1996 was the last year we scheduled races for 10-raters in Central Park. We raced 10 Raters every other Saturday. Two of these boats were ?real tens? with long waterlines (Andy Buday and Noel McIntosh).
The rest of the field, which was a large one, consisted of converted Marbleheads. The conversion step was very easy because the M-boats were, with a single exception, swing rigged. You could just unplug the M swing rig and plug-in the 10R swing rig.
In that last season the swing-rigged 10 Raters were sailed by Elmahleh, Langbord, Estavez, Goodrich, Richard Shapiro, maybe Tucker. Okinow. Maybe David (forgot his last name, he was the chef at the Astoria, and he drove a Pinter). There were probably some others. It was a big field.
All of the swing-rigged Tens were defeated in that season. They were occasionally defeated by Jon Elmahleh, sailing his M ? as an M, with an M rig ? in the 10R races.
The 10R champion for that year was Bill Priest, who was sailing Herman Rau?s Rover, an early Kevlar M-hull from California. The Rover was designed with a curious flat spot on the bottom, not quite a chine hull. The Rover was conventionally rigged, with a beautifully engineered backstay servo control to de-power the rig. It was the single conventionally rigged Marble Rater. It was essentially an antique. And it won.
So what was the take home lesson?
Swing rigs shift a lot of sail area up high, and the top of the sail is, in effect, buttressed against spilling wind by the radical curve of the mast. IMHO this is why swing rigs are superior to conventional rigs in light air racing. They put substantial sail area up where the wind is, and they support it.
But when you construct a swing-rigged 10R, that helpful extra sail area on high becomes too much of a good thing. Marbleheads with swing rigs are notorious for their nosedives in wind higher than 7 or 8 mph. When you add 50 percent more sail area, to create a swing-rigged 10R, you?ve got yourself a submarine.
Watching those races in the spring and fall of 1996, when the wind was up, was like watching a family of ducks at supper. When a gust would hit, voila, complete and utter chaos, nosediving, rudders-up, lots of yelling and screaming.
Except of course for the winner, the conventionally rigged Rover. Smiling through. I think he won it because he was able to keep going ? which is to say, keep his rudder in the water – in all conditions.
Right now, there are a lot high tech Marblehead hulls sitting on mantles and in basements and garages. They are deeply undervalued assets ? fast and very fast hulls, just sitting. And for sale cheap. It is a bizarre situation.
If you set out to experiment with 10R designs, it would be a huge shortcut to pick up an M-boat hull, some of which weigh less than a pound, and rig it as a 10R. It is easier to build a rig and a bulb than whole boat.
But my point is, if you choose to experiment in this direction, use a conventional rig. I think what we learned from racing 10Rs in the 1990s was that swing-rigged Tens are unmanageable monstrosities. Analogous to V-8 engines installed in baby carriages.
Regards,
Michael