Dinghies in 2020

Originally posted by turnturtle that's what I was thinking... last time I sailed a L2 (not too dissimilar really) in those kind of winds only 1/5th of us finished the race with boats intact, the rest were scattered and shattered all over Plymouth Harbour. Student National 1997, a year of carnage.

Remember that well, I was on the comittee boat after we snapped the furball mast the day before!  Loads of folks abandoning boats, I lept in and sailed two L2s in after their crews got picked up by safety boats.  Once the squwall was through it was only a 4-5. 

Originally posted by English Dave Just wondering why we are arguing about a boat's performance in a F6. Of course, boats can be sailed in all conditions (in theory) but no competent RO would set a course above a F5 (and only then in flat water). A F6 is a "hang on for dear life" conditions and doesn't adequately reflect a boat's abilities. You want to tell me you can be fully controlled in a F6 at all times and I'll argue that you are carrying 4m on a wave-board. It's like comparing a Mini to a Ferrari on the basis of them both driving off a cliff. And we are discussing racing dinghies instead.

 

I'm pretty sure the top level sailors could argue to be in complete control in a force 6. Arguably you don't need complete control, just enough so that the boat isn't controling you.

erm......................link your knottage is a bit out chap

If you wanna do 30knots just get on your windsurfer. If you want to sail singlehanded dinghies then you can pretty much forget 30knots and 25 off foils is servely pushing it. There's too much drag from a single hander . A moth is fast becasue its on the foils.

Edited by Smight at BBSC

Stepped hulls, inverse chines and flat rocker increase drag at low speeds,
like the Warp X380 shows*.

You're right, you don't have innovations unless you try things, but the
dinghies have also had a huge number of innovations over the past few
decades; hydrofoils, wings, assymetric spinnakers, high-tension rigs,
floppy-top rigs, floppy-bottom rigs, tunnel hulls, short hulls, long hulls,
scow hulls, skinny hulls....

And dinghies didn't just develop as you claim - most of the most
advanced ones are no more "overpowered" in light
winds these days than they were years ago, and they often need LESS
weight to hold them down these days.

And is there much evidence to show that boards developed further faster
in terms of speed around the course over the normal dinghy course? As
you say, when the boards came out they were about the same speed as a
comparable dinghy (ie Laser or Moth). Now the most radical course-
racing board (Formula) is a bit faster than the fastest comparable dinghy
(Moth) in medium to strong winds, but in the light stuff the Moth is miles
quicker.

So some boards are faster in a breeze than the dinghies; that's no great
drama since something like an MPS is much quicker in the light stuff than
a (non-pumping) board.

Respect is due all-round, and since the boats ARE advancing as quickly as
the boards it seems that there's not as much space for speed
improvements in 11 years as you think. And maybe we should applaud
the dinghies for maintaining their racing numbers better than boards did,
and learn from that.

PS

Yes, boards have developed more than dinghies for strictly medium to big
wind sailing on open water, but that's because that's an aspect of sailing
that dinghies rarely bother about. It would be interesting to see just what
30 years of developing dinghies to go down a speed course would have
produced.


*For non-windsurfers, that's a long Raceboard with a step at the back. It
also has an infill piece that you leave out for strong winds, but put in
place for light winds to give the board a normal even rocker line, which is
a recognition of the fact that steps are slow in the light. Great board, but
maybe not the most practical idea for dinghies.

Edited by Chris 249

http://www.htsboarderdivision.com/videos/HTS%20Boards%20Wave %20Radical-WR%20Line/HTS-Video-Player.html

Its being tried on boards but for different reasons, interesting but unlikely ever to be practical on a boat