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Solo changes survey |
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Sam.Spoons
Really should get out more Joined: 07 Mar 12 Location: Manchester UK Online Status: Offline Posts: 3398 |
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Topic: Solo changes survey Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 10:43am |
But would binning the correctors make a new Solo cheaper? Corrector weights can't cost more than £30 with scrap lead at £1.25/kg and you are only paying for them once (on a new boat costing nearly £8k).
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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish" |
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davidyacht
Really should get out more Joined: 29 Mar 05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1345 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 11:17am |
FRP Solos are very nice, come with up to date kit, but a good sailor in a well sorted wooden boat can still give most of us a hard time, so it is wrong to write off the wooden boats which offer a possible affordable entry point into the class.
Wooden boats should and do remain as an option. I will not be supporting any proposed weight reduction, partly because of this, but more because the effect will be to move the optimum sailing weight down. The optimum weight at the moment is 13 stone, with a competitive range between 11 and 15 stone. Historically classes that have reduced hull weight have also ended up with lighter sailors at the fore, because the crew weight becomes a more significant proportion of the overall weight. Carbon masts imo would be great for those with deep pockets, but by the time that you have bought the matching sail this could be £2.5 to retro fit, and will add at least £1k to the new boat price. The mast that the Dutch showed at Carnac was agricultural and nothing like the quality of the Carbon masts seen on Phantoms or Merlins, both of which have supply issues. IMO this change is a complete non starter and would kill the class. Transom change ... this would simplify the build and reduce costs, not a bad thing. Talk of fixed rudders could be an undesirable consequence, the current lifting rudders are well engineered, light and solid in a breeze. Personally I think lifting rudders should be compulsory. I am very pro the flooding tank (as an option) and modifying the coffee table; anything that can be done to help all of us to sail into old age is a bonus and should be encouraged. A cheaper solution to the latter would be to allow the mast step to be raised by 50mm or possibly a mm for every year of the owners age! If the flooding tank would give sailors more confidence about righting a capsized boat, then this has to be a good thing. There are a number of tongue in cheek jibes at the aging Solo community, in truth many of the baby booming sailors of the late sixties through to the early eighties have got Solos and the racing is the most fun that I have had in years. Hopefully the NSCA will come to a quick decision on how best to proceed, since I suspect that many new entrants to the class will be waiting to see what happens, which isn’t great for our builders.
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Happily living in the past
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ian.r.mcdonald
Far too distracted from work Joined: 24 Feb 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 440 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 1:43pm |
Sensible suggestions David.
You missed the inevitable change to a loose footed main when rivet on tracks stick and start separating from the boom. New sail needed. I am seeing the centreboard cap removal as allowing the fast guys even more rake and making sailing with knackered knees tougher if we try and copy the settings. Or do you think this will be an advantage for us "old and past its"?. Or will there be more kneeling downwind ? Edited by ian.r.mcdonald - 07 Sep 19 at 1:44pm |
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iGRF
Really should get out more Joined: 07 Mar 11 Location: Hythe Online Status: Offline Posts: 6496 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 2:45pm |
Well speaking as a 'modern generation' sailor that came to the Solo for a while and left, I have to say lots of the stuff that takes out the fiddle factor is good news, are we talking wash through hulls, carbon mast boom and no having to thread the wiggle stick through a slot?
I did enjoy my brief encounter with the beast but in the end I was put on the spot and had to choose between the Solo and my Solution and it wasn't really much of a contest, if only the Solution would go carbon but that's another tale. So anything that makes it lighter to hump about the boat park, not have bloody self balers, lets face it stack it and your done and that threading the bloody foot of the sail into the boom how arcane is that? |
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iGRF
Really should get out more Joined: 07 Mar 11 Location: Hythe Online Status: Offline Posts: 6496 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 2:48pm |
I wonder if Streaker people are reading this.. lol maybe my plan for and all carbon streaker will come to fruition after all to carry me into my eighties..
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JimC
Really should get out more Joined: 17 May 04 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 6648 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 3:40pm |
A change that I'd like to see on the Solo and a lot of other older classes would be a change to the sail rules to shorten the leech and bring the boom height back to what the designer intended now that umpteen times more rake is used than was drawn. Need very little extra roach to make for the same area. But I expect I'm the only one.
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Sam.Spoons
Really should get out more Joined: 07 Mar 12 Location: Manchester UK Online Status: Offline Posts: 3398 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 4:12pm |
No, that would make sense to me too.
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Spice 346 "Flat Broke"
Blaze 671 "supersonic soap dish" |
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davidyacht
Really should get out more Joined: 29 Mar 05 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1345 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 4:20pm |
Don’t think that a loose foot main is too much of an issue from a performance perspective, but I don’t think carbon really has a place with the Solo on cost grounds. Nor am I convinced that sailors will go for more rake, at the most extreme upwind settings you compromise downwind speed, and the only people this really works for is the sailors who can get clear enough at the windward mark and are far enough ahead not to get hauled in. Jim’s suggestion is a good one and I made this suggestion in the Survey Monkey questionnaire.
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Happily living in the past
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maxibuddah
Really should get out more Joined: 06 Mar 09 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 1760 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 5:02pm |
iGRF, to get rid of the bailers you'd have to raise the height of the floor which would change the boat completely, really not what the Solo is about. I would get rid of the archane centreboard capping. Whenever I have set foot in a Solo (which is not often admittedly) the damn thing gets in the way and I keep smacking my shins on it. Its in the way of my feet when I'm hiking out too. The only benefit I can see from getting rid of the hole in the transom for the tiller is to make it easier to build, stick with a lifting rudder, much easier to use.
As for loose footed sail, why not? That bit of material in the foot is a waste of time, does nothing other than flap about. Perhaps a carbon boom would be a benefit, doesn't hurt so much on the bonce when you get it wrong, plus it stays out where you put it on the run. However it is really necessary other than that? Probably not. As for the mast, it seems that there are enough options for all weights the Solo supports, but I bet you that if you go carbon you'll end up with lighter and lighter helms in the class, good for them but could alienate the heavier ones. Would be easier to handle on shore though however would ramp the costs up intensely. Certainly in the Phantoms you've got to have "the" mast and thats the cost of a decent second hand boat. Do you want that? I'd stick with the ali one you've already got.
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Everything I say is my opinion, honest
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ian.r.mcdonald
Far too distracted from work Joined: 24 Feb 06 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 440 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 07 Sep 19 at 5:12pm |
I was making the loose foot point just to highlight that the change to carbon boom is actually going to be carbon boom and a new sail. Ok, sails wear out but a £1500 bill just make the boat look more modern and soften the blow when you dont duck ( once a year?) seems ott
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