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  1. martin 'hoff

    moderate performance dinghy

    A Weta also fits the bill.
  2. martin 'hoff

    What goes wrong with opti sails?

    I'm 200 %in agreement with most of what you wrote, but have a question / quibble with the point above. The key thing that stretches, IME, on a laser sail, is the leech, as it's used (via crazy vang and mainsheet tension) to bend the mast to make the sail flatter in big winds. Dacron vs a nice...
  3. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 4 (2023/2024)

    It's supposed to have a 5 year ramp down, and while i don't think they are publishing their financials, what's externally visible is positive. On one hand, I have no horse in the race, I'm not going to defend Larry or Russell who are big boys I'm told. OTOH, it seems pretty reasonable to me as...
  4. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 4 (2023/2024)

    Sure. And yet, it sounds like it's within the funding plan, whatever that might be. otherwise they'd replace under-sponsored teams instead of adding a whole team. Compare/contrast Japan replaced by (who was that? Denmark, Canada?), vs the addition of Germany. Do you have further info on their...
  5. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 4 (2023/2024)

    lol - glad you like it. I agree they will have to split the fleet. For venues with enough wind, this can be a good thing - run the 2 fleets back-to-back, non-stop racing. Final race of the event might have 4 boats instead of 3.
  6. martin 'hoff

    What goes wrong with opti sails?

    Kudos to you for spotting that the new sail gets in the way. Because the Opti sail has short battens and heavy cloth, a brand new sail being rigid means it won't shape right in light winds. Sounds likely that, together with figuring out the sail ties, you'll want to sail that sail in windy...
  7. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 4 (2023/2024)

    The "will SailGP be find its footing / be sustainable" ship has sailed. Sponsors like the time-on-the-screen / dollars ratio, which beats AC and also beats the long distance races (VOR etc) which are so long that they get summarized into 1 minute snippets in which your expensively sponsored...
  8. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 4 (2023/2024)

    The race / league / campaign management of SailGP looks to have things well in hand. Even though there's stuff I don't quite like, the league is running, and it's steady improvement and steady employment for a whole generation of top professional sailors. It's one thing to win a race, and quite...
  9. martin 'hoff

    Birdyfish foiler?

    Hard to know with foilers if they are for fun free-ride (ie: foil mostly in reaches) or for racing. Generally speaking, foilers that are racing machines are not a great fit for learning, and vice-versa.
  10. martin 'hoff

    Birdyfish foiler?

    Yep. It's right in the ballpark. Brand new 29er, a well established 2 handed class with the benefit of volume, is $20K. Quant23 seems to be 2-3x (65K Euro?). 69f is 10x (~250K). Agreed that I woudn't consider dacron at all for an apparent wind boat. Sail shape is mission critical, and you'll...
  11. martin 'hoff

    Birdyfish foiler?

    Looks a lot like a petit Quant23. The Quant23 kite looks massive, the rig generally looks... overpowered, in the way that light air lake boats look. The BirdyFish rig looks more modestly proportioned. I'd hop on one in a blink. They look like fun!
  12. martin 'hoff

    Steve and Dave Clarks Unidentified Foiling Object

    Are there really 2 UFOs in Seattle? Can an East Coast interloper come around and sail with your crowd some time @LarryO ? I visit Seattle for work 2-3 times/year. Could pack a wetsuit next time I come.
  13. martin 'hoff

    Steve and Dave Clarks Unidentified Foiling Object

    It's definitely @Dave Clark - [email protected] Sailing with your son? Fantastic!
  14. martin 'hoff

    2023 Sunfish Worlds in Ecuador Cancelled

    How about other classes? Do LP's Lasers stilll carry WS stickers plaques. It's a through-the-looking-glass moment. Take the most recognizable brand in sailing, and ... fake out the WS stickers... ? What next? Did they sew fake patches on local loft sails? Stencil 'harken' on generic blocks?
  15. martin 'hoff

    Nacra 15 FCS for fun

    @Stanno that's such a shame. The fleet is having a resurgence in Europe, where they seem to have big N15 regattas every month, and in the Royal Kingdom of Florida, where between StPete/Clearwater/Sarasota and Ft Lauderdale/Miami we have ~15 teams including some world champs. @PitPater – this...
  16. martin 'hoff

    A-Class foiling sailors

    @flyinggorilla – looks like so much fun! Do you need help for 2-boat testing? :-)
  17. martin 'hoff

    2023 Sunfish Worlds in Ecuador Cancelled

    Yeah, if you'll cut that corner, what corner wouldn't you cut? How do you rebuild your reputation?
  18. martin 'hoff

    Nacra 15 FCS for fun

    So glad you guys had a good time. I was in Boulder climbing little hills in between work meetings. You're making us think of getting a N17 :-) – yes, the N15 with C boards is pretty damn good, and the C vs Z foil performance isn't that different. C boards are faster upwind, and also downwind...
  19. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 3 (2022/2023)

    Time to split the fleet, race the 2 groups back to back, and get back to classic upwind starts.
  20. martin 'hoff

    SailGP Season 3 (2022/2023)

    No criticism of AP. He's fairly good, and can get better. But, leaving Nathan out of actual racing is a damn crime. The rest of your post is idiotic crud.


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