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It was a brilliant bright day that greeted us. Clear, very clear, light and the lake appeared to be boiling….white horses all over the place. There was a large open meeting on for Flying Fifteens, wayfarers and wanderers so our South course venue at the main pontoon was impractical. HM did a super job with a compromised north course – with a new aluminium launching platform!!
The ‘big boys’ were away at Lincoln. So the hard core were ready to race at home!
It was meant to be five of us, then Phil was on family commitments – it being Mothers Day I guess. Then there were four.
It was quite obviously a C Rig kind of day (15-20 gusting 35 plus) , and out we went for a half hour blast through the waves(big). That was enough to sort RJ’s little used C rig – and the jib tack was sawed through by something. Very lucky not to dismast!! Then there were three.
The boats just flew. Race one was really fast – GH really superbly quick downwind – but the breeze continued to build. The guys came ashore for C2 discussions and quick rig resets. Then I notice JLR tightened up his main leech and definitely changed gear … improved pointing …… while GH seemed to go EVEN quicker. There were two spectacular ” an inch in it” kind of reaching finishes. Just brilliant to watch !!
Then the wind blew up even more (a lot more) and HM declared racing cancelled in favour of bacon rolls and tea. Job done – good day!
As at 28th February we had 48 entries showing for the Nationals. There’ll be a few more to come.
At four dozen, it doesn’t seem too soon to see how the entry population looks as far as designs are concerned. What is happening at the sharp end of the UK Fleet?
Not at all surprising that the most popular design in the fleet will be the fabulous Britpop – making up a third of the Fleet.
Quite surprising is the number of Venti now …. almost 20% of the fleet and you get a feeling that popularity is really growing. Momentum behind Venti is starting to build now.
Big surprise is the Proteus – after only a year (is it less?? I forget…) of home builds, already 10% of the Championship Fleet. With more and more coming off the home printing lines, it’s already exceeding the Alioth and Viss. Interesting. Just wait until the K7 glassfibre boats hit the market, eh?
While our “big boys” were racing the IOM Rankings in West Lancs on Sunday, the rest of us were lucky enough to get a good look at the latest (voluptuous!) glassfibre prototype of the Proteus.
Gosh, that boat is going to be light at the ends. Fantastic. Plus a proprietary Red Ant, faster thinner stiffer lighter Fin-Set. The main focus of discussion though on Sunday was the sheeting system. This version is the semi-under-deck system that we have on our F6 Marbleheads. Very neat it was too (clever under-deck sealed tubes). We had wide ranging discussion as to whether it should be totally under the deck and emerge at PTFE deck ferrules…. or indeed at the other extreme, have it all on deck so you can fix it in a hurry. Perhaps all three will be options, we shall see. It didn’t seem appropriate to photograph the somewhat secret section amidships, but suffice it to say that there is a 3D printed section within there with everything integrated and adding rigidity – making it a kind of ‘hybrid’ in a way. Very clever. Some development happening at the shroud anchorages too… and not visible in the photo there is one of those clever magnetic jib tracks, special sheet eye positions… just lots of trickle down technology from F6, and loads of unique IP in there. Without correctors, the boat is extremely light yet amazingly stiff. Really stiff.
As you probably know, it is being built by K7 Yachts. I believe there are several European orders placed already, but if interested you can put your name down quickly. Just hurry.
I did.
(You can contact K7 Yachts, by using the Club email address on the contacts page of this website.)
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