1. Both Chutes: The boat's a cool trainer, arguably better than purpose built boats like the U24, and more exciting than the Colgate. Part of what you could learn is when to use what chute. Or do Olympic style courses with two broad reaches and a dead down leg and use both chutes. Big part of the boat's appeal.
Alternatively, start selling a 2 chute pack with the boat if you can get the right price point. But both is cool, and your hull is perhaps a bit unusual in that both have their place on the boat -- it will work really well with either, depending on the conditions.
2. Hiking: Seems to me sport boats love righting moment, and need to be flat, so I'd love wires. But I think I might go legs in. This boat is very broad and powerful as it is, and I keep hearing how M24 crews hate life because they sit out, get beat up, enjoy life beyond the windward mark for a 5 minute rinse cycle and repeat. Not a trait you want to copy. In fact, I'd talk to Mr. Clean about all the things the M24 sailors hate, and at least ponder changing all of them. The M's apparently are virtually two classes in one, with pros running programs, and everybody else getting really good cast off sails after every race.
3. Sails: Unlimited materials and no purchase restrictions would worry me. Your niche is to be a more pocketbook/amateur/tweaking friendly M24 in a sense. The M24 pros buy a new jib for every second regatta (or so one hears), and you need look no further than SA for a humourous rant about what you need to really run a competitive M24 campaign. Again, you don't want that.
Not arguing for white sails, mind you, or that you should keep sail sales all to yourself. But if you could find a happy medium -- a modern low stretch material with a little longevity to it -- and then have a sails per year limit with a breakdown/destruction exception, you'd help draw folks into a high-performance, lower cost of ownership plan.
Maybe the class could revisit materials at established intervals (5 years?) so that you can take advantage of developments without breaking the bank for current owners. I'm not good yet with the materials, but you're looking for the sweet spot in price/performance/longevity and then to prevent the winning with checkbook thing.
I'll ponder some more, and take a better read when I get a chance, but these are the gut reaction.
Cheers,
Mike R.
After I sent along my gut reactions, I ran across your owner’s blog and saw discussion of the "owner/driver" concept. I think I'd go with whoever that was who said no "owner/driver" but not pros on the boat during sanctioned races.
This one's harder, because if the pros adopted you the way they have the
M24 (unlikely anyway), they give you a huge profile. But they probably also seriously mess up the level playing field, lead to big intimidation, tend to make the racing too "serious," and so on.
But as a guy who crews all the time, I gotta tell you that the night I was invited to drive the
Cheers,
Mike R.
Michael D. Rowe
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This all goes back to something Major Hall taught me about what makes a "good" one design back when I was getting into racing sailboards (and he was coaching the Olympic development program). The rule of thumb, as he put it to me then, is that in a good one design fleet, the fastest boat would be no more than 10% faster than the slowest boat sailed in some minimally competent way.
This made great sense to me then, and it still does. It keeps the racing close, if prevents new folks from getting discouraged and thinking they're idiots who will never perform. It keeps the fleet together and keeps the racing interesting and challenging. And it's dang hard to do in modern boats, ESPECIALLY in modern boats that plane.
In the Rocket, you have a lesser version of the problem I was describing for sailboards off the wind, AND a distinct problem relative to holding the boat down in heavy air/displacement mode, it seems to me. The trouble is, you don't know how MUCH of a problem you have in either category until you get out on the water and test (maybe you could do it with velocity prediction programs, but I doubt it).
What you want is clear enough -- you want the least restrictive weight rules possible (to make it inclusive and keep everybody happy) consistent with something close to what I've always thought of as "Major Hall's dictum." This may well mean a min weight to prevent lightweights planing away early, and a max for heavy air. The really cool part is that my instinct is that this will be one of the least weight sensitive boats around because of its basic hull form and high-powered sail plan. Of course, my instincts about these things are often flat wrong, but you're WAY better off than the sailboarders, and probably better off in this sense that something like the M24.
But you want to get this right, because if the good guys are planing away and regularly leaving the newbies wallowing, it's not good for the class. And you may need something provisional, because unless you can actually go out and do boat-to-boat testing in a variety of conditions.
OK, that's all from the non-owners gallery for now. Hope this doesn't convince you that I'm totally out of my tree.
But let me do one more thing . . . Having read a couple of Kristen's comments on the blog (all good), and realizing he's local to my neighborhood (hope he's having fun with "Count Down"), I'm collecting my earlier thoughts below and passing them along to see what he thinks (not to mention collecting everything in one place for you -- at the very least, we in the peanut gallery should make things convenient).
Best Regards,
Mike
3 comments:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, tell me what do you sail now or aspire to? I think that you should know that I sold my last boat, a Beneteau f456 just a few months before choosing the Rocket 22 as my next boat. It was a carefully calculated decision on my part. The other boats that I carefully reviewed before settling on the R-22 were the U-20 ( too small and slow) the U-24, ( insufficiently versatile in terms of sails), the mini-Transat (Ultimately I decided that to be competitive you are going to have to get into the prototype class which means building a new boat every 2-3 years, not something that I have the time for nor something that I want to spend the money on.) I really wanted a new OD class that would have legs going into the future without being bound by overly restrictive OD rules.
