Is it me or the Solo

[steviec]

Not wishing to be boring and bringing up the old "it's the handicap mate" debate, I am wondering how many of the good crews sailing 12's can beat a well sailed Solo on the water in sub Force 3 conditions.
My 12, 3422 Low Flight sailing off 1092, caused a few seasoned campaigners to scratch their heads when Dell Quay Sailing Club met Low Flight. A perfect boat for this top of Chichester Harbour sailing club, a new southern fleet?? 
Well so one would think.  
But as many clubs are handicap racing most weekends the chocolates at the end of the season are very important and so is the right boat for such racing. So convincing Laser 2000, RS400 -200 sailors to give a 12 ago is proving tricky.  Put the kite up on a Laser 2000, and byeee. Although their handicap is 1090. Why would these guys give up their end of season glass ware?
I have been pondering: I blame my self for being a middle of the fleet sailor.  Then on Monday, everything seemed to be working fine, my 8 year son and I were sailing towards stardom, in front of 25 boats at the windward mark....Then the solo's came sailing past,
"looking good Steve"
"Thanks Gordon, enjoy the Solo nationals at Felpham"
I then met the Laser sailors in the Club house, "of course Steve our handicap is very bad, coz we are an Olympic class and sailed by top sailors.......
At your club which boats torment your mantel piece at the laying up supper? Mine is the Solo...............

[Shandicrap (Guest)]

Not sure exactly what your question is.  The 12 is one of the shandicap bandits, of course there are others with better handicraps but I’m not sure you’ve named any here.
The boats with asymmetrics will be very competitive on a course with no running and reaches they can carry their kites on.  If the reaches are too tight for their kites and the runs are square you should murder them on handicap
Boats with trapezes will tend to struggle in the light stuff, the Laser sailors are right, for one reason or another their handicap is horrible.
I’ve not sailed directly against a Soslow in the light stuff, but around Salcombe harbour during the open their club fleet is more of a gently moving roadblock.

[steviec]

Question is: Which boat is the nemersis to the 12 on handicap at your local club?

[intheboatshed]

And I thought I was alone at not being able to sail to the 12's handicap............................. One of the reasons I got one is because a number of owners on this forum said how well it sailed to its PY handicap.
At first I thought it must have been me. I'm new to the class and dont have a modern design, but could I really be that bad? I was ending up in the mid/late teens in handicap races. I have been struggling to stay with the Enterprises, on the water, let alone on handicap. And as for the Solos, no one (not just me) appears to be able to touch them in the light stuff - even the REALLY badly sailed ones.I have been getting better, but still struggle to break into the top 10.

I then jumped into a Laser, which I havent sailed for 30 years, and immediately finished in the top 3. Still cannot beat the well sailed Solos though, but at least I was now beating the badly sailed ones!

So it isn't me!


Suspect this just goes to prove that the PY handicap system cannot work in all situations / conditions. And that to get the best out of a 12 takes a lot more practise than I had anticipated. Or maybe I'm just too heavy!


By the way, I sail at Maidenhead, a small gravel pit.


Tim

[Jane Wade]

Hello

Very difficult to put a single handicap on a development class like the twelve - the difference in speed between the newer and older boats is pretty evident at the bigger meetings or at Burton Week(end).  I believe Ken Goddard did a lot of work on club sailing handicaps to help even out the difference in 12 designs through the ages.
Jane 
Crew 3527 Snagglepuss

[steviec]

Hi Jane
So which boat do you find the hardest to beat on handicap and where do you sail?
Steve

[Jane Wade]

HI

I don't very often sail in handicap fleets so cannot really say.  Sorry to be unhelpful!  Husband always seems to think the Merlins are handicap bandits but he might be biased.
Jane

[DavidG (Guest)]

Don't give up! We used to sail regularly in the Chichester Snowflake and would agree that the creeks of Chichester Harbour are ideal for 12's.  Our experience is that 12's perform extremely well to handicap on beat and running courses, especially if there is insufficient wind for assymetrics to perform.  Lasers do well if there are marginal planing reaches.  Unfortunately Solo's also perform well in the same range of conditions.  At CYC we generally level pegged on Handicap with Ian Barnett, I now have a Solo and level peg with Ian Barnett boat for boat!

[shandycrap (Guest)]

I’d never question Mr Wade on the subject of why he’d been beaten, and there’s a reason Tom takes his rocket to the winter handicap races.  I personally think that the committee at the annual handicap adjustment meeting are laughing so hard that people are still building faux clinker dinghies at £15K a pop in 2010 that they run out of time to discuss the numbers.
[face=Arial] [/face]
Those Phantoms can be a bit tasty at times as well.  Still it’s probably not the best idea to tell the big lad driving that he’s not actually very good and he just got lucky with his handicap.

[Martin]

I am currently finding that the British Moths are giving us a hard time in our Foolish on our puddle at the moment. I would like to think we have the edge on skill but that said I know I desperately need to replace the sails.........

[angus]

Generally I find I do ok on handicap until it gets a bit windy which probably means The 12 is a bit of a bandit especially as I am sailing an AC boat. But I do find Solos difficult to beat over the line never mind on handicap.

[jimc (Guest)]

Question is: Which boat is the nemesis to the 12 on handicap at your local club?

Mike Storey's ****** Big Issue is the nemesis to pretty much everything at my club, Island Barn, a medium sized reservoir near Hampton Court, Surrey, in spite of a tweaked handicap. There's a Paradox which does very well too.