I thought some of you may be interested in this brief discussion I had with David (Slimy) Elliot.

I received this in an email from Dave about a recent sail he had on his Taipan 4.9:

"I won the Peel Island Race today, in 3 to 8 knots, I super slooped it. [I'm not sure if super slooping is an international term so for those that don't know, it means sailing a sloop solo - Rob ]
Wow what speed to windward and reaching!
The boat with main and jib and 83 kg on board blew the 5.7s and A class away. I almost had line honours but for the Taipan 5.7 with kite running me down on the last run (about 10km long). You should try it, very, very fast."

I asked Dave if he had sailed his Taipan 4.9 Cat rigged with a Spinnaker as I know he sails it sloop rigged with a spinnaker - with two people on the boat of course!!. His reply:

"Cat and kite is ultra fast down wind (21sq m kite) but the extra weight and drag make the boat average upwind. Light air super sloop is faster round the course and much easier to sail."

I have enough trouble sailing my boat cat rigged and keeping it down let alone with a jib as well. I think Dave must have a big pair hidden in those shorts of his!

I could read the rules and try to interpret them but I'll be lazy and ask the question. Does super slooping 4.9 (without a kite) fit into the F16 class rules?

I suspect if the wind got much over 8 knots super slooping a 4.9 would be an extreme sport.

Rob.

Well I'm not letting you get away with laziness so :

see rule 1.11.2

Wouter

Damn!! I'll have to go and look myself but I'm sure I can guess the answer.

Rob.

I know the answer now because I went and read the rule... but I'm not going to tell anyone else

Rob
the fun starts at 15knts when taipan super slooping
i used to have a furler on my jib, so i could use the jib with eze 1 up
and a spinnaker single handed is just another story

cheers
kurt
taipan aus 029 w/kite

An alternative to super-slooping could be to roller-furl the spinnaker instead, same idea as the hooter but using a spinnaker that is class-legal in dimensions & shape.
Super-slooping in over 15 knots could prove interesting for all but those who weigh in at the top of the scale, whereas the spinnaker makes downwind easier & safer, even solo in moderate breeze. At our solo champs the guys pitchpoling downwind were those who DIDN`T hoist the kite, the spinnaker really lifts the bows & makes the boat feel more stable - just don`t try to reach too high (like I did) or swimming lessons will be the result!
The only drawback of solo-ing with a spinnaker is hoisting & retrieving, which is where the roller-furler might help.

Cheers
Steve

Well,

You can do what you like in open races of course and I will certainly give soloing my sloop with selftacker a try in a race of 1 or 2. In order to keep things simple we decided on the two setups that the F16 rules on now. Also the F16 singlehanded setup has a preformance very close to the F18's and doublehanded F16's which was one of our goals. The Super sloop is less satisfactory in this respect. But what isn't right now can become reality later.

But for now and the near future rule 1.11.2 applies.

Wouter

Wouter,
I was thinking about this very subject.
Just wondering what the yardstick difference would be between "super sloop" without a kite and uni with kite or sloop with kite.
The self tacking jib makes super slooping a real option in areas that only get very light winds.
I'm not relly interested in it being included in the rules just wondering what the penalty would be.

Regards,
Phill

The Texel rating for a Super sloop (solo with jib but without spi) = 96
TR sloop doublehanded + spi = 102
TR solo uni with spi (no jib) = 101

As you can see the doublehanded and solo setups are very close to one another and therefor can race eachother first in around the course when accepting that the 1 pnt (36 seconds) advantage of the solo setup is easily lost in handling. Anyways for fun and club races the ratings are close enough in my opinion. This was also ONE of the reasons to have the F16 rule on these two setups.

The super sloop has a rating of 96 and indeed can be expected to noticably outperform the other two setups. As was of course experimentally found by Slimy.

