Just to let everyone know that the RG65 European Championship is commencing in Steckborn, Switzerland. Registration and measuring takes place today and racing starts tomorrow.
The regatta web site is: http://em2011.rg65.ch/
Just click on the ‘English’ button, at the top of the page, to switch from German. There seems to be a very competetive fleet assembled. In addition to good European representation there are also competitors registered from Argentina and Brazil.
Results from the first day?
Hope the winds are kind and the boats go fast.
John
USA17
I have sent a request to the organisers for the results to be posted day by day but so far there is nothing. The only info I have available after day 1 is gleaned from a brief text message sent by André Schellenbaum SUI 24, a fellow sailor from Basel. Apparently André is mid fleet while those going fast are Arne Semken GER 9, John Tushingham GBR 51, Agustin Moreno ARG 77 and one of the Brazilians.
As yet, that’s all I know as there is nothing on the German forum or on the event web site.
I’ll let you know if I hear any more.
Phil
Results after day 1 are here http://www.rg65.de/forums/attachment.php?aid=5714
There is also some discussion and pictures available here http://www.rg65.de/forums/showthread.php?tid=1263&page=last
Racing on the morning of day 2 is on hold while they wait for wind
Thank you Phil.
I was really looking forward to following this regatta each day.
Thanks for tracking that down. Looks close after 4 races.
Do you know what scoring and heat system they’re using? Looks like A/B heat management but they don’t switch fleets as expected.
tallastro
I’m afraid I’m really not sure how the A / B Heat system is working so can’t offer any suggestions. However, the weekend has arrived so I plan to jump on the train tomorrow morning and visit Steckborn. May be I’ll will find out a little more and, if so, I’ll let you know.
Regards
Phil
Hello again
I visited Steckborn today. The heat system they’re using has been: last 4 go down from A and top 4 go up from B, from the outset, so I’m not sure how to interpret some of the detail in earlier results sheets. It is a very competitive fleet and even the very best can find themselves in the B heat if they’re not careful.
Just being there to witness the racing and see the boats and rigs was fascinating. Besides the range in hull and rig design, the one really big question for me concerns keel length - some front runners are using well over 30cm and some are not much over 20cm, though admittedly it’s been predominantly light wind. Even in the strongest winds they’ve had, the longer more powerful keels were apparently doing much better but it wasn’t by any means strong enough to cause any submarining problems down wind.
There were some cameras with really long lenses and a very professional looking video camera being used taking action shots, so I hope to see these posted somewhere soon. In the meantime here are some pictures taken in the competitors area using my compact camera.
There are some more pictures, including a series from a particularly light wind A heat just before racing was put on hold, here:
So it’s all over!
Congratulations to:
European Masters and Open Champion, Jorge Bercht
European Champion, Tobias Laux
Top 10 details are:-
1 Bercht Jorge BRA 50 48.4 (-18.0) 30.4 Swing Rig Stinger
2 Laux Tobias SUI 06 74.7 (-23.0) 51.7 Swing Rig Newnip
3 Tushingham John GBR 51 80.4 (-25.0) 55.4 Swing Rig Pocket Rocket
4 Badertscher Stefan SUI 150 86.1 (-29.0) 57.1 Swing Rig Viperfish
5 Pinsini Marius SUI 67 85.1 (-24.0) 61.1 Swing Rig sorry Marius I can’t remember the name, but look for the very narrow, rounded white hull in the pictures
6 Moreno Augustin ARG 77 89.7 (-24.0) 65.7 Swing Rig a new Graham Bantock hull
7 Gernert Peter GER 86 108.4 (-31.0) 77.4 Swing Rig Newnip (modified bow)
8 Camilo Jorge POR 01 109.0 (-26.0) 83.0 Swing Rig sorry Jorge I can’t remember the name, but it is similar the the Ian Vickers V7
9 Semken Arne GER 09 141.0 (-45.0) 96.0 Swing Rig Monomer
10 Runne Cord GER 20 Swing Rig Blue Splash
Interesting to note:
Swing rigs dominated in the lighter conditions. Most were ready with smaller swing rigs if the wind increased but some had some clever systems for switching to a conventional rig.
