Cirrus Icon Development

Nice vid! The Icon results have been very impressive the last few
weeks and it looks like you were first over the water on Sunday -
ahead if the 400s?

Good news for you...

This is what Mike said the other day:

The boom height for the crew is something we are spending alot of time on.  Gnavs have their fans, fully understand the argument but they do compromise the bottom section of the sail.  Ideally you do not have them and regular 'below' kickers are more effective anyway imo.   The issue is whether the crew is OK with a regular kicker.  We are lowering the floor compared to the NS anyway as part of the new hull lines plus the boom will be 70mm higher compared to the test rig you tried.  Together they make a very big difference.   When we have the pre-production package all together a final call will be made.

As Peaky says this is not the final configuration.  We have progressively raked the rig back experimenting with balance etc and this main was too long in the leech anyway.  Yes - a bit too low at present !

We are not going to tweak the sails further until the 'stretched' (pure Icon) hull is with us.... the next couple of masts will be 70mm longer etc as well so effective boom height can be significantly higher if we want.   Final sail area will be around 12.75 - 13.0m and the hull will also be wider by 4" giving a bit more leverage - will be 1.93m.  The balance between the sails will be altered to give a smaller main and larger jib but even with this main the sheet loadings are minimal. (the rig in the vid was in fact about 13.0m and I reckon we had about 155kg of crew weight in the boat - in the afternoon crew weight was nearer 135kg - '002' went well with both combinations)

The experimental package is proving quick enough but is far from optimised - we are not going for speed yet, but are working on rig  'balance' and 'feel'  tro make it even nicer to sail - get those right however and the ultimate pace will not be far behind.  The reason we are going for a bigger jib is partly to do with 'feel' and partly to be able to project a fair amount of the overall sail area on the opposite side to the main with a 'magic' pole system soon (not the N12 type but borrowing a few ideas from it).   Felt this was particularly important in a 2-sail boat for offwind ... it also also keeps C of E lower when goiing upwind. 

Anyone interested will simply have to try ICON soon.  It will not be for everyone of course but even if you don't want one we think a lot of you should at least try it. 

Mike L.

Have you considered putting on a mongo overlapping Genoa?

AlanH

No Icon is definately a 2-person boat - but like many can be sailed fairly easily in light winds on your own - but with 12.5-13.0m of sail, even with the helpful mast  means you do need a little help when it gets up.  In light wind testing you can learn a lot in both modes though.  '002' the one we are using mostly for rig development is simply an NS hull but modified with centreboard and carbon stick rig.  It is a great design and is very easily driven but we wanted a bit more top end weight carrying capability - hence the longer/wider ICON hull being developed with a tad more volume .... but not too much !

Lukepiewalker

'mongo overlapping Genoa' -  well many rig options have been considered but we are being careful not to overpower - that would miss the point of Icon.  A simple lightweight hull with 'easy' lines can be made to go rather quickly if you optimise every aspect, particularly weight, and Icon will be suited to a great many locations where more complex boats struggle to get into their stride.  It is based on the idea that simplicity is not mutually exclusive with sophistication and speed.  Icon will not however be slow on open water.  You don't need massive amounts of sail upwind with this design and the rig is intended to be capable of being bladed off relatively early if you want .... so you still have a healthy amount of sail area for the offwind bit. 

Mike L.