Hi,

my crew and I weigh in at 130-135 Kg, and currently sail a Spitfire. The rest of the fleet in my club sail F18s (which have suddenly got faster with new square top mains). If I was to get an F18, we'd have to use the small rig and carry some weights. I have heard that the small rig is not competitive, so I am a bit bothered. Is there that much difference?

A few things chanced when the Capricorn came out. It is not only the larger squaretop mainsails.

The F18 class finally saw the introduction of the wingshape masts (not the same as teardrop shaped masts). And the boats started using daggerboards with alot higher aspect ratio's. This in combination with the improved (custom build) mainsails is causing the gap between your current boat and the F18's to widen.

The rumour has it indeed that 130 kg with the small rig is not entirely competitive, but then again there are alot of rumours about and many of them are simply not true. I do feel however that the smaller jib/spi setup is lacking some serious development. Most crews decide to go with the larger sailplan and carry weight. As far as I know all F18's are designed to optimize the performance with the large sailplans and so by default the small rig is somewhat "forgotten".

Having said all this I don't think the difference is more then 1%-3% around the course at its worst.

Have you considered upgrading your spitfire with a custom build suit of sails. Quite alot can be won here. One-size doesn't fit all. It only narrows the competitive weight range over equalizing racing. Seems a pitty to step of the Spitfire simply because F18's are allowed to develop while the Spitfire remains at it 1999 state of technology. It would appear to me that some 2005 state of the art injection can boost that Spitfire to better competitiveness.

Wouter

As ever Wouter, some good food for thought. The F18 rules, as I understand them, don't allow crews below 140Kg to use the large rig, even with corrector weights.

Your comments on using custom sails for the Spitti platform are very interesting. As a one-off though, how on earth would I end up with custom sails that will do the job - bearing in mind the fine tuning that has gone into such sail designs for more established users, such as F18, F16s, etc. Is it feasible to expect a good set of sails on the first attempt?

In the North American F18 racing, the small sails do not seem to be at a disadvantage. Admittedly, the worldwide competitiveness of the North american fleet is not on par with Europe. With very few exceptions, stock sails are on the F18s in North America (there is only one sail that is not from the OEM that has a Measurement Certificate), and whether it is large sail plan or small sail plan, it is still the skipper/crew that wins the races. It is interesting that when it was proposed to eliminate the small sail plan in the class, North America overwhelmingly voted in favor of keeping the small sail plan. Here, there are many male/female teams that need the small set.

Simon

I think that the only reason the small rigs are not so competitive is that not enough are out there sailing.
Are you thinking of a new or used boat? either way, you will be looking at new sails so talk to the sailmaker and see what sort of support he will give you. F18 seems to be on the up at the moment and other lightweight teams must be looking at joining us so it would be in the sailmaker/manufacturers interest to do a bit of R&D to get the small rig moving.
As you hint, the rigs are getting more and more advanced and i reckon that the lighter crews are going to start flyin'

Paul
GBR7

Sparky - it's interesting that there's a strong desire to keep the small rig in North America. On the face of it, it makes a lot of sense, to attract the smaller teams. Over here, all I hear (just within the club to be honest) is that it is on its way out. I guess we'll have to watch what the committee decide.

Paul, I am thinking of a used boat. I have been most struck by a club member who has been sailing an Inter 18 since new. We were beating him on the water all last year. He has just replaced the full suite of sails with a new set from the Infusion, fiddled with the set up a bit, and is now leaving me behind, even after handicap adjustment. From which I conclude, the rig has far more effect than the platform. I wonder if Performance Cats have looked into that?! Anyway, I can't help thinking old hulls / new rig could be a good way in. Are you on the big or small rig?
Cheers

The smaller jib and spin are competitive here in North America. The third-place team at the 2005 nationals in Virginia Beach was a female skipper/male crew team on small sails in a VERY tough fleet (as NA goes anyway). There are two or three teams that regularly use the small sail plan and win in local and regional events. As far as I can tell, the NAF-18 class association will fight to keep the option. The formula works.

John Williams
Capricorn USA 070 - small rig

Simon,




I grant that it is a small risk, BUT I do really believe that if you decide to go with a very well respect sailmaker like Landenberger or Glenn Asbhy and that you take the effort to measure the fore-aft and side-to-side stiffness of your mast that you'll get a pretty good mainsail cut for your Spitfire.

All the development in the way of newer and lager squaretops can be taken from the F18's and F16's and put into your sail. Actually quite alot of F18 development was just copied into the F16 sails. The sailmaker just needs to have the skills and experience to do this copying right. And I believe both Landy and Ashby have that skill.


You must also accurately specify your crew weight and boatweight together with the stiffness data. They will adjust the draft of your sail to compensate for the weight difference between your Spitfire and say F16/F18.

Doing the stiffness measurements is not difficult at all.

You'll need to saw horses and a bucket that will take 20 liters of water. I think you'll need to support your mast at the bottom and hound fitting and then hang the bucket of the middle of the mast. Once when the mast is layed on its side and once when it is layed on its front.

This will give you too mid mast deflections that characterize your mast bending. With this data the bending of the free hanging top can be calculated (estimated) if the mast doesn't have taper.

You can do this measurement in 30 minutes.




Yes, I think so. They may not be perfect first time around, but I do feel they will be good.

Additionally, you may measure luff round and other specs on your current One-design sails and give a report on how they behave/feel. With this the sailmaker can fine-tune your custom sails even more.


I think it is worth a shot.

Both sailmakers will set you back about 1500 Euro's on a new mainsail

Wouter