Dinghy Show....

tonyelgar · 11 Mar 2009, 07:14

Does the rondar boat not have a foredeck? maybe its the picture playing tricks on me but it appears to be open at the front there. Nice looking boat though! Dont think i can talk the better half round into purchasing one right now though :-P

Tony

Louisa · 11 Mar 2009, 07:18

Of course I meant to say that the new National 12 does feature briefly in the video report...
http://www.cowes.co.uk/zonexml/story?story_id=6169;cp=0

Martin · 11 Mar 2009, 08:39

John
Do you use a conventional rudder when sailing on restricted water or can the exotic one be used to good effect on the rivers and such like?
I guess as the boat is as tall as a block of flats comparitively speaking and self draining a foredeck is rather surplus to requirements?

grazz · 11 Mar 2009, 09:01

Nice video Louisa, very professional - makes the Dinghy Show look totally action packaged. Good to see the Paradigm get a mention.

John Meadowcroft · 11 Mar 2009, 10:42

No foredeck. The boat has a lot of freeboard. If water is coming over the bow you have got it really wrong!
Rudder. We have been cheating a little in this regard. The winged rudder sits in a daggerboard cassette. You lift it up and the wings then "tack" inside the transom flaps (Not yet sorted on the boat at the show). Our prototype cassette (very different from the Rondar Boat) was very stiff and not very easy to use so for genuinely inland sailing we just used a standard Winder rudder. Next time I will have a Rondar style cassette - actually made by Mike Cooke. There is no problem using the "exotic" rudder though. The real challenge is developing a system which allows you to go from foil in the water to foil out of the water with minimal hassle. Gavin Willis achieved this on the original Paradigm by using a buoyant rudder. It floated up as soon as the control line was released. However the section was inferior to the one which is now used on all of the Paradigms, which is a Mike Cooke foil.
John

Martin · 12 Mar 2009, 11:25

If this rudder system was adopted on other 12's such as Foolishes etc, would there be a gain in performance there too?

johnk · 13 Mar 2009, 09:44

Martin - try it and see :-). It should not be too difficult to retrofit.

John Meadowcroft · 13 Mar 2009, 07:41

It might well work, as johnk says - try it! It should be noted that the under water hull shapes are very different as well as the top sides. The Paradigm has a lot of rocker where the Foolish has much less. The T-foil rudder influences the way that the water (or the wave) leaves the boat. The back end of the boat is a very important factor - the hull and the rudder need to work together. In fact it is quite amazing how different the Foolish/Numinous/Paradox (lets call them Daser designs) are from the Chapter and the Paradigm. And then there is Jo Richards new ship...
I know that a T-Foil is being trialled on a Final Chapter this summer which will be interesting. I also believe that there is a Numinous in build which is likely to have one too. Will you be seen with out one this summer!

Martin · 14 Mar 2009, 09:18

Perhaps something for P&B to think about for their Feeling Foolish options list...............