Dart 15 Forums

Bob Carter wrote:

Robert wrote:There is also the interesting prospect for people who like trapezing but don't want to bother with a jib. The DX could provide an opportunity for some simple flying in such cases (given suitable wind, that is).

Hi Robert,
So why don't you buy one and use it at Carsington? At £1167 for the DX kit it is certainly not for the parsimonious and looks to be very bad value for money for the small amount of benefit you get off the wind. In an upwind direction it looses out to well sailed unarig and Sport mode boats, and it spoils the class racing.
Cheers
Bob

It's worth considering, Bob. Thanks for the suggestion. It certainly represents better value than buying an RS300 and joining Chelmarsh in order to get more sailing in. Carsington is still a bit far to go on a weekly basis, even though I enjoy my affiliation with said team. Maybe the chosen solution of the Committee is helpful in my case. Since the DX15 is now a separate class, there may be other events I can attend during the summer which are DX or general events. Before I lash out the cash I could perhaps go in Sport mode, just to see what's what. This would not stop me from attending any Sprint 15 events which are practicable for me. More is better as far as I am concerned, but then I'm not the average club sailor. Come to think of it there might be a number of folk who are potential 15 sailors but are not well placed geographically for most of the Sprint 15 events in the year. Whilst Bala is not a Sprint 15 hotspot, if the DX's went there I would consider going too. There is also a Long Distance Race held at Bala Sailing Club, rather than at the Catamaran Club, which cats are allowed to attend, as I understand it. As my knee is suffering a bit of wear and tear the 300 may not have been the wisest investment to make but when one door closes another sometimes opens - cheers!

PS I think that Simon is right that there is unlikely to be a split, and the Committee has made a wise decision at the present time.

Simon

Have you thought about a Dart 12 for Lily?

General opinion is they seem longer than 12", but with a little less sail they are a little more manageable for youngsters. Having said that I sailed one Una rig for a month or 2 & was able to at least hold my own with the 15s, so they are not slow. Dare I say it, a DX sail has been made for the 12 (I was sailing with it), though I don't know if it is in full production.

I'd be really interested to hear how Lily gets on with the cut down sail, what size have you gone for?

Charles

Hi Charles

The aim was that a normal 15 should not require any rigging alterations to use it. Therefore the triangle that is the head,clew and tack is the same as a standard sail - it has been depowered by reducing the curve on the luff thereby reducing the depth and shaving off some of the roach.

I have no idea if it will work as I only took delivery of it this week.

It is just an experiment as Lily has a Pico which sails with her friends but they were keen to sail a Cat themselves, I don't think they can handle the 15 until they are probably aged 16+. The 12 looks lovely but at this stage it seemed a little extravagent to buy yet another boat !

The sail was not expensive at all and if it doesn't work out I could use it as a "storm sail" !

Hi Simon, Great to hear Lily is taking over!! it will not be long, before you could be crewing! and then it seems to quickly move to sailing with friend is more cool! (I am talking from experience)
Back to the Sprint15 and young sailors, we have used the Sprint 15 at Windsport for teaching many young sailors starting around 10 - 12 years old.
Couple of useful thoughts that might help.
1) The minium all up crew weight we found for righting a Sprint 15 in the worst case senario "no wind" is 8 stone 51kg. 2 x young sailors can increase their leaverage when righting considerably by "harness hoping", something they find fun to do. With a little confidence in sailing a catamaran young sailors like capsizing just for fun so it is important they build a confidence in righting a cat.
2) The time when young sailors often need a hand is on the shore getting the boat in and out of the water.
3) We have used for many years a reefing Sprint15 style mainsail for teaching that reduces the sail area from the bottom up. It can be reefed or shaken out on the water and has a float pack in the head. The benifit of reefing down is the reduction in leaverage as well as sail area.
We use the sail often when teaching adults to reduce the power in the boat, so we can focus on techniques. You could take an old Sprint 15 mainsail and get it altered to do almost the same thing. If any one wants some pictures we can send them to you.
Alternatively when you get down to Windsport you can take a look, if it is blowing dogs off chains you can try it out personaly!
Brian Phipps
Windsport Sprint15 Technical support.

Hi Brian

Lily is 36kg and her sailing buddy only about 24kg - so they between them meet the 51kg target ! - We will have to set them the challenge and see what they can do - I've seen the harness hopping technique so we will give it a go - They haven't been out together yet in the Sprint though have both helmed one with their Dads Crewing - If we can get them up to a reasonable standard I'm sure they would make a formidable 2Up team at future nationals !

Simon

Hi Simon, sound good to me. Don,t for get, for harness hoping, heaviest sailor on top if possible ! as they say.
All the best
Brian Phipps
Windsport Sprint 15 technical support

Go on then, what's harness hoping?

I wonder if the DX will start to get the Sprint 15 market moving again?

As far as I can tell nobody has bought or sold a boat in quite a while, the market for both new & old seems completely stagnant.

Hopefully the leads for trial sails which the association got at the Dinghy Show will help a little in this respect, but now is the time when you'd expect the market to be moving.

Charles wrote:I wonder if the DX will start to get the Sprint 15 market moving again?

As far as I can tell nobody has bought or sold a boat in quite a while, the market for both new & old seems completely stagnant.

Hopefully the leads for trial sails which the association got at the Dinghy Show will help a little in this respect, but now is the time when you'd expect the market to be moving.

Hi Charles,

The buy and sell page has turned over a few boats in the last few weeks some only stay on the page a couple of days others take longer. So the secondhand market is still strong, I think.

Martin S.

Martin Searle wrote:

Charles wrote:
As far as I can tell nobody has bought or sold a boat in quite a while, the market for both new & old seems completely stagnant.

Hi Charles,

The buy and sell page has turned over a few boats in the last few weeks some only stay on the page a couple of days others take longer. So the secondhand market is still strong, I think.

Martin S.

Yep, I agree.
If you look carefully at our Buy & Sell column there are just 3 long term ones and the rest have been added in the last couple of months. David Lloyd (our friendly insurance man) was telling me at the dinghy show that he has recently sold 2 boats very quickly and he reckons that our buyers guide is a bit on the low side!
Cheers
Bob
PS David has kept a good set of sails back to use next time he can make our Nationals
PPS Each time a boat is sold we send a welcome note to the buyer and point out the benefits of joining the Sprint 15 Association and indeed most of them join

Charles we have 5 new 15 owners at Shanklin this year, two boats at the club have changed hands and three new boats to the club, so at the moment we have 32 with only room for 30, and I bet I know the person that has to ask two owners to move there boats.

Well I've bought two and sold two 15's and bought an 18 too in recent months. Both 15's were spotted on this forum and the 18 on their forum..

I think that with the quality of the Darts now from Brian (both new boats I thought looked excellent at the show) there will hopefully be some new boats making their way on to the water.

If someone wants a good previously enjoyed boat with a fresh set of DX sails, then that too looks superb.

On the whole I feel we have all possibilities covered and the second hand market should in theory prosper too as a result.

There has been some activity at Thorpe Bay too. Two boats have changed hands in the last fortnight. A third should be sold in-house in the next week or so. Sprints at TBYC don't get as far as the For Sale section.

#1665, based in Fife, looks in good condition. It's only ten miles from my sister. Perhaps I'll get her to pursue sailing instead of golf!

For those who like to play with numbers, 1665 is divisible by 45 and 37.

Since you are so good at numbers, Andrew, can you explain this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 717wt_1139
PS DO click "View all questions and answers"