My vote would be to allow a maximum surface area (rudder and daggerboard) and let the individual determine how they wanted to distribute the surface area allotment. If someone wants to make a 10 foot board and swim the boat the last 1/4 mile (about 1/2 a km in Greg's more enlightened measurement world), they should be allowed to build the 10 foot board. And swim their heart out.
Rousseau often argued for general community laws with the small points being handled by individuals. I think this is a perfect case. We should not put forward an amendment simply because something "might" happen and someone "might" have a problem and it "may" create a difficulty bringing in the boat to the beach. And something "might" get broken.
All those "might/may" issues are "owner/designer/idiot" issues and not "class" issues. The Class Rules are for building the Solo and designing appendages within a box. Not for protecting a builder from him/herself. In this amendment there is a measure of class protection of members that is not called for anywhere else in the rules.
Do we start putting rubber bumpers on the boom so we can call it a biff?
Leave it alone and let's move on to issues that have import now.
Keith
On Jun 15, 2005, at 6:51 AM, BDally6107@xxxxxxx wrote:
From: BDally6107@xxxxxxx
Date: June 15, 2005 6:50:37 AM PDT
To: Christian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: an ammendment to the class rules
Christian,
Good to hear from you
Once a few 7 foot long 6" wide boards have been made by Swift owners I personally will fight like hell to convince the class that they should never be banned. It is unjust to those who go through the trouble and expense of doing the R&D to change the rules in the middle of the game when it can be avoided with simple planning. I currently have a boat with a cut down 49er blade and one with a 53" blade and can tell you with certainty that when landing or starting from a beach, the longer 53" blade is significantly more difficult to deal with alone. Add a couple of feet and only those of us who are lucky enough to sail several times a week will get good enough to beech the boat without breaking vang arms and tearing the cheeks out of mainsails when the wind is up.
It could be argued that the difficulty of using the longer blade will be self limiting, however, I fear that you may have no choice if you expect to have a chance to win in light to medium air.
The "faster, easier, cheaper" principle was intended to be taken in context. I could have designed the Swift in the beginning to be significantly faster if we were willing to give up "easier" Honoring the principle means that we should strive, whenever possible, to accomplish all three simultaneously. With the extreme blades we will significantly reduce the number of people who can sail the boat competitively.
This proposed rule change should not discourage people from experimenting with blade planforms or sections. It is, I believe, in keeping with the spirit of the class there remains a lot of other potential worthwhile experiments within the 55" limitation. Even open development classes have limitations and it is often those restrictions that lead to real innovation. It has been an eye opener to see the latest I-14's become as fast as well sailed 49ers that are 2 1/2 feet longer and 2 1/2 feet wider. I'm more convinced than ever that the Swift is the fastest single handed trapeze skiff to date and the longer blades will likely add 1/20th of a knot of boat speed in light to medium winds (this amounts to 50 yards for every half hour of racing).
If the class rejects such a rules change, I am the first to admit that I will begin development of a seven foot board. I will redevelop my mainsail to eliminate the cheeks and move the vang back to the top of the boom to facilitate hoisting the blade 30 inches in heavy air (the very latest I-14s are doing this). Since I mostly sail from a dock in very deep water, it is not a problem for me or others here in Seattle. We do need to decide if this is in the best interest of the class.
Best regards,
Bram This is the Swift Solo mailing list. For unsubscribe instructions,
visit here: http://catzooks.com/swift-solo/
|