Although the boats looked really good many were home made and most of those that were professionally made are available at a very reasonable price.
There were plenty of very fast home made sails being used though there’s an increasing number of professionally produced sails available for RG65.
You don’t have to spend ‘pots of money’ to go fast, which, in my opinion, is very good news for the RG65 class and sets it apart from many of the larger established classes. RG65 has to be the best performance/cost ratio class ‘out there’!
rather interesting that some one would be able to switch from swing to conventional… I would think that a conventional rib would be better for higher winds, and the swing for the light conditions. It still looks weird to see a swing rig sail. almost like the boat rotates around the mast when tacking
thanks for the pics…
Thanks for the pics phil. I’ve been studying them on my big monitor. It didn’t look like you took any pictures of boats that could switch rigs from swing to conventional. I did notice that the keels were either long or short. They went to either extreme as you noted. If you see links to more pictures of the boats, please post.
Hi Don
Sorry there’s no pictures of a deck layout that can switch from swing to conventional. I recall that ARG 77 had this facility and may be SUI 150. BRA 50 had the above deck sheeting lines but I don’t recall there being a place to secure a conventional Jib on the foredeck The key is to have all of:
Did some more reading on Arne Semken’s Monomer design, your photo of GER 9 in post #8. It is designed for a swing rig for A+ & A sails and conventional rig for smaller sails. See for example http://www.x-sail.de/wb/pages/plaene/rg-65/monomer.php or http://www.segelboot-modelle.de/wb/pages/segelboote/rg-65/monomer.php. The plans shown are taken from a small image on Arne’s web site.
Don
USA #62
so the big question…is the RG65 going end up being where one design is always faster in all conditions, or with variety of conditions make one hulls dominance not so apparent. Hate for this class to become a class when you have multiple hulls, fins and rigs, and the day of the regatta you pick your hull/fin/sails for the conditions at hand…
The switch from swing to conventional is pretty standard on a lot of M designs. My Viper is set up that way. The only problem is that the switch between rigs is longer when going to conventional.
I thought that it was clear from the experience in South America that multiple hull designs will work. This is an old class, remember? I’d rather pick my hull for the conditions at hand than have the class dissolve to a single dominant design. I race Vics for my one-design fix.
Based on what I saw at the US Nats, having a well made, well tuned boat matters more than hull or rig design. I think the skipper really won these regattas.
john
I’m with you, but I guess I’m getting at is it going to be a “skinny” hull class, or will the wider “planning” hulls be competitive… or will it just depend on conditions. I like the ability to “tinker” more than the Vic or ec12 classes and I like the ability for a boat to have better sailing characteristic than the footy…
Do I need to spend my time on skinny hulls, or can a wider hull be fast… ect…a well built boat is great, but won’t’ beat a well skippered boat… and a well built boat that has a slow hull is doomed… : )
John, are you going to charleston for Ec12 nats?
To Marc and all,
Well made, well tuned boats are usually sailed by the top skippers. Thus the dominance of one design or another has less to do with picking a boat for particular conditions but which skipper adapts his boat’s tuning to those conditions to give himself a better chance of winning. The results from the recent Nationals bear this point out. The top position wasn’t decided until late in the regatta and the two top boats varied in weight by over 300 grams.
Skinny seems to be favored by the relatively light conditions we normally have around here. The wider designs aren’t too far behind though. Wider should work if designed for RG65 sail limits and weights. Scaling designs from classes with minimum weights or enormous sail area probably won’t pay off.
We should start a new thread and drag Hagerup, Claudio, Earl and other designers into the discussion. Two championship regattas should give us plenty to chat about.
tallastro.
P.S. No EC12 for me. That boat is for sale.