15 replies to this topic

[mozzy656]

As you can see from the wind graph this was an epic day's sailing in Chichester Harbour from Hayling Island Sailing Club. Wind was gusting to nearly 40 knots, well over 40 mph!

The boat is an RS200, the most popular two handed racing dinghy in the UK.

[atefooterz]

http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-LQcmFKZQ

As you can see from the wind graph this was an epic day's sailing in Chichester Harbour from Hayling Island Sailing Club. Wind was gusting to nearly 40 knots, well over 40 mph!

The boat is an RS200, the most popular two handed racing dinghy in the UK.

If you are going to cling on to outmoded forms of Imperial measurement, like a crazed American, how about actually getting it right ?


1 mph = 0.868976242 knots so it sounds heepz koolr saying " well over 44mph !

[mozzy656]

http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy-LQcmFKZQ

As you can see from the wind graph this was an epic day's sailing in Chichester Harbour from Hayling Island Sailing Club. Wind was gusting to nearly 40 knots, well over 40 mph!

The boat is an RS200, the most popular two handed racing dinghy in the UK.

If you are going to cling on to outmoded forms of Imperial measurement, like a crazed American, how about actually getting it right ?


1 mph = 0.868976242 knots so it sounds heepz koolr saying " well over 44mph !

Ok, I'll go with 44 mph. However, the wind was really only gusting 36 knots, so I was taking liberties rounding up to 40 knots anyway. Which makes it about 41 mph, or 66 km/h, or 18.52 m/s. Either way, I'm not a crazed American, I'm English.

[atefooterz]

Haha good action sailing, ya crazy Pom



EDIT as the loopy Aussie lpst plot with slow 3G browser

[mozzy656]

Ha, sorry about duff link... I've managed to embed now, hopefully it works. If not it might be youtube copyright on the video blocking it in other countries.

Should add, this is where the laser worlds were in 2010, and the Moth worlds will be in 2014.

[dogwatch]

Should add, this is where the laser worlds were in 2010, and the Moth worlds will be in 2014.

Same club. However the sailing for the Laser Worlds was in Hayling Bay i.e. out on the open sea, not within Chichester Harbour. Same will almost certainly be true for the Moths.

[mozzy656]

Should add, this is where the laser worlds were in 2010, and the Moth worlds will be in 2014.

Same club. However the sailing for the Laser Worlds was in Hayling Bay i.e. out on the open sea, not within Chichester Harbour. Same will almost certainly be true for the Moths.

True that. Was just trying to let people what part of the world we're in. Most championship racing is done in the bay, whereas club racing is typically inside the harbour, going outside once or twice a month depending on conditions. Monday definitely wasn't a day for racing in the bay though!

[Bored]

Many thanks for posting that extraordinary video.

It looks a bit cold there. Do many survive from the hypothermia after a capsize?

[mozzy656]

Yeah, compared to Brisbane, it is very cold. Water temp is around 10 degrees at the moment, so definitely still 5 mm steamer or dry suit weather. Saying that, we had a couple of warm days two weeks ago when we reached the dizzy heights of 20 degree air temp.

Unfortunately we don't all live in oz, so we just have to take our 'man up pills' and get on with it.

[dogwatch]

Do many survive from the hypothermia after a capsize?

Hardly any and those that do rarely make a full recovery. But at least we don't all get chomped up by the Great Whites, which I understand to be the invariable fate of those who capsize in your part of the world, unless of course the Box Jellyfish get them first.

[mozzy656]

Woop! Made the front page of the site. Thanks SA. http://www.sailingan...index_page1.php

[russyh]

Nice video, just goes to shoe how good a boat the 200 is, you would take it out in anything!

[mozzy656]

Yeah, they're a class boat. Ideal for people, exiting 29ers and 420's who don't want to go Olympic sailing. They need less specific crew training as they don't have a trapeze, meaning you can pick anyone up and go sailing. They're a pretty good size for a couple to sail so there's more girls on the circuit which makes the social better. A lot of the ex GB youth squad sailors sail them, and quite a few of the Olympic team do the national champs and big meetings as good fleets sailing practice.

How come you guys don't sail them in the US, Australia or Canada?

[Reht]

In Canada, nobody is really pushing the RS brand (at least not here), and a lot of people have no idea about the lineup outside the few vendors. I know that around here (and I understand it's the case for much of the continent), people are content to stick with the old designs that have been around for ever, and almost nobody is willing to drop the cost of a boat and shipping across the Atlantic to be the only one for hundreds of miles. If RS pushed clubs to get fleets then you'd see the boats popping up a lot more, possibly in the hands of individuals.

It would be awesome to see more modern designs around, but the only modern dinghies around here are the 9ers (and one or two plastic tubs, but they don't count)...

[mozzy656]

So what boats do you sail, and how many turn out at Nationals? What about the US, what do they sail there?

You can see the UK attendance tables on yachts and yachting: http://www.yachtsand...m/classes/?s=44

There's quite a mix of new and old in there. The biggest fleets are typically youth and junior though.

[Reht]

It seems that in North America the fleets are very regional, mostly because of travel, in the UK a 6 hour drive will get you from anywhere to just about anywhere for the nationals. Around here, if I'm near the east coast and nationals are on the west coast, it can be a 2+ day non-stop road trip for me to get there. What it means is that many classes are very local, and all their events are very local, and the class doesn't spread much beyond the small area where it is established. In my area we have a large fireball fleet, and there's one (maybe 2) other reasonable fleets a short distance away. Beyond that you have to travel quite a distance to find a fleet of fireballs. What it means is that nationals numbers mean almost nothing here (whereas they're used as an indicator for class strength in the UK) because if the nationals are a 2-day drive away (for example), how many people are going to be willing to spend the extreme amount of time and money to get out there.

To be fair, I'm from Canada and all my statements about the US dinghy scene are based from what I hear (both here and otherwise) and what I observe around here (figuring that we're so close, if can't be all that different). And I sail a 49er, which is not generally a big turnout class to start with. But if you want to compare, last year we had 17 boats at Canadians, compared to 16 at UK nationals. I'm sure if you looked at the big fleets (the youth fleets) you'd see much smaller fleets here, and they're mostly concentrated in Optis, Radials, 420s, and a growing 29er fleet. I'm willing to bet that a large part of the lower nationals numbers here for youth fleets relates back to travel, are parents likely to be willing to drive their kids across the continent?

Starting a new fleet is difficult for the same reason having classes expand, people seem content with what they have, and often that means what they've always had (at least as far back as most people are willing to remember). We're seeing (at least around here) a slow influx of more modern boats, but there's nobody actively promoting the boats outside the store's front door so it will take a while before anything takes off. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see lots of more modern, higher performance boats around, I just fail to see who's going to buy and sail them...