That article makes my point perfectly,it states nothing about boat problems except maybe the mast, which has been remedied and says they are learning the boats by TRAINING.Seems the same as what I said vs. Mark's trying to find fatal, Olympic ending, catamaran doomed issues with everything. According to your (Tshan) post #267176 we are on the same page. Maybe I wasn't clear.
You also need to remember for these sailors the N-17 is a tool, it's what they HAVE to be on to compete in the Olympics. As opposed to a F-18, A cat or H-16 sailor where their boat is their baby and they want to brag on their baby.

Those 17s look like pretty high performance cats to me.
It will be interesting to see how many male drivers will medal.

From my own experience i would speculate that the N17 would be more fun to go off the wind in a breeze with some winglets or a T rudder. Controlled skimming. The skill it takes to balance that boat w/o winglets may just add to the competon, however.
Forecast for wind in Rio for the olympics?

12

We are. I was replying to Mark, but didn't do so until after your post.

Mark,
From all the owners that I have talked to the boat is great.

The only issue I see is the sometimes lack of stability.. getting too much lift off the boards.. The problem is that the boat was designed just before a MAJOR shift in foil technology before that last AC. Keep in mind that curved foils have been used for years on other boats like the M20 and nobody seemed to complain then. The olympic folks are just pushing it harder trying to get max lift.

I have spent 3 years on a Nacra F20c and this year I put some winglets on the rudders. Wow what a difference. I can push it harder, get more lift from the boards and have more control. I can tell you.. once you sail a boat with lifting boards you won't go back..

Confirming for me why I don't waste time on this website anymore. Mark - kiss you. You still don't know what the hell you're talking about. But I love how you revise history to make it look like you're prophetic. I mean, pathetic.

Meanwhile, happy sailors sail on.

Dave, I agree about the boards... I sailed Chris Brown's DNA and wow... what a ride.... It was on par with my Tornado.

YMMV but the " the sometimes lack of stability.. getting too much lift off the boards.." is not what you want for the Olympics. You have 10 hour long races... I want the random chance factor to go to zero as best as possible. One "sometime lack of stability" is not the standard for an Olympic boat. One unlucky wave should not determine a medal.
Sure, everyone deals with the same boat... but the boat should at least match the Tornado with respect to the luck factor.

I agree, there was a major shift in technology and the bottom line is that boat is not right. (eg... "sometime lack of stability" ) the question is... why has the boat not been modified to get it right....ISAF did this with the Bethwaite 49ner. Why not the Nacra 17.

Surprised to see the 17 even made out of the factory behaving like this .. nice to look at though..TG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhRbUTPi-dU

I think that this is outstanding news. Gives a level of stability for the sailors, MNAs and NACRA (who, by the sounds of it in multiple threads on this forum, as well as word on the street regarding parts availability in general, really need to get their act together in terms of support).

The boat was selected by the sailors at the test event. I don't think there was a serious MNA on the planet willing to vote against the direct result of the sailors. If nothing else, they could blame the sailors and wash their hands of it politically (this of course, is all speculation).

If there are design flaws that can be addressed with rule changes, the sailors will drive that. Even if nothing changes, it should be the most exciting boat at the Olympics.

And, the kite thing is a no-brainer, assuming the fad hasn't expired by the time of the next quad. Finns have an awful lot of political support, so it will take a major change to ever see them go away. Of course, I'm on record for saying the same about the Stars (actually, I still can't believe that actually happened, or that Brazil didn't pull it back in with the extra host medal)...

Mike

+1

I like the unfiltered JW.

Did you not read Luke's blog? Did you see how far down the boards are!? And that vid was posted almost a year ago! I think most of the top N117 teams would see that and politely say... hey dumb dumb... There is no doubt in my mind that the so called "instability" is not an issue for the Olympic hopeful's.

B!tching about the platform...really? Damn!t I let myself get sucked into the Schneider vortex!

The description of the video says that was their first training session in the boat....

He He...

I did not say the center boards need to go forward... Bert Did
I did not say the boat needs winglets... Bert Did.
I did not say the boat has occasional stability issues Dave did.
The Canadians were using the carbon stick for the first time and it is different dynamically then the alu stick. I infer the boat has stability issues with all their crashes and they are working through them... basically Dave is right.

All I want to know is why the boat is not being modified ASAP given its olympic status by ISAF. Hell... you can get winglet kits now and mod your own rudders in the A class in a weekend.

It's not being modified BECAUSE of it's olympic status by the ISAF.

JEEEEZZZ! Isn't that the point (Lock in the design) of the Olympic status to begin with?
Mark, What are you really after here? Start shite, get the T back in, bitch just to bitch,Just come out with it.

That can't be the answer... they fixed the 49ner with multiple fixes in the first and second Olympic cycle. ISAF and Nacra control this class and not the sailors... so the responsibility is really up to them.

Mark I nominate you to talk to ISAF and find out why the DONT DO IT NOW!!!

Here's a video of some guys who seem to have figured it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52xllb112c

And, of course there's a song for that, featuring Supercat. Too bad they didn't use it for their F17 video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tw0O8DBgb0

My money is on none of those. He hinted at it earlier in the thread.

Mike

Please quote it. If I have to read that babble again my head will explode.
Glazed over eyes come standard with a Schneider diatribe.