The Tasar v the Icon

The Icon is 30 years or so newer, it has 13% more sail area, it has a carbon rig and it has 3% longer water line length.

The Icon PY of 969 is probably not far out.

What is more remarkable is the Tasar has a PY of 1023

Actually I'm wrong, I quoted their website, it is now 1018 allegedly, which of course looks perfectly correct up against the RS500's 975, oops that looks wrong as well, it has a trapeze and the Icon doesn't, then of course there is the Laser 3000 at 1058. Oh dear that looks a bit peculiar as well..

The L3000, when it was being raced rather more than it appears to be now, by people who also did the L3000 circuit, had a handicap of 1030, which was very similar to the L2, the boat with which it shares a hull. The latest figure does look like one from a boat on the slide, numbers and skills wise.

Whether the Tasar handicap is fir, I have no idea. There aren't that many in the UK, so the sample will be small, which leaves less scope for personal handicapping not to be a problem.

For the boats sailed by few people, and clubs where there is "one of each", there are bound to be problems with getting enough data. You have banged on about this regularly, but I notice it never seems to be the class you are sailing that has the bandit handicap, always your rivals. At some point, are you going to work out what the common factor is?

Well Rupert, I don't go around selecting old or lipstick classes precisely because they are 'Bandits' I see myself as a champion of fair play and like nothing more than to pick holes in a tired and corrupt system that favours old people sailing their coffins around lakes and ruins the pleasures of those of us on the sea that like to campaign a menagerie of boats fairly.

The weekends race contained an L3k a V3k two Snipes, two RS500's several Lasers, a Contender,the Merlin (Going as fast at times as us and the 500's off wind, a Hornet, as well as Feva's, a Vago, the Tasar, a Phantom, and us in the Alto, we accept we have to go some to win and screwed up so didn't.

Not a race that one would expect fair handicapping on anyway with it's long reach point to point, but one at which the public come to watch and to ask questions, we were lucky this time because the boat that crossed the line first actually did win so no need for tricky explanations to friends and relatives about a stupid system that often distorts the results unfairly because some inland sailors in a galaxy far far away might have chosen some other boat to sail or send returns in about this year...

Edited by iGRF - 14 Jul 14 at 3:15pm

I'm never going to do another Nationals after that horror story at the RS100 event, I don't 'do' getting timed out when I'm trying to learn something and particularly not when I'm sponsoring the fecking event and you sailors going off for a curry and bed at 8 in the evening, not what I remember "nationals" being about, nor do I want to become a total alcoholic to do Merlin week, there is a happy medium and I think I found it in the FOM events if ever there is another, I shall go to that and maybe persuade Trev, but in truth his illness is not such that he can be travelling all over the place or spend long hours out on the water at the pleasure of some dingo psycho race officer hosebeast.

So chum unlikely you'll see me at an event these days unless maybe I hitch up a single hander...