I am not interested in the special ‘built for speed record holder’ but the normal club sailboat.

What sort of speed  can a Lark or GP14 regularly achieve, an Enterprise, an Osprey, an RS200?

An RS Feva compared to another junior trainer, a Mirror,  could be quite enlightening. (incidentally, I hate the way the RYA hijack a perfectly good boat and designate it ‘junior’ and thus effectively ruining its appeal to the majority of sailors. The Cadet, for instance, was designed as a junior boat, the Mirror was not)

The speed difference between the more traditional dinghies, compared to the designs of the last 20 or so years could tell a story or two.

I have never seen a list of this sort, and I think it could be quite interesting.

 The answer is "not as much as you think while you're sailing it"!

I pretty much agree with the figures posted.

It took ages to push over the 16 knot barrier for me personally, but 20+ is achievable if you really know what you are doing.

The fasted I felt I ever went on a dinghy was a little over 14 knots on an RS300!

Speed is relative - given most sailing (in the UK at least) is sub-planning, I'd say glide and momentum brings a greater sense of satisfaction than all out speed.

* As, surprisingly, does my RIB.

No idea what use it would be though ? Handicap racing would be governed by PY anyway. you could have the fastest dinghy in the world but still be beaten by a Topper.

RYA publishes a number of such spreadsheets to help race officers set courses that achieve a given target race time - see:  http://www.rya.org.uk/racing/running-racing/speed-charts" rel="nofollow - http://www.rya.org.uk/racing/running-racing/speed-charts

Your mistake was bringing a knife to a gunfight, you should have used a 'proper' Raceboard 

Lol, I recall 20 knots being much less scary in my Musto than 14 knots in the 300… that was bum twitching time for sure

http://youtu.be/BiQSvBaqsp4" rel="nofollow - https://youtu.be/BiQSvBaqsp4

Nothing wrong with Albacore.

http://www.albacore.org.uk/results/2007/internationals2007.htm

This thread makes me realize how slow a dinghy is but how exciting they can be. 

There may have been a GPS reading of 23+, but GPS units "spike" a lot and therefore in competitions like GPS windsurfing there are rules in the units that can be used and the way results can be interpreted.

On the other hand, if the Aero IS that fast then the sailors must be terribly bad for it to have a yardstick little faster than a Laser.  Personally I'd say it's far more likely that the 23 knots figure is a vast exaggeration.

Why should we believe this figure and not the 22 knots or whatever the Albacore "achieved"?  Why should we believe this figure and not the 60 knots that the guy at my old club carried his big headsail in?  He had an anerometer so surely it must be true.......

- Seems other recording were done on a Garmin Edge 520 he has. I have used this to, but without a good gps fix on glonass satellites and recording set to 1 hz then it's pretty useless for speed. It's designed to be used with a bike wheel speed sensor. 

- max speed on a doppler device for same class is 20.6 knots (and that was speed a 1 second peak over a knot more than the speeds a second either side). 

On both the windsurfer and 800 for a 1 km run top speed will only be about 10-15% more than average. Here we have doublings of speed. That could just a characteristic of chasing huge gusts in mega wind in a small uno sail though. My windsurf speeds and 800 speeds are all done at a fairly narrow AWA. 

The aero's can get out in massive conditions though (although to be fair so can I on windsurf kit). But the 800 I wouldn't really be leaving the beach in 30 knots. So perhaps it's plausible, but the evidence for the 23.9 knots isn't rock solid. 

I think you could improve class speed competitions like this by just asking for 1 hz data and have peak speed defined as 2 seconds and then have a 10 second record too. 10 Seconds would be short enough that you don't fall out of an gusts, but long enough to have some confidence in the data (at 1 hz). 

[TUBE]https://youtu.be/PGW8hiF2zr0[/TUBE]

Before the gybe (46s) max speed is 37.8 kmh (20.4 knots) and average is 37 kmh (19.97). 

Above link from 2004, 24 pages, no abusive comments, this post today, would be met with abuse and derision, how times change.

Of course i believe it, though thousands wouldn’t 

20 knots is about 15 times faster than my garden shed, according to GPS.

The shed is firmly bolted to concrete foundations.

GPS, in amateur hands is essentially unsuitable for measuring speed.

Especially low speeds over short durations.

Which is a shame really.

It would be nice to know how fast my Laser was really going in those crazy surfing moments, although I'd never have the time (or presence of mind) to look at the readout.

We have a circle of 12 marks of 900 metres dia. Pick your angle and time yourself between the two opposites. We then calculate both adjusted and real, alright the circle may not always be spot on but come on, it's a bit fun for windy days.

What club is that, I have visited a club with that set up and can’t remember which one it was 

Cats would be faster than both my boats but for me they hold no appeal, there are "easy" foilers appearing which are faster still and appeal even less.

Thanks I’ve be racking my brain for months. Fantastic club, especially the log burner 

100% - close racing regardless of speed is far more appealing. Some of my most enjoyable sailing has been in a 17ft 1906 local one design with a lot of pig iron in the bottom. They all just reached hull speed and that was it but great racing. Raced ICs and the room for error is minimal so easy to get spat out the back and stay there. Cats I find boring and thought I’d like to have an afternoon on a foiler not much appeal. Not seen an entry foiler that can perform upwind in a range of conditions. Boards and that inflatable wing look OK. 

edit add.

Our Windsurfer instructor is also sharing his interest in foiling boards. We have a member with one of those free inflatable wing foiling setups. 

Room for all on Kielder @ 2500 acres.