Well, I've just spent 90 minutes typing my report, and when I hit "continue" it said "no longer valid" and flushed it! So I'm going to post this quickly and then continue to add to it by editing this post, maybe I can get it done in less than another 90 minutes! I've got to go watch the Tour too!

Tim,

If you've got to put together a longish post, check data and info for inclusion etc. the best thing to do is set it all out in Wordpad or similar and then, when you're finished, cut and paste it into the Catsailor forum post box. Saves what happened to you! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Thanks.

OK, here it is again, in a shorter, faster version: I sailed Dermot's Mangan's Spitfire with him last Weds. night at his club in Blessington, Ireland. The wind was about 10 with a few gusts but slowly dieing out as the day went on. We got out on the water around 5pm, racing starts at 7pm. He let me sail it for the entire time, I had a great time and the boat is fantastic. It is quite a bit different from the Blade though. The Blade has very skinny bows with the cut back top, for wave peircing. The Spitfire has much fuller bows and much more round hulls in general. It was not designed to the F16 rule but is grandfathered into the class as it is close enough to the rules.

We started by going upwind up the lake, many gusts and shifts of course being in a vally, and you could tell when you were too far forward as the hulls do not like to be driven under. We were usually flying a hull, single or double trapped in the gusts. After we got to the top of the lake, we put up the spinnaker and had a great run downwind. It was quite easy to fly a hull with me driving from the wire and Dermot trimming from the tramp. Since we were not yet racing I just tried to head up as much as possible to get it going fast, fly the hull, then bear away in the gusts, keeping it on one hull as much as possible. It was quite easy as the hulls have lots of volume, but on a couple of quick bear aways I was able to stuff the lee hull, never near a pitch pole though. He has a foot strap at the back which kept me in place. On the second run we pulled the board half way up and then the lee bow did not stuff at all on the bear away in the gusts. I wish we had tried that with the Blade last week in Zandvoort, it might have helped keep the bows from diving downwind in the gusts. The helm was very light and no lee helm at all with the spinnaker up, Dermot has done a great job setting up the boat.

As it got close to racing time we went back to the shore to swap crew. Dermot's regular crew, Aisling Clarke, was there so I was able to sail with Stephan Jakeman, on his Tiger. There were 2 other Spitfires getting ready along with another Tiger, a Dart Hawk, a couple Dart 18's and a Hobie 18. The wind was getting lighter however.

We started at a little after 7pm for a 3 lap, sausage, triangle, sausage course. There were plenty of shifts, holes and gusts across the lake as is usual on a lake with hills on both sides. The Dart Hawk was being sailed solo with jib but no spinnaker and was the first boat around the A mark, followed closely by Dermot, then the two Tigers, then the two more Spitfires, one of which was being sailed solo without a jib. The club has a rule that if you are going to sail solo, you have to drop one sail. The Hawk chose to use his jib but not his spinnaker and was soon passed by all the spinnaker boats going downwind. It was not blowing enough to fly a hull by now, so I stayed on the low hull trimming the spin, trying to keep the windward hull up as much as possible, while we chased after Dermot and the other Tiger.

After an hour we were done and the finish order (uncorrected) was Dermot on his Spitfire, the other Tiger, then our Tiger, then Brian on his Spitfire with crew, then the Spitfire without crew, then the Hawks and Dart 18's I think, do not quote me because we finished right in front of the club and I was busy hauling the boat up the ramp and didn't see all the finishes after us. I don't know who corrected out where, perhaps Dermot can update that.

OK, what I learned: What really matters is that you learn to sail your boat well, especially in a shifty, gusty, dieing breeze! Dermot has about 4 years on a Spitfire and it shows as he rarely makes mistakes and has figured out his boat's best trim. The Spitfire is a very nice F16 type boat and as we see, it did beat two Tigers, boat for boat, but they beat two more Spitfires, boat for boat, so it is definately the sailors, not the boats, as it should be.

