Grafham D-Zero Demo Day

Good to hear you enjoyed both boats and had a good day. What's this blue button thing?

Have you knocked the Solo fantasy on the head?

Some more pics, all a bit gloomy but then that's what it's like up North, it's not so far up that your Nose bleeds and you can't understand anyone and Grafham is always a well organised club with lots going on. We met the Commodore, seems a good bloke and was omnipresent meeting and greeting. There were lots of things going on, Challengers racing, some other boats that looked so lumbering I wouldn't want to know what they were, the only thing missing were folk wanting to try out the boats we and RS had brought along. We had a couple early on just wanted to confirm they'd done the right thing and both went away with grins as wide as mine, but by lunchtime we were standing around. Then it started to rain, the wind squalled and we hurried to drop the sails.


All set up and nobody there to use them, what a crying waste.

If that had been a kite or windsurfing demo, we'd have charged the club, that event must have cost the companies something north of five hundred quid I reckon. RS had two guys, the reason I was there was as a stand in for one of Rodneys chaps who like Rodney had had a recent bereavement or sickness in the family.

Rodney also had the D1 Nationals or Europeans going on up at Brightlingsea so a lot on his plate, I don't think he was particularly happy that RS had 'crashed' his demo, personally I think it's a good thing to have competing suppliers along, and I also think as a salesman it's a good idea, you can close a deal when both brands/boards/boats are there, if the customer can use the objection that he wants to try the other product it's difficult to overcome that objection and you lose the opportunity to close the deal, but then these guys don't quite put the pressure on that other leisure sectors might, nor can they supply the demand they already have I guess.

Back to the differences, after lunch I was standing around quite literally shivering, at one time trying to persuade Rodney to wind it up and ship out, but a lull in the rain a few more hardy souls had him back to the beach, so I though it's a shame to miss the wind I'll suit up and have one more go in the Zero in a breeze which was probably about three to four and approaching my normal control threshold in the EPS.

As I left the beach, I noticed the familiar noise of a race sequence and the minute gun being fired off, I also noticed an Aero 7 up at the pin end in the hands of what looked like a pretty competent lass, so I thought I'd tag along behind to see what we're capable of. I had no idea what the course was or where any marks were and she was a tacking fool, which reminded me of another lass down our lake and the way she sailed, banging anything that remotely resembled a shift, sure enough I found out later she's a Europe sailor, no idea what her name is, but I closed a bit up wind took out the bottom two thirds of the fleet and by the time it was obvious which mark they were going to round I was almost in touch, she went round first followed by some sort of cat thing which then chucked up its kite and was gone.

She then got a puff and vanished, it flew down the 1st deep reach, nothing I could do, the sheet loads are so light, nothing to grab to pump with and not quite enough to work the wavelets, round the gybe the next reach was tighter and we made back a bit, then up wind I'm grabbing back ground, but not enough to close and round she went again and off and so it continued until the end, she had it downwind, I made ground on the windward leg. Bear in mind it's my first outing in any sort of wind and normally in this I'd probably be swimming in the EPS and I had no idea where I should sit so the fact I was doing what I was convinced me this is the boat for me, I even slipped off my perch and did some of that hiking sh*t.
I was enjoying it so much despite the foul weather I stayed out for another go, missed the start again but this time there was a Laser and Europe girl was nowhere to be seen, after sailing behind them all off the line on Port down the wrong end of the line, only the Cat had me at the windward mark and try as I may the same thing happened I'd catch him up wind he'd chuck up his kite and leave me off wind, so it was a 3rd and a 2nd and I was happy with that given my normal lack of competence when the wind blows more than 10 knots.

My order for the D Zero remains in place, there's no way I'd have held the Aero 9 and nor would I have caught anything up in an Aero 7 so it kind of comes down to the 'one boat does it all' rig size, what I'd really like is both boats but it's been a state secret up until now that I'm even thinking of a 4th boat, I may have to sell the EPS...

Tale of two noses

One goes through, the other bounces over.

Edited by iGRF - 30 Jun 14 at 11:08am

Originally posted by jeffers That is what you get when you organise a club exclusive day....

It was actually a club open day at Grafham Water Sailing Club on Saturday - anyone could have turned up and taken the D-Zero or RS-Aero for a test sail.

Originally posted by sandgrounder Originally posted by jeffers That is what you get when you organise a club exclusive day.... It was actually a club open day at Grafham Water Sailing Club on Saturday - anyone could have turned up and taken the D-Zero or RS-Aero for a test sail.

Did they tell anyone else that?