My personal opinion is skinny is better. they go better in light air and seem to penetrate the waves well once the wind is up. IMHO the only reason wide boats work is most classes have limited righting moments and a wider hull gives more righting moment. With a RG, you can just go deeper to get more righting moment. The limit will be when the added keel area is more than what was lost from the hull.
As building methods progress there will be changes is beams and displacements. Eventually I think you will get to a point of diminishing returns until the materials change again. I could also see venue specific boats getting built much like the IOM class. Albuquerque in very much a light air venue, so skinny, light boats should do well.
I agree that skinny seems to be better. However, this only works to a point. A number of skinny ( by that I mean under 10cm max beam) designs have been tried and skippers have then returned to slightly wider designs (in the region of 10 - 12 cm beam) as a good all-round hull.
The important factor to record is the max waterline beam. There are a few designs with a wider overall beam, to develop power when heeled, yet their waterline beam in flat water and light winds is still very narrow.
There does seem to be more boats going fast in stronger wind, initially, using a change to a heavier keel in preference to a smaller sail. To my mind, carrying that extra weight requires retention of the volume available with a slightly wider hull.
thansk phil…
What going on in Photo #10 a botched repair? never mind I saw in Pic 14 what they are trying to accomplish…
#12 upside down main to grab the upper level winds…
Pic #4 with the radial jib fitting on the s wing rig…
neat stuff did not see any swing rigs with the “offset” jib
Hi Marc
The jib boom in photo 10 is Tobi’s carbon jib boom with the bearing fitted to accommodate the rotation of his ‘Babybaum’. I know Tobi’s philosophy is that so long as it’s fast it doesn’t matter so much if it doesn’t look so good. This was originally a conventional swing rig jib boom then he started to ‘tinker’ with the ‘Babybaum’. It seemed to work well so he used it at the Europeans to good effect. Some other, less than pretty, development work he’s done is with the bulbous front foredeck on the Newnip. Apparently it helps the boat track straighter when severely bow down under water and also helps it come back up to the surface sooner. I believe the theory is to start parting the water as soon as possible so that the otherwise flat expanse of the foredeck doesn’t act so much as a water break.
I’ve included a photo of my version of the ‘Babybaum’. I’m working on a slightly raised foredeck moulding as a retrofit but I just can’t face adding a ‘lump’ on the front as radical as Tobi’s. You can see the complete development of his Newnip ideas here:
http://www.rg65.de/forums/showthread.php?tid=598&page=26
so is the baby baum purpose to get better pointing with the luff of the jib not offset? like a radial jib fitting
could you do both the baby baum and the double break jib club to get the jib offset to get a better slot for the main? or could it be just too many pivot points to work?
I have zero experience on swings actually if you count my footy work it I think I’d be negative numbers in the experience column , I don’t count my footy experience except that I found a perfect good way how to make a swing rig fail…
nice link, although I don’t speak german, the pics look nice…
The baby baum acts like a break back rig. the jib luff is closer from the centerline than with a boom on the end of the jib yard. I would think a break back rig should be able to do the same thing. I have thought of doing a string/mobile style break back rig, just ran out of time last year to get one built.
I should learn how to build a functioning swing rig first, then play with the options…
I can’t really read much German but their RG65 forum is still a wealth of interesting development ideas. I tend to just look at the pictures too.
Here’s another variant on the Baby Baum by Henning Dresel. It’s in an thread on the development of the very narrow U shaped Hip65
http://www.rg65.de/forums/showthread.php?tid=748&page=40
looks like you really have to be super careful on setting it up to get the pivot angle just right… off by a little bit and its back to the workbench
Hi Guys,
I’ve tried a “Babybaum” in the early '90’s but rejected it because it can get “stuck” when caught aback. It can also stick in stronger winds when the rig flexes the spars and throw the bearing out of alignment with the jib stay tiedown (the upper “hinge” if you imagine the jib being a door, which is a good analogy to describe a Breakback Swing Rig).
And John, I would ditch plans for setting up a “String Rig”. I developed that rig as a cheap alternative to my Breakback Rig (it was adopted as part of the Pinter M Boat kit), but in fresher winds it starts to pump. Try as I might I was never able to lick the vibration problem. You just can’t get enough tension on the strings to control it. I would think that it would be okay for a Footy where stay lengths are short and string ratings are overkill for the loads involved.
I have put together some molds for an RG scale Breakback fitting but I haven’t had a chance to cast up a set yet. Once I have had a chance to test the new fitting I will know wether it is ready for primetime and makes a difference in these boats.