As far as the Spitfire vs. a Blade? I don't know which would be faster but here is what I suspect. The Blade has very fine bows designed for wave piercing. It also has very flat sides where the Spitfire has very round hulls. That is great until you start getting into alot of chop and sticking the bow under all the time, that is not fast, but with the Blade it doesn't slow you down as much as it was designed for that. When those waves start hitting the forward beam, then it slows you down. The Spit fire will not let you get to that point, because the hulls are much more full, especially forward of the front beam, and if you start to drive the bow under, you will slow down alot, so you will be moving back on the boat long before you start hitting the front beam with the waves. There is an excellent video on the Spitfire web site showing three of them going downwind on one hull in big wind, if you have not seen it, you should, it shows that they can handle quite a bit of wind under spinnaker and have quite a bit of volume in the bows. In a windy, rough condition I think the Spitfire might survive better than the Blade going downwind, but untill we put them side by side, we won't know. Going upwind, I think the Blade might have an edge as when you cut into a wave it doesn't slow it down, until you really stuff it hard. On the Spitfire you have to be sure to avoid stuffing the low bow going upwind as it will slow you down.

I think in light air/flat water the Blade might go faster but in heavy wind and lumpy water, the Spitfire might be faster. Overall I still believe the winner will be the sailor who has more time on his boat and does a better job driving upwind and down. So my advice is, get the boat you want and sail it as much as possible, in all conditions, until boat handling and sail trim become automatic, then you can focus on the wind shifts and covering other boats, etc. No matter what boat you chose, the sailors who practice the most are probably going to finish in front.

I would like to thank Dermot very much for getting me out sailing and then dropping me back at the hotel, and Stephan for having me as crew. I'm sure he would have gone faster in those conditions without me, certainly downwind. And thanks to all the people at the Blessington Sailig Club, I had a great time as always and can't wait to come back. I really need to get you all over here to sail in Florida in the winter months. Until then I guess we can race each other on Tacticat. See you soon.

Sounds like you had a really good evening Tim!

I never realised that Dermot was a 'pond sailor' <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yes, it was a great time! And then at the pub... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Here's a link to the Spitfire site and there is a great video "What did you do on the weekend" about the second video down, below the photo links. You can see what I mean about the volume in the hulls.

http://www.spitfiresailing.org.uk/photos.asp

Hey ! It's a big pond - 2 miles square for racing, and almost 5 miles long for fun <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> www.blsc.ie And, we do have a sandy beach <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Most of our racing circuit is on the open sea.

Thanks for another nice review. Any thoughts on the Spitfire as a singlehander?

We're all awaiting your Stealth and Cap F16 reviews next!

I didn't try it single handed but I think it would be fine without the jib, or with the jib in medium air. The biggest problem with any single handed spinnaker boat will be getting the spin up and down while also going around marks with other boats near by. You can't steer and snuff at the same time! But the spinnaker did come down pretty quickly, so as long as you can get the spin up and down and not hit another boat, I think it would be a great single handed boat for racing. I would want to add a second auto ratchet block to the forward beam if I were going to be both driving and trimming the spinaker with one hand though. I am told the Spitfire one-design class rules do not allow a second block. And the jib is not self tacking so if you are going to sail it solo, you may want to leave the jib on the beach anyway. But I have sailed many boats without self tacking jibs solo, it's not that big a deal to quickly swap it during a tack.

I don't know where Tim gets his energy. He flew in on Wednesday morning - went to bed for a few hours - was at my house at 15.30 and we were on the water at 17.00, In the pub by 21.00, one pint <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> of Guiness, and back in his hotel by midnight.

I'm assuming that's an Irish 'one pint'? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Dermot, it's the clean living and of course, the vitamin B(eer).

No kidding--been getting better at it though.

and you can spellcheck it at the same time. I use 'Outlook Express' as it's always running in the background anyway. Simply start a new email.

Good idea, speelling has always been my weak point! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Damn those words.