Robin Newbold wrote:Well, that's disappointing.
Hi Robin,
Yes I understand your response as it seems that we are not being progressive by adopting a new development within the Class racing.
We have been a committed one design fleet and our guiding principles over the years to preserve our one design class has been to approve small changes that:
1) have no (or very little) performance effect
2) are of low cost
3) can be easily retrofitted to old boats so no boats become obsolete as a result of the changes.
These rules have kept our class strong yet a little bit flexible as small changes have been allowed (unlike the Dart 18 which has been very strict and not accepted any changes). Clearly the DX sail contravenes the first two of these principles.
If you look round the catamaran sailing scene most of the older classes which had "pin-head" sails came up with square top sails as a conversion kit which were adopted by the class associations. This includes the Hurricane, Tornado, Shearwater, Catapult and many more. In fact the only 2 catamaran fleets of significant size that have not are the Dart 18 and the Sprint 15.
The really interesting question is why the Hurricane (and other pinhead configuration Cats) fleet disappeared so quickly once a new and expensive faster configuration was introduced. Clearly the number of used Hurricanes kicking around is still the same number but the old configuration ones just stopped being used both at Club level and on the circuit and they now have a very low resale value as no one wants them. As soon as you introduce a new variant no one wants the old variant as it is perceived to be out of date. So you think that you are adding a new and exciting variant that may sell 10 or so sails but in doing so you turn off all interest in the standard variant (of which we have some 2000 boats and 300 or so class members). In the Hurricane fleet the travellers quickly dropped from about 30 boats to 5. If you now look at the current 'fleet' to identify the guys who bought the SX conversion and the Square top mainsail they have mostly moved on for lack of decent competition so it ends up a lose/lose option and hardly anyone sails the boat any more. Andy Webb looks the loneliest guy in the whole show at the Dinghy Show each year (Andy is the Hurricane class version of Steve Sawford and he mans the Hurricane stand at Alexandra Palace each year).
So the committee prefer to satisfy the majority of our owners and to preserve the one design objective in the class racing.
Ray and Steve have done a good job on the development of the DX rig and it now performs well. There is no reason why DX configuration will not be accepted in club racing and handicap events but the committee preference is to exclude it from class association traveller events and National Championships.
If you look at other classes the Rooster 8.1 is a modification to the Laser. It has a larger mainsail and new top section of the mast and is particularly suitable for heavyweight helms. It has its own PY handicap and competes in handicap opens but is not allowed in Laser Opens. It has been fairly successful and now has its own Nationals plus, I believe, a few traveller events. This is the path that the committee would prefer to see the DX follow.
Cheers
Bob
PS The reason this debate came up so quickly is that Steve Sawford is planning to exhibit the DX at the Dinghy show in March and it will be next to the standard Sprint 15. We felt that we had to clarify the position before the show for the benefit of existing owners and also potential buyers of the DX rig. The questions and answers help in that respect.