My unbiased ALTO review

Originally posted by RS400atC Originally posted by iGRF So how do you feel about the X1 then? Surely according to your logic that must be an abuse of PY. It's called moving with the times.. build yourself a bridge... I do have reservations about the X1, but river clubs tend to be more fleet-oriented.And there is probably a genuine niche for a river boat bigger than a Merlin that isn't an A rater.I'm not whether we are really moving with the times in terms of taking the 505 and 'improving' it into some thing 20 points slower. It's 90's technology at best. Moving with the times might be thinking of a Rooster 8.674 'ap' for your Solo platform?I suspect the chances of an Alto or an X1 turning up at my club before my knees give out are pretty limited. But if work took me somewhere where they seemed the best people to sail against, I'd probably buy either.

Well the reason I use it, is in their way they are two boats chasing the same market, the Alto was born to sail the river Deben, but to be used by folk with less experience of knowing wtf rope does what on a five oh. Originally it was a hiker, it's kite is an RS400 kite, or was to begin with I haven't put up my new one.
So, when it's hiking weather we can happily race against RS400's and have been beaten by them, got beaten by my former crew in the last race i did in the Alto last year, it was marginal and he cheated and used his daughter who is a windsurfer so has an inherent feel for a kite as well as being light and the kite new.
We also get a good race against a five oh, they'll beat us quite often but we can get them back, so precisely because it is adaptable and can be used across a wide range of conditions that I doubt the X1 will and is excellent value for money when you consider what you pay for a merlin or a five oh, or even a 500.
Whatever, I'm rambling again, I kind of see the point your trying to make driven by I'm not sure what, but give them a break, they need to sell every boat they can, they're not RS, or the real bandit villains, they've had some really rough deals at the hand of this crap industry and now they're in better hands, wish them well, be a bit magnanimous.

Quick update...
Not sailed the Alto for a couple of weeks due to work (GAH!) but the boy and I went out on Sunday morning and had a good time and didn't do too bad (results not up yet on the OSC site).

In the afternoon we decided to go and play with the Asymmetric Fleet on a W-L course, just to see what it was like.
Wind was blowing plenty, with well over 20kts showing on the anano...anomm.... wind indicator thingy. 1st beat was very good, easily outpacing the 400s and not far off the 800s to the top. I'd guess the beat was about 3/4 mile, and in that I suppose we lost about 10-15 boat lengths on the 49er. Downwind boats were falling over rather a lot, but the Alto still felt supremely stable, absolutely flying along at max-chat with us wiring and hiking hard, using the apparent wind. Got my angles/timing wrong approaching the 1st leeward mark and dropped early, but was able to gybe comfortably without drama even without the kite.

Still seriously impressed with this boat - nothing seems to faze it... you just keep going faster but without the ring-tightening (and wallet-shuddering) moments of "OHMYGODWE'REGOINGTODIE,ANDTHISISGOINGTOBEEXPENSIVE" you get with many other performance boats. No idea how we did on handicap yet - hopefully the results will appear tonight.
Good times.

Edited by Bootscooter - 30 Apr 13 at 8:01pm

Originally posted by oldarnus However I read his 'asymmetric' logic on Py's some six months ago and then also chose to ignore it. He would save himself much time, wasted words and a lot of space if he simply said he dislikes the AltO.

Pondmonkey, I don't know that the comments were aimed at you, but regardless, you're more than welcome to make the short hop over to OSC and come for a sail (I'm hoping to keep hold of it for a little while longer).
Same goes for anyone here - it's the demo boat after all, and I've currently got the keys *teehee*.

Originally posted by RS400atC Arn, you miss the point. I don't dislike the Alto in itself. I just think it is going to struggle to deliver 'fair' racing at a stable PY. Like the RS400, but more so. But in the RS400 we have enough of a club fleet not to care that PY works increasingly badly for us. Put an Alto fleet in my local club and I'd very seriously consider buying into it.   (But to be fair, I don't like the Alto as much as I like 505's)

I'm not out to knock the 400. It just happens it was after Roland Marriott at DYC tried to persuade me that I should get a 400 in about 2001 that I decided to play with a modified 505. It was when sailing the 400 against a slight tide in a force2/3 and I was faced with either having to jig towards the mud or zag almost back up river that I decided there had to be a better way. I have to admit to not finding it comfortable or, when tacking, easy to cross the wide-ish boat with narrow gunwales. I was looking for a boat that was kind to crews, especially female ones and it has be said that it is tough at the front. About then Waldringfield SC tried to adopt them. They got up to about 5 or 6, but after a few years die out. It did not suite them or the river.

After my long sabbatical from sailing I considered a 505, but for practical reasons sailed a Wayfarer in fleets of 12 to 18 boats and had good one design racing, but I wanted something more exciting. Roger who I sailed with was 16 or 17 stone thus we played with a simple non trapeze asymmetric 505. It was not planned as a new class, and only when, sailing with Geoff, my present 12 stone crew and trapezing in a f6 and with the self-tacking jib, did we realise it should make a wonderful trapeze class.

I can fully understand anyone perhaps preferring the 505, assuming they can afford a competitive boat and having enough time to go through the learning apprenticeship and with a the same crew who can devote an equal amount of time.

As you know the AltO is a compromise since it gives almost all a 505 offers at half the price and can be sailed by almost anyone!