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From: Grant Geddes (geddes@chariot.net.au)
Date: Mon 27 Sep 1999 - 13:33:08 BST
>I feel I must respond to Tim Willetts email on his rigs.
We are proud of the product we produce,which to be fair has totally
dominated both the last two world championships
<p>>Well, Tim you are correct that your rig won the San Fran worlds, but 2nd,
3rd
>and 4th places were not your rigs.
>In the Melbourne worlds, a CST rig dominated, winning 4 heats and the world
>championship.
<p>Let us not forget that Charles Stanley was actuallt dead heat tied with
Geddes (and the CST rig)
at the end of the worlds, separated on countback in favour of CST.
>Charles did not tie for first, he came second.
>2nd and 3rd were Willetts rigs, and 4th was a carbon concepts rig.
>I don't think your rig dominated at all in the past 2 worlds.
>
In the case of our rigs, we get good results in Light air, but it is in
the really windy stuff that our rigs out-perform all others.
<p>>Tim obviously did not see any of the racing in Melbourne.
>A CST rig won heat 2 in a breeze of 5-10 knots by over 4 minutes.
>Then won heat 3 in 15-22 knots by over 3 minutes.
>Heat 5 was won by only 1and 1/2 minutes in 17-22 knots
>Plus the rig won in the last race in 20 knots plus, out pacing everyone.
>The windier it got the quicker the CST rig went
>I think there was a light air defeciency to a small extent, but this was
>partly with setup more than the actual rig being slow. Remember the rig was
>brand new and still being sorted.
>Not to take into account hull design, windshifts, downwind speed, and
>tactics.
>Any one who raced in the teams racing would have seen how quick this rig
was
>in breezes hardly ever above 10 knots.
<p>The extra Dimension of the rig means greater rig tension is carried
(better control over jib shape).
<p>>Once again Tim does not realise what he is saying. The CST rig was using a
>tension of 44 (on a Loos guage) on the shrouds. This is as high or higher
than
>just about every boat in the fleet. The jib luff sagged very little. The
>control of the mast bend comes from the lowers and intermediate stays.
<p>But in a strong breeze there is an important difference. As the tube
size of our rig is bigger, our tapered section becomes more gust responsive
than the CST equivalent (their mast bends more evenly over it's length than
ours does
in strong winds)
<p>>I disagree. The CST rig is almost dead straight below the bottom
spreaders,
>with the bend progressing from there. This gives the mast more of a whippy
>tip, which will flex to any gust.
>Being a smaller diameter, there is less windage also.
In your report you describe the CST as more automatic. But I believe
you are totally wrong on that. It is not remotely automatic in Light air
or in really strong winds (but certainly is in medium conditions).
The TW rig has always been a little finicky to set up, and is not what I'd
call a totally
automatic rig, but it does offer the total range of conditions in which it
will perform well.
<p>>Well Tim, having sailed with both I think I can say that the CST rig is far
>more automatic than a Willetts rig. Yes they are both a bit finicky to set
>up, as is any rig that you get going fast, but the CST rig has a "set and
>forget" setup. Sure, in light air they can be improved slightly ( which we
>are working on now), but the only adjustments that are made are vang and
>cunningham eye. A Willetts rig has to be racked forward and back to
maintain
>good speed through the wind range. In heavy air, just crank the cunningham
>and off the CST goes, I think that is pretty much automatic.
>You see, this rig flexes with the wind, the rig does all the work for you.
In
>a breeze you can almost cleat the main, it's that easy.
>
And lets not forget that about 75% of the fleet has a Willetts rig.
CST had their rigs on 4 boats
Not a bad result really considering
>The CST rig we had for Melbourne was never set up for light air, we aimed
at
>the moderate breezes, as this is in which you sail 80% of the time. I
think
>we achieved our goal.
>
>Defender of the CST rig
>
>Grant Geddes w.c.
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