Cirrus Icon Development

Hi John

The finished item will be fastish,  simple and sophistcated .... and offer very good value indeed.  Complex kicker systems will only feature if they offer real advantage but we always look at all options at this stage.  My view is that the stretched hull (with lowered floor) and slightly higher gooseneck will more than do the job - hell its a lot better without these tweaks than some very popular boats out there already - we've measured a few.  (albeit the current R&D main is too long in the leech as well !) But if we decide to provide even more space we will look beyond the GNAV.  Simply not a decision that needs to be made yet though but we may try an idea or two yet.

Part of the cost/performance deal however is that ICON will also be a SMOD, open supply can seem attractive but this is not a development class.  Nothing at all wrong with develpment classes but we already have the N12 and MR classes in the UK and the tendancy there is towards rising costs imo unless the owner is very much into DIY.  Winged rudders come to mind and simply cannot help affordability however advantageous on the water.   If you do it with sails ... well I or you might have 2 sets for different wind conditions and better more costly material than the next boat and so on - this does not help mass appeal unless you have an established development class where free choice is part of the deal that all accept.      

You can accomodate a wide weight variation across a range of conditions if the rig allows effective depowering and control.   We are trying to create a rig that is moderately large for upwind work, but can be easily depowered, so that offwind we can still project plenty of area.  Icon is surprisingly quick offwind as well even without a 3rd sail as a result.  Lighter crews will simply 'depower' upwind earlier and heavier ones later.  Not a new idea really, boards and some dinghies have been doing it for decades already. 

You will just have to try one .... soon.

Mike L.

Originally posted by cad99uk I currently sail 29er and RS800 and capsizes are a mere inconvenience and nothing like the fight in the video.

Mmm, but two handers are inherently much easier to recover from capsize than singlehanders... There are a whole bunch of techniques to avoid recapsize, keep control etc which just don't work with just one person, so being a two hander there won't be the problems...

Edited by JimC

I capsized my NS (from which the Icon is losely developed) a few
times whilst sailing singlehanded. I never had any problems getting it
up and getting back in. That was with a free flooding ali mast (which
turtles if you weren't quick) so I guess the sealed carbon mast on the
Icon should be even easier. And of course with two on board the crew
gets rolled into the boat as it comes upright.

Hi. I never actually climbed on from a 90 degree capsize but I think it
would have been difficult but doable. It didn't float as high as the 100
appears to - the board was above head height but easily reachable. I
think the high floating comes from the comfy sidedecks and light
weight, which are more important features in my opinion.

Further video from this weekends sailing in the Icon. Wind was very variable- from F not worth talking about to the bottom end of F3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrT2hNMyJS8

Enjoy.