Projection 762 Help please?

launched and sailed proper job for the first time today, all systems seeem to work just fine, racing at west mersea on friday noght so we'll see how we get on....

yeah, we find that she needs 5/6 on the rail uprwind in a blow to get her performing well. Usually only use 4/5 crew. we keep the pole on the boom, works quite well.

We havnt had any major problems with nosediving, not like the Boss or 49er that we used to own!  The reason for putting the weight forward in the boat is to reduce the waterline length, but mainly to increase the boats weight. I have spent this weekend at Burnham racing and managed to speak to one of the guys who is involved with sorting the ratings. The irc rules have been made against lightweight sportsboats and more in favour of heavier keelboats. Also another problem with the rules is the 'boat factor' and 'rig factor'. These are basically bodged by human intervention. We have found that she is quite light and could easily handle another 100kg or so. The question is whether this added weight would reduce the waterline length and reduce the 'length to displacement' ratio sufficiently to be beneficial. I certainly believe that in light wind this would be very beneficial, however as the wind speed increases the downwind speed would begin to be hindered.

Antoher reason for the added weight, as we have found this weekend is that heavier boats carry thier way alot further. With the gusty conditions over the weekend we found ourselves losing a boat length or two when the wind dies and the boat slows much quicker than the larger boats.

I agree that the boat goes well through waves but in relation to a longer boat, the shorter boats start to seriously lose out when the sea state increases: as every boat in our class is around 8ft longer than us we find that we lose out in any rough water.

Unfortunately these are the losses that you must accept when you race an interesting sportsboat like a projection. Saying all this, sailing on flat water in river, with short legs, quick tacking and a gentle breeze, the projection will dominate.

The only sailmaker I've dealt with since I started racing yachts is Quantum and I've never had any cause to look elsewhere. They've recently made me a cracking asymmetric and as soon as my whites need replacing I'll be going straight to them.

Plus they're pretty local to you too Bryan.

I've had a bit of experience (spent two years repairing them sails) and generally I suspect that you get what you pay for... I think that in the future I'll probably go with a sailmaker that has already been involved in the manufacture of Projection sails, since they will have had a bit of time to optimise them. Hyde, Quantum and Goacher seem to be the obvious ones and coincidentally we have sails by all three. We're currently using an oldish set of orange kevlar Hydes which seem to work well although the cloth is very brittle (I'm sure they don't use this particular cloth anymore). We have no issues with the No1 which is good but well-used, but the main is a lttle difficult to set well in light winds. Our kevlar Quantum No1 is well made but a little deeper in the luff, maybe it's a little slower? The blade No3 is excellent. The main was damaged beyond repair before we got the boat so I can't comment... The Goacher pentex suit is more recent but I have to admit that we haven't tried them yet (saving them for when we're better), although I believe that 'Longshot' did some successful sailing using Goacher sails. Many North racing sails I have had to repair appear well made, competitive but very lightly built (can be an advantage but obviously affects durability) - but they don't come cheaply. I admit that I haven't had any practical experience of them.

Doug, I don't recommend that you buy a genoa made from dacron. It stretches far more than an equivalent laminate cloth and deforms under load, making depowering difficult in the windy conditions that you're likely to want to use the Projection in. It's also a lot heavier! If you don't want to pay for kevlar or carbon then pentex might be a good compromise.

I'm sure we'd all be curious to have any comment from sailmakers...