud-to-shroud though !!!

Doesn't really make a lot of difference reaching (with the kite) as the kite is the biggest factor to what angle you can sail as you can dump the main. in average conditions one sail reaching the 10.2 does have an advantage provided you can hold it down - we have seen this in class races reaching across to the spreader mark but once the kite is up I don't reckon there is any loss.

Hope this helps.

Edited by ChrisC - 20 Jan 12 at 5:15pm

I wonder if RS are doing any offers on a set of sails