I must confess that I was aware of this option for some time but didn't want to publize it too much. I must also admit that it is a setup that I will also try a few times in my club races when may boat is fitted with a selftacker. Especially when my open class fleet is dominate by F20's - I-20's. The improvement in handling and control as well as the extra powered up lower part of the main will make this setup a winner in my opinion. It will certainly be a better wind force 6 solo boat than the setup with the spi (Round Texel distance race). Especially since it will reach better.

As the chairman of the class I want to concentrate on the spi setups for now during our various start-ups but to the same measure I don't want to stiffle development and experimentation. If this super sloop setup attracts a dedicated group than I don't see why the F16 class wouldn't include this setup in her organisation at some time in the future. The F16 rules on area's and length etc. remain the same of course.

After all this organisation is fully intended to be a sailors organisation and in the end what you all want will go.

Wouter

Dear Taipan Sailors,
Have you tried this? You should!

It was the Peel Island Marathon last Sunday, 30 kilometers around Peel Island in Morton Bay. The wind was looking like it would stay light all day and my crew had left me to play football. I had rigged the 4.9 with my spinnaker and carbon snuffer system, but at the last minute decided to get rid of the kite and sail with jib and main alone ( chickened out on the three sails with just me).

The first leg was a run of 4 km against the tide in 4 knots of breeze, the Nacra Inter18s, Hobbie Tigers, and the 5.7 with kite were too quick for the super sloop and so were the Homan boys who sailed there 4.9 around the first mark just ahead of me.

The next leg was a beam reach in 5 knots and the super sloop left the two up 4.9 and all the A class cats for dead. The upwind leg of 3klm followed in 5 to 8 knots. I was flat out with all downhaul dragged on and the boat flew, by the top mark the super sloop was 400metres ahead of all the fleet the A classes and other Taipans were 20 minutes back!

You have never seen a boat go like a 4.9 one up in light air to windward. It was twice as fast as anything on the water. Unbelievable and such a buzz!

The race continued in this manner for three hours. I was run down by Don Dull's 5.7 with kite on the last very long run but won on corrected time by 15 minutes. I was worn out because it is hard work (the crew must actually do something), but the speed and the sensation. It is a great feeling to have the boat on the trailer before the first A class or other 4.9 gets back on the beach.

This super sloop thing is the ultimate big skippers boat, I think at 100kg you would be perfect. Eat those burgers, go seconds on the cheasecake and wash it down with a [censored] load of beer, weight is great when sailing a 4.9 sloop by your self.

Dave Elliott
AUS259 "Intro Line" ,cause I got no friends.


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So the "Super Sloop" is the same rating as the Inter 20 and Nacra 6.0 WITH spinnakers!? Seems like the conditions would have to just right to sail up to that rating.

Admittedly Novice,
Eric

wouter

The "super sloop" is one of the main attractions of the T4.9! Thanks for tuning us up to the terminology, I hadn't heard the term "super sloop" before! I enjoy sailing solo, and the ability to use the jib or leave it off is huge. Decisions, decisions!! It is sometimes difficult to know which way to rig Sat morning for the whole weekend of racing. In 5-10 mph you just can't beat the super sloop!! I have done some limited racing with varied success in the super sloop config. I have only raced once Uni. In my situation, I just don't have that much experience sailing Uni and the boat often feels stalled. Being a habitual "pincher", the jib keeps you honest and forces you to drive the boat instead of pinching it.

Portsmouth can be a real issue here. Seems to me you would take the T4.9 uni (69.9) and correct it for a small headsail JS (68.2). However I was at a regatta last fall and they took the T4.9 sloop (68.1) and corrected it for underweight L4 (66.06). The numbers were different then, before the last portsmouth revision. Hard to correct a boat for underweight if the class has no minimum weight? I felt under those circumstances, I'd been better off sailing the straight up T4.9 Uni.

At another regatta, I was holding position with well sailed H20's in 5-10 in the super sloop config. Based on the H20 rating of 64.9, either number above is pretty sweet.

Haven't had the 'nads to pull the kite in a race.