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SB3 Hiking Rule !?

  • 26-05-2009 9:21pm
    #1
    tomreee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8 ✭


    I dont know how many people will be interested in this, but I have been wondering about it for a long time...

    I have been watching the gradual takeover of all the Dun Laoghaire clubs by the new laser SB3s. I presume the situation is similar around the country, and a look at their class website suggests this. As a firm (A-symetric) dinghy sailor, I can't get my head around the no hiking rule.

    Surely the point of an Asymetric boat is to sail as flat and fast as possible. There are videos on youtube of lads piling into these boats on windy days and hanging out using the sheets and whatever they can to hold on. They can get the boat going much faster than it ever could if it were to stick to this class rule.

    In my view, and the view of at least some other dinghy sailors, this rule takes away from the performance of the boat, and in some ways, may lower the standard and ability of the sailors required to sail it. I am sure it is still a competitive fleet and still exhilorating to sail, but couldnt it be better without this rule?


Comments

  • #2
    miss no stars
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    I didn't realise that was a rule. Similarly enough, in my club there's a sizeable fleet of them by now. That rule does explain some odd behaviour on the race course though - broaching and man overboard type behaviour.

    Surely it should be abolished in the interest of safety? Or perhaps there's some other safety reason?!

    It does seem odd.


  • #3
    Cheeble
    Closed Accounts Posts: 224 ✭✭Cheeble


    tomreee wrote: »
    ....this rule takes away from the performance of the boat, and in some ways, may lower the standard and ability of the sailors required to sail it.....

    I'd have said, if anything, it raises the standard and ability required to sail it. Winning in the SB3 fleet requires not only that you sail the boat well, but that you have good strategy, boat-on-boat tactics, rules knowledge, team skills, and a whole lot more....
    It also opens up the fleet to a wider range of sailors (not everybody has the young back and legs for trapezing), which is surely part of the appeal of a one-design class?
    There are plenty of other choices if you want to go trapezing. The SB3s are all about levelling the field so that the winner is the best sailor, not necessarily the most agile one.

    Cheeble-eers


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