Icon Class Association

Originally posted by cad99uk Jeffers, Thanks for that report. What would your all-up crew weight have been?

Hi Paul

Thought you might like Icon ....

The batten thing is probably just a batten 'tension'  thing.  The 'dead down wind' issue is a technique thing and it will take a bit of practice ... you do not have to go 'dead down wind' .. better VMG is often found by deep 'dog legging' and keeping the boat going.  Icon is very easily driven so worth trying - next time try a bit of experimentation. 

We often pole out the jib as we do round the windward mark and quickly gybe ... just the main ... and then sail by the lee on the jib for a bit.  You can often gybe downwind leaving the jib out one side and just switching the main.  This means on one side you are usually a bit tighter and on the other a bit deeper.  Asymetrics and conventional spinnaker boats rarely go downwind like this so you are never in wind shadow for long either !   Being very light you need to keep in breeze as much as possible offwind to get the full effect - you have v.rapid acceleration but there is another side to that coin .... .

Mike L.

PS - Crew weight ?  I've sailed a slight as 130kg (ie Tasar minimum allowed) and as heavy as 190kg ... you can get away with it at both ends but the acceleration is definately a bit limited at 190kg. I normally sail with about 154kg and Mike Bell the CA secretary is probably  a little lower at something like 145-150kg.  Crank on the cunningham and kicker and you can depower very easily. 


Edited by blaze720 - 14 Apr 14 at 5:39pm

I'm getting my knee done on Tuesday so packing in time in the D one beforehand rather than trying the icon.  The bad knee meant it was just too painful to be honest.  But the icon looks great on the water and is really quick to rig.  I haven't found a better way of pinging the top batten other than using a quick tug on the Cunningham.

Hi Paul

It is a mystery to us as well !  There should be no issue whatsoever with battens 'popping' across.  Some early sail sets supplied had problematic battens that should have been 'swapped out' long ago ..... without knowing the history of this particular boat we cannot confirm the sail set / battens you are using. 

As this hull appears to be a direct Devoti loan we suggest they are asked to check their records as o what you have got there and if needed supply the correct ones. .... Cirrus spent a very very long time with North in development getting this sort of detail right.

Is there an open regatta of some sort at Hunts that a couple of Icons could come to in the next few weeks ?   Nothing beats seeing how others set their boats up ... and you could even see what you make of the optional thwart at the same time.

Mike L.

There was a batten popping issue way back - but the final itterations of sail and batten specification resolved that issue.  The sails should be fine if they are on a production loan boat but the battens may have escaped being swapped out.

As the report is for a batten popping problem it seems well worth asking someone to let you know whether they are regular (ie todays) specification ones or the earlier ones.  We don't even think about battens so something is different ... 

Hope you get into the boat before too long .. but good to hear it is getting some use.

Mike L.