International 14 Mailing List
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From: Ted Rogers (twrogers@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed 16 Jun 1999 - 17:43:27 BST
I too got caught by the reply-to thing yesterday, but here's my 2 cents:
Not to be a stick in the mud, (sailing from Richmond I've been just that
often enough) but I think that there's something to be said for the "14
feet is 14 feet" argument. We may yet be able to simplify the rules that
define what's included in that 14 feet, but I'd like to see the sailing
length of the boats remain 14 feet.
As for advantages or not in light air, wetted surface is far more dominant
than sailing length at those speeds, so getting the transom out is key.
That's why the crew ends up on the foredeck. But given two boats both very
bow down with similar wetted surface, the boat with the longer sailing
length (by virtue of a bowsprit support of the like) will have
correspondingly less wavemaking drag, and thus be slightly faster.
And more of the SF perspective: rigs are tall enough. Make the boats 7 feet
or even 8 feet wide for more power. We all could have used it in
Sandringham. 30 foot rigs (as the 12's carry - see Andy's message) would be
nice in light air - but so would a pit crew to help me change and tune 3
rigs between races! Not to mention a stock market bonanza to help pay for
all that gear....when someone develops a stump system or similar with 6
feet of travel, then I'll be more interested.
Ted Rogers
US 1104 (It'll be sailable again soon, really!)
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