How about the new Nacra 17 as a single hander?

I don't know if there is enough demand to support it, they already tried it once with the Inter 17, and Hobie tried it with the FX One, neither class lasted very long.

I think we are seeing a consolidation now to fewer classes, Wave, Hobie 16, F16, F18 and A Cat.

The F16 is a 'compromise' type class, right in between the Hobie 16 and F18, wich still allows you to race solo when your crew bails on you last minute, or if you can't afford an A cat, or if you and your crew are too light for the F18.

As they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

How many active single handers want any changes at all?

Show of hands please.

No changes for me please!

Tim, what is your average finish? Best finish? As a single hander.

Timbo, Pete, you keep hijacking this thread and turning it into a discussion on potential F16 rule changes. If you would like to start a thread specifically dealing with that, by all means, otherwise lets talk boats here and forget the rules until we establish what a good single hander might be

The wider boat will create havoc with more slender hulls creating immersion and lots of drag, from on the water playing with beam width, going narrower seems to make the boat better suited the 15sqm the solos are allowed with earlier hull lift off countered by the very effective downhauls when the wind speed goes up. The trouble with lots of downhaul is again the sail becomes very draggy and the boat tends to slow. Lots of balancing one thing with another I'm afraid.

Weight is not really such an issue.

No can do. This is the F16 forum. The boats you're suggesting aren't F16s.

If you want to suggest ideal single handers take the discussion to the "ideal single hander forum".

I see this discussion undermining the F16 class.

Any kind of rule change for specs other than total sail area, no.

I would like to see something built that is not a good two up boat but an excellent singlehander.

Any rule changes I would want, I would want applied to both configurations. I'd like to see something other than straight boards.

[quote=pgp]No can do. This is the F16 forum. The boats you're suggesting aren't F16s.
[quote]
Disagree, where are they not compliant to F16 rules, as to undermining the class then the class has a specific Class F16 forum limited to owners with registered boats, this is an open forum that happens to be titled F16, for all to use.

And I'm using it.

About jibs on singlehanders.. When going upwind/downwind the only adjustment neccesary is sheet tension in my experience. With the spi creating apparent wind adjusting luff tension and car position is of minor importance.


What is my experience here? Some singlehanded sailing and wednesday night beercan races on the Tornado - one up. The hardest part of it all was pulling the boat up the ramp at the club solo..

Pete, that really depends on the competition, ie. which regatta are we talking about, and who else was there? I'm happy when I'm sailing Uni, if the only ones in front of me are Matt and Gina!

I sailed Uni at the Nationals a few years ago in Gulfport, I think we had 23 total boats, of which about...8-9 (?) were sailing Uni. My single race best finish was a 3rd, but that was in the final race, and a couple of the top Sloop teams and one or two Uni's were already on the beach, using that as their throw out.

Overall, I think I was in the middle of the fleet. I'd have to go back and look at the results, if I could find them, but Ed, Mike, John Mac were also sailing Uni and we were all neck and neck, most of the time, again, in the middle of the fleet, most of which were sloops.

I get more satisfaction out of beating a good sloop team, when I'm sailing Uni, than the other way round, because I know as Uni, I had to work harder to do it, and I had to do 'everything right'.

I would never expect to compete with the top Sloop teams, as a Uni, unless I got a really, really, lucky string of wind shifts that only came my way, but I'm ok with that, and as I've said in this thread many times, all the Uni guys I know are good with that too, thus the Rum bottle reward!

That's about what I expected. How does it compare with your best sloop finishes? Is there any difference that concerns you? I'm guessing not.

What I see is that the better uni sailors are able to pick up crew for important regattas or when the wind is too high.

I've only raced it sloop a few times, with Andi driving at 3 Tradewinds, but there were no Uni's in any of those regattas if I remember right, so it's really hard to compare if there are no top knotch Olympic Quality sailors racing it Uni, against some Sloops. That's what I would like to see.

Ever notice that the Alter Cup is ALWAYS sailed on Sloops?

Why?

I say next year, do it on F16 Uni's, and record some of the leg speeds/times, see how that compares to some sloop times. If you could develop a database with exact leg lengths and wind strengths, etc. you could then do a polar, see if the Uni Polar is any different from the Sloop.

The Uni configuration puts much more emphasis on the skipper's overall ability, to both steer and 'crew' the boat, whereas a good sloop team can be comprised of an average crew, if the skipper is top notch, and vice versa, but if you put a top notch skipper AND a top notch crew together, you're going to get killed, if you are Uni OR sloop!

I'm waiting for some kid to jump on a Uni and figure the thing out. I think it will take younger reflexes, with an open mind to sail the uni on par with the sloops.

Yeah, probably. I'm out the door now, gotta go ride my bike and do some situps! You coming to Wildcat?

As of right now, I'll be Uni, I just hope it don't rain because I'll be in a tent and sleeping the truck really sucks!

See ya'!

So Wayne,

what do you put into the basket for the optimal uni?

Mmmm under what guise, handicap ( SCHRS Texel ), F16, dedicated 16 footer with its own class, sadly they will all be very different boats.

A most unsatisifactory answer.