The RS100 Owners Thread

Our analysis of what happened to the Minorca RS100is that the mast stump  joining sleeve came unstuck and slipped down. Thus with too little sleeve overlap to the mainmast, the sleeve broke, and the mast fell backwards, sideways, whatever. Remember this is all below deck - so the the deck organiser was levered out:

The fact that the screws were into bonding paste/ply join, rather than ply, whilst not being right, I am sure was largely irrelavent. The deck oganiser is very solidly supported all round by the foredeck.

As there has been one other instance of a loose mast stump sleeve, Selden are looking into why this could happen, have recalled and checked our stock here, and we are jointly considering action for the masts out in the market. 

Nick.

 

If i had spent that much on a new boat i would be gutted, but i would appreciate these things happen.  It certainly seem like Nick and his team have got a handle on it.  The design is so new i think its reasonable to expect modifications/recalls to be needed.  If however i had bought one 12months down the line i would expect i to be purfik.  It looks like a well sorted ship to me, all of my 300's were well screwed together but the youngest i owned was 8 years old and it was starting to grown and flex.

Out of interest how long do people think a new boat should last nowerdays.  I was speaking to a boat building Albacore sailor at our club this weekend, he sails a 35 year old woof Albacore, its immaculate and looks better then any trophey cabinet i have seen.  But at 35 years he mentioned that you have to be prepared to spend the moeny on it as the old glue joints can fail etc.  Now a brand new cold molded albacore these days would be BIG money (probably near 5oh doh) but i would last if cared for, for a long time.

How long is an epoxy/Polyester dinghy going to last? 10-15 years??

 

Perhaps this is a new thread?

when I took my mast out yesterday the mast well was full of water - I guess I need to unblock the drain hole - whats the best way of doing that?

Originally posted by Merlinboy How long is an epoxy/Polyester dinghy going to last? 10-15 years??

Epoxy/foam Cherubs seem to be good for twenty years or more, depending on the level of abuse. That's about as much experience as there is. Polyester is known to deteriorate slowly and steadily, just getting slowly softer. A hard used uncored polyester boat will probably be past its best after 6 months to a year, but only an Olympic level sailor would be able to tell the difference! Rather longer before it starts to worry the likes of me.

Wood boats are normally killed by mistreatment/lack of maintenance, although highly stressed panels etc will go off with time. There is a specific problem with the urea/formaldehyde glues widely used in the 60s and 70s which seem to go brittle and lose strength after something over twenty years. It will normally only be a problem on highly stressed joints.

Wood boats can also be like Grandfather's axe: I understand, for instance, that there might not be that much wood that was felled over 100 years ago in a 100 year old Thames Rater!

Well I had a test sail of the 100 for the first time on Saturday and really enjoyed it and Greg who had a boat on order bought his number 73. Thanks to RS for letting us have a go.

So how did I get on... well for start the boat looks great just like the photos and certainly has the X factor! I'm 6 foot 2 and probably 105 kgs so I was using the big rig. Conditions F2 to top of a F3, flat water. Upwind - first impression the boat felt a little short and cockpit a little small and not as fast as the phantom as everyone has said, especially when the wind was about F2 (but to many pies on board might of been at fault!) when the wind got up more it did feel more comfortable. I found the best way of sailing upwind was with the blocks about 12inch apart, lot of kicker (like phantom) no cunningham and the outhaul about 4inch off the boom. I was hiked out right forward on the wing nearly sitting on the block for the kite sheets. Tacking - very little roll tack, all of us were over doing at the start (because we were use to sailing Phantom/Finn/Laser) as the leeward wing would dig in. Out of the tack I felt the rig was quite soft and would lose power and I wasn't getting the squirt of power from bring the boat flat again. Probably because i'm used to a stiff rig in the Phantom and essentially a non stayed mast in the 100. Downwind - BRILLIANT , I wouldn't change a thing! the whole system works so well and so easy!!! Excellent decision to have the bigger kite. It's so quick to get on the plane and goes so deep. I recon it might not be far off the pace of a 400 downwind! To be honest this was my main concern that the heavy weights would really suffer when it's light but I don't think this will be the case.  BRILLIANT  Deffo PY bandit (sorry i had to get that in )
Things I would change, main halyard cleat - change to finn/europe style wire with stopper to avoid cleat failure through wear and personal preference I would like normal cleats for kicker/cunningham.  So would i buy one? at the moment i want to do more Phantom circuit sailing and complete a few goals i've set but after that and when i've lost about 10-15 kgs i think the 100 would be my next single hander boat

Alex