Dinghy popularity

Originally posted by fab100 Originally posted by iGRF So what you're saying, I'm probably right (as usual) but it might be for tactical or strategic reasons? Always being a stickler for a well set jib as I am... I've just twigged what that hull reminds me of - a hovercraft

A thames barge.

Edited by Fearful - 05 Jul 13 at 11:46am

Am I alone in liking it?! A valid attempt at a fast, wide, stable hull without the problems brought about by sailing a multihull. Certainly needed a 2nd version, but it gets round one of the major problems of lightweight hulls (or at least it should have been light) which is lack of static stability.

Mind, I'm not 100% certain why a Sprint/Dart 15 wasn't an easier solution!

Top sides of a trident class submarine?

I liked it too to be honest. I wish it had worked and at least grf have it a go

It might be that particular dinghies will encourage people to return to the sport, but I don't think newcomers will see a particular design and go "I've never wanted to sail, but now I've seen THAT boat, I think I'll have a go". More likely they will have seen Ben on the telly or in the paper or whatever, and think "Maybe I'll give sailing a go". A Pico looks pretty much like a Finn to a non sailor, I expect.

Well as a total co incidence I've just put the phone down on a chap who reckons he might be able to get me the funding to progress to the next stage and maybe to even tap into Brighton University and their test tanks, wouldn't that have been better had I had access to that before committing to that heavy hunk of plastic.

To me I'm disappointed it was so heavy to lift around and obviously not that encouraged to fix it, since I'm now back enjoying crewed competition which always was the thing that most enamoured me to sitting down sailing, I don't mind being billy no mate but I've spent my life doing that windsurfing.

I told you elsewhere how I met the guy who owned and sent back that sail because it was a total dog and didn't work for him on his vortex, so given that and all things it didn't go too bad, we certainly had it hustling along that time in Calshot, but to be honest our water is never exactly conducive to planing upwind and even off wind you do need a fair amount of power to overcome the uphill bits.

That boat was never designed with the idea of newcomers or widening the appeal of sailing, quite the contrary, if you recall it was a design exercise in enabling someone of er 'challenged' weight and height to get round a course in a force five in a performance craft, that much I did achieve, sadly our beach is no friend to the likes of even it and she remains holed to this day and frankly to heavy to bother with any further.

The next step would be to apply some of the same ideas to something lighter and maybe less grandiose on the performance scale, we'll see, I'm not finished just yet.