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It's also legal in many other parts of cycling. The UCI covers a very very small part of the cycling spectrum (tour, worlds etc). I could go and ride a P3X in the national level competition (perhaps not in america, they seem to like the UCI a bit too much). Otherwise it's an oddity that worlds...

Hmm.. does the moth actually travel there, or is it balanced on top for the photo? I'd take the boat.. never did understand these 'merican cars, like mine to go round corners :)

Presumably that's down to whoever in your country paid / bribed / is mates with the right people / otherwise made the most convincing case for the distribution rights. Conventional media doesn't seem to have figured out how to work in globalised fashion.. Or in one word: Protectionism.

That's precisely the point. A symmetric foil pointed down the middle of the boat requires leeway in order to generate lift. It cannot move to windward like a moth (sorry - move towards the side opposite the sails, such that the boat has a vector perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and...

Disagree. There must be an excess to start the movement. For that movement to remain constant in rate, there must be a balance. An acceleration implies an ever increasing rate. Precisely - what actually happens is that it initially accelerates to leeward, which slightly reduces the sideways...

We're arguing frames of reference I think. It reminds me of being told that there's no such thing as a centrifugal force at school :) To me it's simple if you consider the board on it's own, separate from the hull. Something causes it to want to move to leeward - a force applied through the...

Sideload is the best term I can come up with. Follow me on a thought experiment: You tow a boat with two people standing in the middle. AOA = 0. (hopefully we agree). Now stick some sails up, put it on a reach, and stand in the middle. It falls over - the foil will develop a little...

BalticBandit - unless I seriously misunderstand you, now you're messing up transients! Whether you're pinched, or footing, the AOA of the board is set by sideload and speed through the water, with sideload directly proportional to how hard you're trapping. Heading up will (transiently) increase...

So, here's a somewhat non-sequitur observation. With the exception of ones that are designed to work well upside down, pretty much every aeroplane in the world sets the main wings at about +4degrees to the fuselage line - because that's (typically) the optimal AOA to get the wing into the best...

Check out Mike Cooke's Ninja's (Aardvark boats) - you'll find a few interesting things; a very reduced wing length fore-aft (sweep back on the front bar and forward on the rear). Also a fixed rudder (no pitch trim). Seems to work OK. On my prowler I sometimes sit right in the back corner with...

I bought a 49er for giggles once.. then I gave up sailing anything else - until an 18footer, then latterly a moth came into my life. It's addictive. These sort of boats are all about handling and crew skill, don't obsess over the rig, plenty of point racing it with the old rig. The difference...

Another small subtlety that's been missed is it depends more on where the wind is from than where the boat is going - for instance, downwind in some boats, the main's still working in a very upwind (apparent-wind) mode (49ers, moths), whereas in others it's working as a barn door rather than an...

Jimbo, Ignoring some of the cruft for the moment, as a 8-month mothie: a) They're quite welcoming and friendly, really... b ) I'm 90kg, inland sailing, flukey and wind blighted (DWSC based - don't believe the propaganda!) c) I'm very 'mortal' in sailing terms. Sure, I'm not competitive...

I'll strike a slight note of dischord. All the setup things will influence how easy the boat is to sail in these conditions, particularly downhaul (I'd expect to see flappiness in the upper leech if that maxed..) but most of all, you have to drive right. As _Chris_ said, the boat wants to be a...

Sorry, my bad on the quoting. What a retarded system it is.. so maybe singlehanders would mean more boats. Sadly I don't think singlehanders are entirely representative of sailing, nor (in general) do they make good TV. Of course I'm every bit as biassed towards small overpowered skiff and...

Hmm.. That I didn't realise (the IOC paid), assumed it was the entering country, that said, I'm quite sure that it's not as simple as twice as many singlehanders; there are hull costs and the like which don't halve.

How would singlehanders lead to more boats on the start line?

49er. No earthly reason why you can't have a fast mixed crew in a 49er, it's not very physical at the back.

Modern boards are a lot easier - a longboard is still quite wobbly in comparison. The other thing that makes a huge difference is rail shape - older kit tends to have sharp rails, whilst the modern ones are much rounder, and keep that a long way aft - slower, but more forgiving. Board design is...

Quite. Not to mention that the person who has seen fit to return them is already publicly condemmned on the basis of what 'NoStrings' (inappropriate handle perhaps!) *thinks*. Where I come from, that's also punishable in law, 'grand' or otherwise. Being nice, I don't think NoStrings is exactly...