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Here is a page from the Thistle Class, who recently clarified their rules on electronic devices during racing.
http://www.thistleclass.com/contacts/CMR65.shtml
Also a note from the Lightning Class:
Question:
Can I use a watch that provides GPS related information?Response:
No. Any electronic device shall not provide wind information, boat speed, GPS-related information or compute correlation between time and bearing.This info can be found at:
http://www.lightningclass.org/classRules/documents/interpretations.asp
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086Travis:
I believe you may be right in that the class leadership has not explored the benefits in performance or learning curve that these devices could provide. I don’t believe that it is a lack of awareness, but a conscious decision to keep most electronic devices out of the class.
The most popular GPS device available is the iPhone, and you may have noticed that it can also be used to communicate on the water. This is also prohibited in the class rules. Texting your buddy to “tack now” or downloading the weather to see the approaching change, would all change the game.
If sailors want to have fancy electronics and carbon spars, cleaner foils and boats laid up out of carbon, there are classes that accommodate them.
You may have noticed classes like the Melges 24, with which I think you are familiar, that are attuned to the higher-tech, higher-budget, skipper-owner.
My question, is whether devices such as this, help the RACING or just a RACER. I think we should use that as a guide.
By the way, what have other one-designs done? Thistle, Lightning, etc, all have similar crew sizes and could be looked at to see if we are behind the times.
The last I heard the Thistles had just banned VHF again, after a test of allowing it.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086I think it is mainly to keep the boats a pure one-design. If the class allowed every new gadget, then each boat would need to constantly buy stuff to stay in the game.
There are ways to use a GPS to create a performance advantage both in the race itself and in analyzing performance after.
Sandy felt that the Thistle class got to be a boat-tweaking arms race and made sure the Scot would have as even a playing field as possible. It is part of what has made the class so strong, in my opinion.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086We have a race series, called the Challenge of the Lakes, where we race together with the Hunterdon Sail Club at Spruce Run. Two races at Spruce Run and two races at Nockamixon make up the series. Both fleets are growing and healthy.
It will be great to meet you at one of the lakes.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086That’s a good boat. I worked with Bob on installing some new hardware.
You will have to find time to come to Lake Nockamixon and sail, or race with the active Scot Fleet 163.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086We have two boats available at our club at Lake Nockamixon, near Allentown, PA
3843 and 3353 are available from our members.
If interested, write back and I can get more details
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086whr241:
I would agree that the bridle you are building seems sketchy.
I have a stainless cable bridle from flying scot, and it seems to be about 1/4 to 3/8 inch cable and super beefy. The ring and cable look like they were made to lift a 747. I don’t think this version is made any longer.
The drawback is that it is not easy to store on the boat, and it can be abrasive to the sails. If it catches on the corner of the deck near the bolt as you lift the boat it can take a nice chunk of gelcoat off real fast.
My impression is that the Web Bridle is the one from FS Inc. now, and that it is easy on sails, can be stored more easily on the boat, and is proven by many Scot sailors. As Harry’s post says, these things can wear over time (no matter how they are made), so be safe. I would go with the bridle from Harry.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086If the boat won’t center:
1 Use a stern line to keep the stern under control.
2 Try backing the trailer into the water less deep, if the boat is winching out of the water onto the trailer, it tends to stay straight. If it is floating onto the trailer, it can go all over the place while you crank the winch.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086I was also very concerned with part 7 item 4. The idea that a group is going to look at how to improve the construction of the boats is crazy. One of the virtues of a Scot is extreme durability.
If you made construction changes and the boat weighs the same, my guess is that you would tweak the stiffness of the hull, or the stiffness and foil shape of the centerboard.
If there is some current structural deficiency, it is up to the builder to address it and the measurer to enforce the specs of the boat.
Either of the changes would create a “new boat” arms race, and make the old boats obsolete. The fact my my boat, made in 1985 can largely hang in there with boats made this year, is why this class is strong. We have boats from the sixties in our fleet, and they are competitive too.
Let’s not mess that up,
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086Transom ports make the boat much easier to empty if the boat is swamped. The bow float bag holds the bow up, so that you have a much better chance of rescuing a swamped boat without a long slow tow.
At big events in windy places, where it is conceivable to have a group of boats capsize within the same time period, the transom port and bow bag make it easier to tow the water out of a swamped boat. The safety boat uses a towing bridle which pulls the swamped Scot to the surface and the water streams out through the port.
This makes rescues much faster, and thus a safety boat can help others more quickly. This makes racing safer.
Apparently new boats have come with them since 1992, which is 15 years before the time they passed the rule. The FSSA then gave two years to get it done.
I did it on my boat and it is easy. A little fiberglass, a hole saw for the port and you are good to go.
If you have boat number 5400, you should already have this stuff. In my opinion, FSSA is catering to safety. I would have put it in, rule or not. It’s like a PFD for your boat.
Have fun,
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086A Sailor’s Tailor Army duck mooring cover? Covers the whole deck, and otters would have to be crafty to get under it, I would guess.
From this video, it seems that otters don’t like pepper, dogs, or being sprayed with a hose.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/164892_repel-otters.htm
Maybe you want to put a pepper-based repellent on your mooring cover.
Have fun,
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086One bag, one port, and the specs are in the FSSA handbook. The kit from FS Inc, is the easy way to go. The fun part is glassing the blocks into the hull that the straps for the bow bag screw into. I love the smell of fiberglass resin in the morning.
I have done three boats recently with the transom port, it’s easy.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086My point was that measurement in CMR 82 and the dimension bigpapaporsche is stating are not measuring the same thing. That we have variations is sails is not surprising. The CMR over the years have served to constrain interpretations of the measurement rules.
The only way to have identical sails for all boats, and all boats identical would be to have one hull builder, one approved sailmaker, and a rigidly defined set of standing and running rigging.
Without the interested input of sailmakers over the years and the hotshot sailors who like to tweak the running rigging, within the rules, the Scot class would be a very different animal, like a frozen caveman. The class and it’s sails and rigging have stayed modern. New and used boat sales and new class member recruitment are all aided by the improvements which have been made. I doubt Harry would sell many new boats if they all had the original winches and cleats of 1957.
The pattern seems to be to allow small improvements in running rigging, which may make the boat easier to sail, as long as they do not provide a speed advantage, or create a safety hazard. The other guiding principal seems to be to keep the boat accessible to a wide range of athletic and not-very athletic sailors and to curb costly equipment arms races.
Bob Neff has done a great job of limiting the evolution of the rigging, and keeping the sails legal and fair. CMR 82 is a good example of a clarification of the rules that kept designs that could have strayed far from the one-design nature of the boat, in check.
By the way, does anyone know if that range of 35 to 40″ measured in the way that was stated is actually correct and does it correspond to the different rig tensions? It is the first time I have seen those measurements.
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086It seems like he is measuring the line which would extend the batten to the luff. The key word being parallel. The measurement to which you refer in CMR 82 is perpendicular to the luff, which is less distance.
“The jib measurement is very important in determining which Rig your boat is designed for, IE Loose, Snug, or Tight. To find this measurement simply measure across the jib’s width, parallel, and at the top batten.”
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086Insurance is available at a fairly reasonable cost through an affiliate of US Sailing. They have insurance specific to one-design racing boats and you can name your value of your boat.
http://www.ussailing.org/membership/Insurance/
Phil Scheetz
FS 4086
