Solo Opinions?

Originally posted by jeffers Originally posted by Fatboi Not quite true about the performance. The guy who was 11th at the nationals last year sailed a composite boat that is probably 10-12 years old. He had an old wavelength rig and edge sail. Not what you would consider top gear but with 3 results in the top 10 you cannot say it held back too much!  The first wave of FRP boats is around that age now. They came as composites as well as there is one at my local club. It still can't keep pace with the current generation though.

Some clarifications and observations

The 5% came from the data used for our personal handicapping system. All results are converted to % of winners corrected time. So the number includes not only any difference in boat speed, but also consequences of slower boatspeed ie dirty air, more traffic at mark roundings etc.

The spread of finish times in a large fleet usually approaches 25% of winners time. It would be interesting to see times and work out how much 5% time results in place changes in different parts of the fleet.

Well built epoxy/foam sandwich boats seem to have a very long competitive lifespan.

Something I must do is to figure out which classes have had wholesale moves to foam sandwich without major design changes and compare PY numbers before and after the change. One naturally thinks of Merlins and Phantoms, but there will be others.

Edited by JimC - 27 Feb 19 at 11:24am

Agreed

You may survive with 1 or 2% less boatspeed but losing 5m every 100m …

- youd be lucky to finish on the same leg

My Miles beats modern frp boats consistently and looks 500% better. When Taxi comes to Blithfield for a pre event tune up, strangely the positions are hugely changed!.

If you have somewhere to store a double floor wooden boat during the hard frosts, then saving £3k+ against a " white boat" is the sensible choice.

Not the easiest of boats to sit as far forward as you need to be when it's light I found. That quite honestly waste of space traveller thing makes it awkward as does all the other gubbins and clutter. I was forced to choose by SWMBO, it was felt six boats in two clubs was over the top so Solution or Solo became bit of a no brainer really even though I did enjoy some moments of sailing it and of course like hitting your head on a brick wall it was great when it was over.