Olson 30 vs New Modern 30' Boats

[Olsonist]

The rudders on the first couple of boats ...

Yeah, the broach friendly stock rudders were replaced with the deeper elliptical rudders. Waterat IIRC. The Express 37s went through the same evolution.

Elliptical vs Stock Rudders » Olson 30 Class Association

www.olson30.org

I helmed an O30 against a Hendo once and it seemed like tube vs solid state. Maybe the rating even things out but damn that Hendo looked nice. But 30s are a lot of fun to drive. We regularly crushed J105s.

 

[Snatch Block]

Henderson 30, Mumm 30, FT and Melges 32 are really amazing boats however I believe all required crew (weight)…am I wrong?

 

[Snatch Block]

Not many Antrim 27 or J92’s on the market…they’re really great boats.

 

[pqbon]

Not many Antrim 27 or J92’s on the market…they’re really great boats.

I heard rumours that IO didn't live up to expectations... may wind up for sale.

 

[SuddenlyBrown]

Antrim 27 is a great boat. Singlehanded? No thanks.

 

[Hale Moana]

Some friends had an Antrim 27. They never figured out how to make it go to weather. But they were really fast reaching and running. Especially reaching.

 

[VeloceSailing]

There's a Farr 30 here in Sweden, turning out at most double-handed events and regularly winning racea

 

[Foolish]

One vital thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is weight on the rail. You only have to sail an O30 singlehanded against a crewed boat to understand how incredibly vital weight on the rail is. When beating in anything over 12 knots wind, the singlehander will drift 50 yards to leeward for every 1/4 mile of sailing, perhaps even more. I know this very well from over 100 races against a crewed O30. As much as I LOVE my O30, if I was looking for something new for singlehanding, I'd want a boat that points better.

 

[solosailor]

Polar Bear was raced and optimized for singlehanded sailing. Smaller roach main, smaller spinnakers, etc.

 

[Alan H]

If it doesn't cost a trillion dollars, wasn't designed last week by some insane French dude, and isn't laid up with carbon infused with dragon spittle and thermally modified diamonds, can it be any good?

 

[Crash]

If it doesn't cost a trillion dollars, wasn't designed last week by some insane French dude, and isn't laid up with carbon infused with dragon spittle and thermally modified diamonds, can it be any good?

Yes, but...

But an Olson 30 was designed as a fully crewed boat...and PHRF in most regions gives a 30 foot boat a crew limit of 8. So 7 x 185lbs (being conservative) equals 1295lbs of extra, moveable ballast.

The dragon infused carbon french monstosity with max beam aft, and a long deep fin with a huge torpedo bulb, and maybe some water ballast to boot, was designed to be sailed by one guy....and it will, 9 times out of 10, outsail the olson, unless the course is DDW. Then, the olson can still win.

Dem's de facts boys...whether we like it or not.

 

[munt]

I always found it truly shocking that you need 8 vatos to sail a 30 foot boat. I like Olson 30s and guessing this has been addressed here before but what would the cost/benefit be of simply changing the keel?

 

[Alaris]

I always found it truly shocking that you need 8 vatos to sail a 30 foot boat. I like Olson 30s and guessing this has been addressed here before but what would the cost/benefit be of simply changing the keel?

This is a good convo on the subject:

Ballast ratios, stiffness and the singlehanded sailor

This past weekend I saw an interesting phenomenon happen in the SSS No Trophy North Bay race. It was a singlehanded only event under challenging Bay area winds and chop. I witnessed many but not all less stiff boats racing suffered under reefs with 20 plus knot winds, chop and current. While...

forums.sailinganarchy.com

And this is my uninformed question on the topic that showed there’s not a good answer:

Keel bulb weight to crew weight equivalent calculation?

I’m sure there’s a formula for this but I went to law school to avoid doing math so I don’t know how to describe what I’m trying to Google. We are currently investigating the idea of increasing the ballast in our bulb and wanted to get an impression of how the difference in ballast would...

forums.sailinganarchy.com

 

[VeloceSailing]

And this is my uninformed question on the topic that showed there’s not a good answer:

Keel bulb weight to crew weight equivalent calculation?

I’m sure there’s a formula for this but I went to law school to avoid doing math so I don’t know how to describe what I’m trying to Google. We are currently investigating the idea of increasing the ballast in our bulb and wanted to get an impression of how the difference in ballast would...

forums.sailinganarchy.com

You can play around with Selden righting moment calculator. Add and remove rail meat

https://support.seldenmast.com/en/services/calculators/rm_calculator.html

 

[sierrawhiskeygolf]

Have thought that adding water ballast to an Olson 30 could be a solution to the "8 vatos" problem.

 

[solosailor]

Water ballast would be a horrible idea..... at least ratings wise.

 

[Alan H]

O 30's aren't very wide. Pretty sure that boats need beam to make water ballast work, at least going upwind.

Better buy that French carbon vacuum-infused dragon spittle and thermally modified diamond boat and it's One Design plan. Otherwise you won't have any fun.

 

[Alan H]

Water ballast would be a horrible idea..... at least ratings wise.

Actually, your boat might be a pretty good candidate for water ballast, but you've never added it. It's not the expense, you have the skills to do all the work yourself, but you haven't.

Why? I'm curious.

 

[solosailor]

Actually it's an extremely great candidate if I raced a lot upwind offshore.... wide beam and narrow waterline. Won't pay ratings wise even shorthanded as it's only useful offshore while going upwind as inshore it's slow to use = not useful at all. Of course I considered WB since I bought the boat in '07 several times but the numbers made little sense. Using historical data I figure it would be a 6-9 second minimum, maybe more rating hit. That is a penalty you pay around the course both upwind and downwind. Unless I removed weight from the bulb I'd be carrying around additional weight all the time.

 

[sierrawhiskeygolf]

O 30's aren't very wide. Pretty sure that boats need beam to make water ballast work, at least going upwind.

If an Olson 30 is faster (higher) upwind with weight on the rail (it is), why wouldn't it be faster upwind with water ballast? Your ballast would be lower but not a LOT lower.

As for the rating hit, for sure, it could be painful. And could be more 'efficient' ratings-wise to sail lower with no penalty than higher with one. Can you sail 6-sec/mile faster, on average, on all points of sail is the question, and the answer might be "no way!".