As an owner taking delivery this summer I would like to reply to some of your points. You describe the Rocket as a cool trainer, which I found a little surprising even though I know I will be learning a lot from this boat since the bulk of my racing was 10 years or more ago. However I think what you must mean is that the boat is not a “trainer” in the sense of a beginner’s boat, but rather because if its versatility has a lot to offer in terms of the learning curve, correct? I have to admit that was one of the attractions for me over the U-24, which only sets the asso and not the S chute. All that tweakability compared to the Melges also put it ahead of that little speedster for me as well. As for allowing local fleets to decide if they want to use one or the other, the intent is to allow the use of both as the skipper and situation requires. If you can afford the boat, you can afford the sails, which are really just a cost of sailing. So for me the small saving involved in foregoing one sail or the other is irrelevant and I would be apposed to such a restriction being imposed on the local fleet, which has yet to be built.
By the way, where did you get the impression that there is lighter air pressure on the east coast compared to the west? My experience has been that they are about the same relative to the latitude you are sailing in, with pressure increasing as you head north, and keeping in mind the steadier increased pressure offered by either the pineapple express or the trade winds in their season. The result here is that the PHRF New England rating is multiplied by a factor that reflects our greater pressure to the north of them.
I did not buy it as a trainer, but to compete in a fast relatively easily handled package compared to say, a Melges 24. Referring to it as a trainer implies that the owners would be stepping up to a larger faster boat in the future, and you specifically mention the Ultimate 24 as a “purpose built boat”, presumable being one that the “trained” Rocket crew would step up to. Given that the Rocket currently rates 102 in PHRF-NW and that the U-24 rates 108 in New England PHRF, my question is why would anybody train to get into a slower boat? Mentioning the Melges again, I would note that it rates 102 in New England PHRF. What that is going to mean to me is that the Melges, which rates 99 locally is the boat that the Rocket is going to be compared to when I apply for handicap and not the U-24.
It is certainly not my plan to step up to another boat from the Rocket. Campaigning the Rocket is going to keep me plenty busy and I think tremendously entertained and satisfied both in home waters and abroad. I had a great time yesterday with my sail maker discussing
Your point 2, that you would love wires. I did as well when I raced Fireballs and Y-Flyers. If I wanted a wire boat at this time I would buy a boat purpose built to use a trapeze, like an 18 foot skiff. While I can see the fun that turbo charging the boat might be, that is not something that I am interested in doing now. I’m OK with legs in or out, but I would expect tight life lines, which discourages the legs out practice without forbidding it.
Your point 3, sails. I frankly do not have a problem with an unlimited sails rule. I think the no pros rule will keep the class from having the same issues as the Melges on new sails. Frankly, if a class of owners reached the point that they were prepared to spend that kind of money on the boat, more hair on them, but if as a class the owners want to place some restrictions on purchase frequency, I probably would not be bothered by it. The reality is that the newer sail materials available for the majority of us who will be club racing will easily last a year for the jib and a couple of years on the main and chutes, if we don’t blow them up. If we do blow them up then there should be no restriction on
replacing them. The reality is if there is a purchase rule and it is too restrictive all that will happen will be that the sail makers mark will be taken off the tack and added to a new sail and it will be called a rebuild. What’s the point in discouraging dishonesty? If you can afford new sails, why shouldn’t you have them? I very much doubt that we will see the sail buying frenzy that you allude to in the Melges fleet.
On another point, unrestricted sail material allows the fleet to stay contemporary. If the owners opt for a restricted sail purchase program, with new main or spinnakers every couple of years, then it would be counter productive not to have contemporary material available at that time. In terms of debate I would think the next issue that would be raised is should the size of the main be increased to allow for a flat headed main? This might increase the ability to get the boat up on a plain earlier. In a few years, when the boat is well tested I expect that the owners will visit this issue. Of course, locally there is no restriction on having one built for use in PHRF and simply taking the penalty for the oversized sail. I think this would be an interesting sail to have, and in a couple of years I may order one. Of course, I might just have to revisit that whole guy on a wire question if I do!
With respect to crew weight, the object as I understand it is to restrict maximum weight to avoid the necessity of having to manage a large crew. If the boat is getting overwhelmed then it is the captain’s responsibility to withdraw or reduce sail. I’m not a member of the “We put’em up, and let God take’em down” school.
IV. ARTICLE OD: Prohibitions
1. The following are prohibited:
...
Mast _mending_ devices such as struts rams, midstays except the mast jack provided by the builder
"mending"? I think that should read "bending"
I think nix the owner/driver. One thing I have noticed with owners that I would like to emulate is that they share the helm with their crew sometimes. This is a great concept. I don't think the rocket fleet are anywhere near the point where pro involvement is an issue, so the odd pro that happens to be coming out for a race is fine. As long as they are not actually being paid specifically to race.
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