Messages

Hi
We are planning to be there.  
 
Meadowcrofts

Kevin - bring the kids.  We miss them!
Neal - interesting decision!

D.B.Cooper is coming.  I am going to take the kids sailing.  Wont be camping this time though.

Welcome back
I remember sailing at Ardleigh 20+ years ago.  The marks were memorable.  They were like giant mushrooms!
Take it easy with the kids and I am sure they will enjoy it.  How old are they?
We are very keen to encourage parent / child combinations out in 12s.
John Meadowcroft

Hi Richard
I assume you are referring to the mainsheet.
It is very simple in that at only 12 foot long space in the boat is at a premium.  Space is important as the boat can be unforgiving to poor fore and aft trim and the ability to move freely about the boat is highly important.  As a result most, but not all boats, are rear sheeted.
John

Brian, we need a surname to use the year book!
Many crews may not have one either!

Ollie and I will be there

They are not smaller, but the rules around mainsail cross heights have changed.
 
Designers struggled to make sails to the maximum bottom height but could easily reach the maximum top and half heights.  If they did because the batten length is limited they suffered from the batten poking into the middle of the sail and causing a distortion.  There is a famous photo of N1 which shows just this problem!
 
A rule was put in place which moved some of the "unused" allowance from the bottom of the sale to the top, essentially pivotting around the middle height.
 
The outcome was that sails are a touch bigger overall as the area that was not being used now gets used.

Thanks to Lisa and all at Shoreham SC for a great weekend.  I will go to a lot of BBQs to go to a better one than the one we had on Saturday. Splendid weather, a sea breeze today when we feared it might be a drifter.  I could go on.  It was a fantastic weekend.
John

This is clearly a tricky problem and I won't pretend to have an easy answer.  However...
Why would you ask the association membership about foiling rudders making the boat more appealing?  Surely that is a question to be asked of those who don't have a 12 - they are the majority and those reading this and contributing to it are a clear and vocal minority section of the minority!
The members once said that a 4 day Championships was more appealing than a 6 day Championships.  It actually seems to be more like that it is equally appealing.
As this is about the rules, winged rudders have always been allowed.  In fact i think 2014 is the 20 year anniversary of T-foil rudders in N12s so it could be argued that there is nothing new under the sun.  There was, however, a rule change in approx 2010 which gave clarity to "normal rudder fittings" (well actually deleted the phrase as it was so unclear) but this made it easier for people to retro fit more than anything.  It enabled nothing as if you had a set up such as mine, the old rule was fine.   It also limited size which again was sensible.  It is right that the Merlins chose to ban when they arrived on 12s and that does not seem to have been a bad choice for them to make.  They had no boats in the fleet whereas the 12s had not been concerned by more than 10 years of development before they started winning things.  Indeed many people had told me we were barking up the wrong tree!  I think that banning things for the 12 would have been pretty brave given the interest in foiling moths etc in the last 10 years.  
And lets be clear that you dont have to have a DCB to have a chance of winning a race, but you do probably need a winged rudder or a better idea than that to do it at the moment.  3431 (a feeling foolish) is being sailed by teenagers with a home built rudder as part of a school project.  The biggest expense for them has been the new sails.   It is possible, but it is not easy.  The reality is most of those at the front of the fleet chose to buy new boats rather than retro fit, and a further reality is that we all have less time to fiddle / tune our boats than maybe we would like to.
For the record I am off to Salcombe next weekend in a borrowed boat as mine is not available.  No T-foil, still hope to win a race though and certainly believe it is possible!  John Thornton won the October meeting at Salcombe a couple of years back.  We will have fun, will probably struggle upwind for speed at times and will probably find downwind harder but not certainly not slower as all that drag from wings does limit top speed.
Come and join us!
John
N3543

Meadowcrofts coming, and for Easter too

Hi Alex
Congratulations on your purchase.  What number have you got?
I am surprised to hear it described as a fixed position.  A number of baggy trousers had mast attached to a "mighty screw". This was a threaded rod which allowed the mast to be moved (albeit most easily when not sailing) to adjust the rake.  How is the mast fixed?
Assuming that it does not have a mihgty screw, you will find that a new mast ram is expensive, although you might find one second hand / boat jumble.
A set of lowers can be made up quite cheaply, but you will still have a reasonable investment in decent blocks / rope so that you are able to adjust whilst on the water.  Lowers can clearly give you both fore and aft stiffness as well as sideways stiffness.
On balance option B or C would be best - As you have identified, you need to control mast bend.
John

Hi Felix
We can't come which is a shame.  Hope you have a good event.
John M
3543

Hi, lots of opinions here.  I wish more people sailed N12s than they do.  It worries me that fewer people want them.  I fear they have progressively become more complex in a world where many people want off the shelf.
I am commited to the Class.   I have been Class chairman twice as the class has been in decline.  I have purchased 3 of the last 30 boats built. This includes trying to get the budget Rondar boat going 5 years ago and a one off two years ago.
I love sailing with both my wife and my children.
I enjoy spending time with the people who sail these boats.
I think that the modern boats are more exciting than the previous generation.  I think that there remains a huge opportunity within the rules to try new things.  This may concern others into trying new things.
Interestingly Jo Richards advocates allowing wooden built planked boats to be allowed a lower weight limit to promote more amateur building.  I fear that this is a small market and that building is complex when customers want more off the shelf.  
Crew weight is a perceived issue, but I have always been at the top end of it and have coped.  Foils are fun although transporting them around needs a little bit of planning.  The rule change to limit size is useful.  T-foils are quick all around somewhere like Salcombe so I think the restricted water comments are wrong.
My issue with the boat / current rule set is that our sails have got a little out of hand if you go for all the unmeasured area that is possible the jib does not last very long.  
As stated by Nick, the Ballantine home rudders are excellent and can be copied and retro fitted to a foolish for example.  
However things are not rosy.  I am pretty sure that the average age of the N12 sailor has gone up a little every year for the last 25 years as sailors hung on and insufficient people joined the class.  The boats are better than they were 25 years ago, and probably relatively better boats than the competition.  However, being a better boat may not be enough on its own.  The reality is that there are very few classes which can argue to be in very good health.  I will name the Merlin and Solo as two but am struggling to give you a third.  However, without doubt there are more which are in better health than we are.  
The most important metric is people going sailing.  3543 is in the shed but we have borrowed a non t-foil foolish for Burghfield this weekend.  Why don't you come along?

Meadowcrofts planning to be there.