Solo changes survey

Since I won't be buying a new boat, the changes would have made buying something uncompetitive less attractive.

Edited by Sam.Spoons - 25 Oct 19 at 6:03pm

I think it's a sensible move. From a purely selfish POV introducing the changes would have made me less likely to consider a Solo in the future.

The Association have just published an update. None of the proposed changes will be put to a vote and the Solo will continue in its existing popular form.

I think our builders phones will be busy on Monday with enquiries about orders!

I disagreed with the proposals, but well done the Committee in giving up their time to work for the class.

Originally posted by Sam.Spoons There was a lot of debate in windsurfing circles about the effect of sailor weight vs board weight. Consensus, purely empirically, was that once you were powered up the extra power bigger guys could harness worked in their favour but board weight was always a bad thing. When displacement sailing lightweights have a big advantage but big guys can still do well if they have good pumping technique (pumping is legal on Raceboards).

In div2 times I'd always back volume over weight, better 290 litres at 18 kilos than say 260 lites at 16 kilos because predominantly it was displacement sailing. There must be some sort of equation for this stuff by now at naval architect school.

As to pumping, I could always out pump most all thetime the sail size was manageable, 6.3 in div 2, 7.5 raceboard even 8.5 at a push, but once it went to 9.5sq mtr and as is the case now 9.8, the heavyweights pretty much took over.

I guess the extra size brought the threshold for being powered up further down the wind scale. Lots of folk used to think that the 8.5 the Solo boasts was more of a heavier sailors rig, which I guess back when we were sailing 6.3 and 7.5 maybe it was, but it felt relatively easier to me compared to say the Solution or the EPS, being a lighter person and more susceptible to sail size with the rigs being as fixed as they are in Solo's without the benefit of a carbon mast and half decent depower methods.

Edited by iGRF - 16 Oct 19 at 9:41pm

Crew weight will at least be normally in the right place on the boat whereas boat is normally distributed in the wrong places, unless of course it's correctors.

Edited by maxibuddah - 16 Oct 19 at 9:03pm