Do all you rock star boys live in glass houses with no sticky on your fingers? Sittin' and bitchin' and how about earning your own friggin' chops???
This is a nice boat.
Yet again, you guys have missed the point of why we sail: FUN.
And you, therefore, are part of the reason that sailing has been in a death spiral of decline over the last so many years.
I was walking the beach in Puerto Vallarta a few weeks back with an old sailing friend and there were 5 or 6 black-sailed boats off the city front and a race committee boat and la-de dah... came home and found out that this was part of the MEXORC series, which used to be sumpin. Some poster showed a shredded carbon fiber mast truck, claiming some high-wind thrashing they were taking after the start. Looked like a dry lay-up to my eye...
We were there for the start of the race, never saw over 12 knots of breeze. Our plane flew out over a rippled ocean at sunset, and there was little increasing breeze in the interim.Yet the poster wanted everyone to think that they thwarted death once again, as they braved the great maelstrom, bedecked in matching crew shirts and doused with mojitos. Jeeeze guys.
The featured is a really nice boat. Built with skilled hands. Sits on its lines when launched, has WOOD in it! Probably does not need more luff because it doesn't weigh a ton, or the crew may want to clear the boom during a tack. Don't talk to me about longer luffs: the old-rule 14's were the yardstick of measure. This new boat may be even fun to sail, has a transom flap to drain the innards, to those not old enough to know why transom flaps were invented. Perhaps in a capsize, this boat will not immediately turn turtle, (transom flaps come in here in their own convoluted way; ask Bieker) which may add to the FUN in a relationship with your CREW, who may sleep with you occasionally, (don't ask Bieker) and a kick-up rudder because not everyone sails in the deep waters of the Pacific Northwest, no racks, dual trapezes, or foiling anything to add fodder to your soon-to -be ex-wife's lawyer's complaint in the divorce decree, citing your neglect of family... just simple FUN SAILING, in a nicely built design.
Maybe if we backed of a click on the pimpin' and returned to our roots of this wonderful endeavor, we could have some recruitment within the sport.
Once again: that's a really nice boat. Go get sticky fingers and give a boat to a kid.
Gleno, Member of the British I-14 Crew's Union. Google it.
I think a beachable ballasted home built day boat is a very good idea for a lot of people who do not have access to marina/club facilities. or the budget.
For those of you who do not like the boat or the design concept , show us your favorite boat which meets these criteria.