by s vernon » Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:04 pm
Tony,
I think you are going to want to put a 3/4 inch wide white or light colored stripe along the shear so you can tell the angle of heal when the boat is out on the water racing. Black with a black deck - all you will see is black with no idea how far the shear is above the water. I know you think that will spoil the stealth effect, but you have to be practical with a raceboat. Very pretty boat. Maybe you can make the shear stripe removable during the week - humor.
I have been loaning out my old 1980's Robin with a light deck, new heavy ballast pour (about 42 5/8ths), RMG and some good sails lately to a new guy and also to Tom P on visit to Atlanta area. Tom noted that it was hard to tell angle of heal/where the shear was, so I put a blue stripe at the shear on the yellow boat.
The boat is still not tuned well but much better than when Tom raced it. I finally raced that boat in a few races Saturday and have new respect for those old relics if they are well-rebuilt and have decent sails. Even in (typical up and down lake wind) wind of up to 6 or 8 the boat was flying. A bit more twitchy sometimes than a 95 std boat, but I was pleasantly surprised. Any boat is only fast or slow compared with the other boats out there, and I got lucky on some windshifts, so time will tell.
The 42 inoz rudder servo is definitely not up to the job downwind in puffs of 8 to 10.
Black is a great color for a boat, but mine has a light colored deck.
Scott