Weight changes?????

Jimbo41 · 04 Oct 2006, 12:32

Hi peeps!

Rumours abound about a possible further decrease in Minimum weight rule.

I know I'm not "down to weight" myself but am personally a little bit worried :-/ 'cos I want to stay with wood - It'll go "boing" but won't crack like an eggshell and repairs are relatively easy to do oneself without having to inhale too much nasty gubbins. No offense Mike & Co.

Can anyone confirm/deny what's in the offing?

Jim (N3130 - Nuttyshell, Wood is Good)

John Meadowcroft · 04 Oct 2006, 01:27

a rumour - i had not heard......

it is a little bit like getting rid of the leader of the labour party. all you need is 25 (or a similar number) of people to support your resolution and you can call for an EGM.

at an EGM there would be a vote, and to change the Class rules, the meeting would have to be both quorate (about 25 members, see the constitution of the Class in the handbook) and the resolution would need to be past by 75% of the voters.

Don't know what messages are getting to Germany, but was not a rumour to be heard at either Salcombe, Porthpean, Starcross, Henley, or the recent N12 weddings that I have been to..... unless I am not as well connected as I think I am....

meds (overweight)
N2503 (overweight) N3473 (lots of lead)

Jimbo41 · 04 Oct 2006, 01:57

Thanks for the info. meds!

I was also present at Porthpean.

The rumours appear to have come from a survey conducted at around that time on this discussion board....

I was not looking forward to having to loose 20 Kg personally.....

I can't take it off the hull

Jim N3130

Mikey C · 04 Oct 2006, 04:39

Thats a shame.

Jimbo42 · 04 Oct 2006, 05:02

rick perkins · 04 Oct 2006, 06:51

As a newbie the weight system looks odd to me ...

Why not set a new weight - say 82kgs and include everything in it sails, boom, rudder the lot.

That way the all up weight would perhaps come down a wisker and people with older boats would have more variables to exploit to "make the weight" and it would be a much simpler rule.

I suspect there should be no moves that obsolete any boats.

In the past the weight has been reduced - how wes the issue managed then?

Rick

davidg (Guest) · 04 Oct 2006, 07:18

The weight argument has gone on for years.

I think that it was Uffa Fox who said that the only useful weight is in steam rollers.

The reallity is that most of the d/b boats and a few of the AC boats have the scope to remove probably 5kg by taking out correctors, possibly a bit more.

However since the Torquay Burton the mood of the class has been that it is more important to consolidate than to make older boats less competitive.

The dilemma is do we make the class more exciting for experienced D/B sailors at the expense of making the class more difficult for less experienced. Most of the often suggested ways of improving the package present the same paradox.

I am actually coming round to the opinion that a big downwind sail should have been adopted a long time ago! That is one man's opinion and not that of the class.

Cheers,

David
N3461

rick perkins · 04 Oct 2006, 08:02

My gut feel is that knocking 5kgs off the weight of the boat would make little difference so why bother at the expense of making some boats "uncompetitive".

At the current weight the N12 is a light boat compared to others ... in fact is the N12 the lightest 2 person boat?

Rick

Edit: This site lists the classes; seems we are the lightest bar the Cherub. The Firefly is 74kgs but I guess that is without the mast. Seems our boat is light enough ... why mess and upset some people?

The Tasar seems the exception and the figure for the RS200 is a lot lower than the boats I owned.

http://www.noblemarine.co.uk/dinghydatabase.php3

foaminatthedeck (Guest) · 04 Oct 2006, 08:26

My feeling would be that if the weight was to be reduced then other more dramatic changes sould be introduced, spinnakers, racks, fully batterened sails, wing masts etc.
There on way that I'd change my street legal that dramaticaly but it would an incentive to build something new and radical.
The Cherubs are 50kg(?) and many of there boats are homebuilt to some extent.
Idealy I quite like to sail something like a 12ft B14.
I know the vast majority will disagree, just my point of view.

Jimbo42 · 04 Oct 2006, 08:50

rick perkins · 04 Oct 2006, 10:35

Seems to me the current position achieves a good balance between giving the new builds some challenge but embraces the existing boats.

If it anint broke don't fix it ...

Rick

Tim L (Guest) · 04 Oct 2006, 11:04

I think the class loses a lot of people after their first season or two as the boat handling is quite challenging with the 12 and they never really get to grips with it (at least this seems to have been the case with the starcross fleet). I think reducing the weight would risk exacerbating this by making the boat twitchier.

However on the other side the class can't be held back on the account of boats that don't take any part in the events and the AC turnouts at opens/nationals are getting smaller with a lot of people having traded up and most other AC boats only being club sailed.

Related to the above about boat handling is that a lot of AC (and some DB...) owners perhaps would do better to worry less about the weight and more about their boat-handling as few ACs are sailed in such a way that 10kg either way would make much odds anyway...

rick perkins · 05 Oct 2006, 07:58

How would reducing the weight (say 5kgs) benefit the class and/or the owners?

Antony (Guest) · 05 Oct 2006, 08:28

I know nothing about these rumours and have no intention of leading the class through any further rule changes.

Antony

rick perkins · 05 Oct 2006, 08:36

There we have it - now lets think about somthing else ...

Weight changes?????

davidg (Guest)

foaminatthedeck (Guest)

Tim L (Guest)

Antony (Guest)