BOL Sailors

[kipstar]

Hmmmmm...anybody sail a nonracing boat???

Or is that too much to expect on an alpine site?

I have tried it a couple of times, it's too boring to hold my interest :-) I love not racing my boat too, just blasting around.

The Antrim 25 is a nice boat; the articulating prod though works better on a boat like that which is a bit heavier; the lighter the boat, the more we sail on apparent wind, so the less need for it to articulate. Also, we just add an extra 1m of length on it, and that's at least as much benefit, maybe more. :-)

Those Ultimate 20s and 25s are very nice though; neither class exists in the southern hemisphere but a very nice boat indeed.

The Shaw is (excluding crew but with all the sails, engine, gear etc) 340kg/750lb. That's including the keel bulb which makes up 100kg/220lb of that total displacement. Our power comes from a medium size rig (main 19sqm/200sq ft, jib 8sqm/85 sq ft) with a reasonably decent sized kite (53sqm/550sq ft) set on a very long prod.

To give you an idea the U20 (which is actually the same length) weighs 1260lbs/572kg. The A25 weighs in at 2000lb+/900kg. Even including 4 crew, the Shaw is running at 660kg total approx, with slightly more sail area downwind and the only dead weight really being the bulb (which is dead until you tip over!).

BY comparison, an 18, which is the most high powered unballasted boat of roughly similar size weighs in at around 160kg I think, including the racks. The Shaw if you went full carbon nomex etc maybe you could get it down another 50kg, but that's about it. A sportsboat needs to carry the keel bulb as well, so you are getting quite light already even at 340kg.

505s and 470s are a great little machine. 505 will plane upwind AFAIK (both classes are basically already dead in NZ, but back when I was sailing a moth class in NZ called a starling, these were popular) and man they fly downwind. Its a pity these boats died a bit.

Have you seen in the laser class they now have the rooster rig upgrade, which is the oppoosite to the laser radial, instead it is an oversize main about another 1.5sqm; for the 'big boys' taking the laser into Finn painbox territory. It's a testiment to the boat that it sails well with a tiny rig, a moderate rig, the class rig, and not a larger rig too.

In light conditions, knowing how to engage the 4th mode as Bethwaite describes it (bow down, stern out, slightly heeled to leeward) seems critical on planing shape boats, otherwise you are dragging a ton of water.

My brief experience in lasers is that the level they are well sailed out, the use of kinetics (using every wave, every little ripple, roll tacking, etc etc) and the way in which they are sailed is very very high now. One of my crew represented Thailand in the Sydney olympics in a laser (mid fleet) and its a joy having him sail with us because he uses the same approach in kinetics on my boat; something people from a dinghy background 'get' but keelboat and lead mine sailors (or grader sailors as we describe displacement boats in NZ) don't really get.

[skatha]

We have a MacGregor 26M...

Yes, I know it's the "Toyota" of sailing but we like it...

[Arje_Vandemeer]

I've got a 74 Laser, sail number 14565. Still cooks along, dry and fast!

I was watching some Optimists and Lasers around the bouys in strong winds today...and for the first time I have seen kids standing on the side of their Lasers as if they were on trapeze, but there was NO trapeze on these regular Lasers. (I know the Laser II has a jib, spinnaker and trapeze, but these were regular Lasers today). I have never seen that done before on a regular Laser. Those kids must have had GOOD balance, as the only thing they were holding onto was the tiller extension and the mainsheet, and the mainsheet comes in at a pretty low angle.

Anyway, was fun to watch...boats were flipping right and left, but coming right back up almost instantly! That's what I love about small planing hulls...they are so easy to right!! The kids were having fun.

The younger kids were in the Optimists. I've grown to like those little bath-tub boats...they seem to have a lot of HEART for a small little boat. Grat boat to learn on for a young 8 yr old kid!!

By the way...one thing I forgot to mention about the Force 5 versus Laser thing is that the Force 5 has quite a deeper rudder, giving the helmsman more steering control when at high heel (say rounding a bouy or such). I think the daggerboard might be a little deeper as well.