Hi Switch

You seem to have picked up on the tail end of discussions and activity that have been going on for many years.

The old "15 years ago the class changed the rules and the numbers crashed" line has been regularly wheeled out, mostly by people not involved in the class. This is just one of those rumours that if you say it often enough people start to believe it must be true. The facts are that the Mosquito rules were never changed 15 years ago. There was a lot of talk at the time and people threatened to leave the class if the rules were changed.

Well the rules weren't changed and they left the class anyway, many to sail Taipans - which were after all designed by Mozzie sailors to replace the Mozzie.

Mosquitos now are the same as they were in 1967 except that, like all one-designs, the boat has been refined within the tolerances to get the best performance. They still look the same but the subtle hull shape differences and the way the modern boats are rigged makes them a much more efficient boat.

Currently there are NO proposals around to change the class.

Back in 2000 some work was begun to try out a taller square-top rig. This looked nice but the cons outweighed the pros and most people in the class lost interest.

The spinnaker has been in use since 2002. We don't have to talk about adding a spinnaker because it has already been done, without any need to change the basic Mosquito class. About half the active Mosquitos in VIC use spinnakers outside of titles - and with good reason - the performance is awesome.

This thread is now only about a boat in Queensland that is trying out a fat-head mainsail. That's just Nick's experiment, not the class changing it's rules. It's good that people try these things out though.

As far as I'm concerned the Mosquito fills a niche in the range of off-the-beach cats that are available, because it manages to combine a very refined, lightweight hull design with a low-aspect (these days) rig that is easy to handle but still very efficient, and all for a low price. In addition to this I like racing Mozzies because we seem to have the best social group of any class I see at open events and the competition on the course is fierce (one bad tack is enough to cost you a race).

The Mosquito has a lot going for it right now. Bad luck for those that don't sail one


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