What's this I hear about you getting the carbon wonder boy to carbonize your F-18? HHHmmmmmm ... how long before your on an A cat? Stay tuned for the next episode of "As the ding turns".

Just the tip of port board where I beat the new off of it. If there is a rock or a hard spot anywhere on the course I'll find it.

The Moss man has some mad carbon fiber skills.

The A-Cat is in my future but I just found I have some home repairs that can't wait so...Plus I'm having WAY too much fun on my big, heavy, outdated and slow F18 to move to an A cat right now. I know... I'm a moron!

Most people think that "Ding" has to do with his name. In reality, it's all about the shape of his daggerboards. Quite a coincidence if you ask me!

There is a reason why I'm still running with the short boards.

You CAN do both.

As far as long boards go, if you do go that way, God help the Geology and marine life.

So nothing to the rumor of carbon bulkheads and longitudinals? If I was Karl I'd be keeping a close eye on you.

We should start a pool, I'll take....never.

You've been bitten, you'll never give up the spin.

While you might think you'll miss it (I thought I would when I first got my a-cat), you really don't. It's so slippery through the water and tuning sensitive, you forget all about a spinnaker. If it's blowing over 12, you're too busy trying to keep it pointy side up and fast to worry about such nonsense.

Okay, but I notice you're still listing an F18 below your signature.

Yup. I prefer sailing double handed - its just more fun with some good camaraderie but I used to have a lot of trouble with consistent crew. With both boats in my stable, I can make a last minute selection if needed. Both boats also have active fleets in my area and I learn a ton between the two platforms - so I will have good competition in either direction. Typically, we're around 360lbs and sometimes as much as 380lbs when sailing double handed and I just can't see putting that much beef on an F16 and expecting to be competitive across the wind range.

I like sailing the Viper heavy, you do lose some in the lighter stuff, but you gain so much when the wind is up. The best I've ever sailed we were 385lbs at F16 Nationals in Gulfport. Anything over 15kts as long as we had clear air, we owned the fleet.

Nope, not buying heavy is fast. Anybody can say they own the fleet if they get a clear lane. I would say that you did well on races where you had clear air because you had clear air not because you were heavy.

2010 F16 National Results

I would say the top three owned the fleet and I know they weren't sailing heavy. Robbie can pretty much have the pick of the litter when it comes to getting crew and I've never seen him sail with a fat boy, not even on an F18! Sorry man, but I look at the pointy end of the fleet to see what's fast.

I'm looking at the weather graph for St Pete Beach (near Gulfport,) and the average wind last year was less than 4kts. I'm guessing that at 385lbs, you don't won the fleet all that often. :-)

(Is that smack talk?)

I think we had four or five dnf/s's at that event?
I can also tell you that I rarely can do something with out a blunder. I'm just saying what is fast. We had a couple of races where we were pounding on Robbie/JW, then we'd piss it all up by capsizing or doing something stupid. We had two seperate cleat failures that ruined a bunch of races. That has nothing to do with boat speed. I'm saying you gain more on the Viper being heavy in the big wind, than you lose in the light air. Even with a heavily pin favored start line, we'd roll the fleet on the first upwind starting at the committee boat, and we fought like hell to be at the committee boat always, because we had to. Plus, Dan is 6'3" I think, and I'm 6'2", thats a lot of lever with that 385lbs.

Look at this Tradewinds. George and I had never sailed together before. Six weeks prior George had a tumor removed so he wasn't 100%. Before busting the boat we got a 6th and a 7th. We were 375lbs, and I didn't see us breaking into the top 10 often with the crowd that was there, but we did.

I would rather race a Viper at 375 than at 275 any day of the week.

How did a thread about Dave Ingram turn into a F-16 hype thread? It must have something to do with the PN.

And someone wrote 375# was heavy...

Back to Ding. I was once told to be careful what you call your boat and the name may come true...

Karl , we all have moments of brilliance and EVERYONE has excuses for blowing it. Saying you were in front of a really good sailor and then wheels came off doesn’t mean much.

At Tradewinds you sailed well before you had to hit the beach, but I’d still bet you your favorite rum you would not have cracked the top 6, that talent was simply too rich at the pointy end of the fleet. Those on the Falcon’s were on the boat for the first time with very little time on the water as a team and from my vantage point they weren’t getting slower as the weekend wore on. You also had ideal conditions for a heavy team and if the pressure had eased I’d bet you another handle you wouldn’t have been able to touch the top 6 teams. Keep in mind the top teams at Tradewinds were NOT heavy and were posting consistently low numbers in the breeze. Heck, look at what JC did on Sunday and it was still breeze on and the girl he was sailing with had to weigh 10 pounds soaking wet.

I’ll take 275 on a Falcon against your 385 on a Viper every day.

I feel ya, and I have no illusions about my abilities, probably the inverse in fact. Like I said, I'm talking boat speed, and height, not the good calls where you make a good call by going right when the fleet goes left, I'm talking side by side. The Viper flat out smokes in heavy air with a heavy crew. I'm not counting the moments of brilliance, or the blunders, thats why I say my results from that event aren't a good example because we f'd up a lot. (hell, we managed to hit a moored boat while leading the last race against the boys who we had probably 100lbs on at the time) Plus I was very new to the Viper at 2010 Nationals. But we had speed, dirty nasty speed. In the light air, you do get beat up pretty good, but on average it comes out as a net gain running her heavy. The mid range winds, it doesn't seem to have a massive effect one way or another, which is probably true of any boat.

Reiss/Chu were something like 260lbs at Tradewinds this year. I can tell you from how Robbie set up their mast that they were way too light, and they had the had their hands full. Spreaders were just about maxed out in rake, and the diamonds were so tight, that the mast was bending, but not pulling anymore tension on the wires.




I just don't like the illusion that the F16's can't handle weight and still perform.

I never said a heavy team couldn't make a boat perform it can certianly be done. The debate is, all things being equal and over the long run will a heavy or light team come out on top and IMO, light comes out on top every time. With the example you provided with Taylor you help make my point. Taylor did well in breeze against a very tough field and if the wind had backed off on Sunday there would have been no stopping him. The heavy teams would have hit the power up ceiling quickly while the light teams would still have power to spare.

I live in the land of the Falcon and light summer time breezes I know what an F16 does running light and it's simply no contest. My point, the advantage of a heavy team in breeze is minor compared to the advantage of a light team in soft breeze.

For the record I encourage everyone to run heavy, heavier the better IMO. For the F18 class I'd like to see everyone north of 400 pounds.

Been sailing there for about 5 years now.

Next boat name... "Well hung billionare with wings", yeah I ripped it off.