Damian101

There is a very good diagram in the original MYA Handbook - also saved on the website. This states sizes, and distances that if followed gives good legibility at distance for the IRSA international classes. Slightly small digits and rules are published for the Dragons and their smaller sails. One thing that often gets missed is the thickness of the letters, a very thin letter may pass the rules and look nice but it is very hard to see at distance, ideally keep the strokes of the letters 20mm thick. I'd stick with Helvetica, Arial or Gill Sans that all give good legibility across the varying digits. Regarding 01-10, 08-80, 18-81 etc Always place a '1' in front to stop the confusion. 101, 110,108,180, 118,181. Remember others need to identify your boat by its sail number if you are calling for water at a mark, if they can't identify you then good luck in the protest room.

Vane A “Sir Percy” coming out again this year, with a sail each month to refresh me and boat. New RA “Sir Ivor” making her debut from February. We had a slight mistaken as both are same colour - oops. Roll on 2026 nationals.

Hi Mike The view of the hull upside down reminds me of my first venture into scratch building a 36, the plan was from Marine Modeller around the year 1991.

I have an ARS in my boat, purposely tried it in everything from an IOM , Marblehead to the 6M - all perfectly. I know these are more expensive and look very similar to the red ant - BUT It has to be the most accurate winch I've ever used, no glitching, no hunting back and forth, very smooth and repeatable.

Unfortunately very true with this transmitter - at small venues I use rechargeable batteries, but at larger venues and lots of boats I use Duracells with no issues.

Talk to your local foundry. The reason I say local, is you could end up paying more for postage than the actual one off bulb.

Port chancers - this may sound strong but from personal experience of been taken out several times by the same boat on the first day of an event I have no problem of them been penalised to the hilt, it made me really think about participating in certain events over the last couple of years, thankfully getting the desire back to compete at the top level again. 1st offence - 360 turn and behind all the boats that were hindered, might be 4+. 2nd offence - DSQ (non discardable) 3rd offence - DSQ plus miss next race/heat

The other option is to have multiple windward marks, the fastest skippers go round the furthest mark. In my opinion all starting at once is preferred, then everyone gets the benefit of learning the art of starting and beating up the first beat. The slower guys pealing off earlier to start the run, do that for each lap and everyone should keep coming back together several times and making it more fun each lap and not just at the finish, eventually all finishing at the sometime.

I was watching an interview of the chief umpire for the Sail GP and he mentioned that the most important rule that they enforce both on and off the water is "No Damage". He showed examples of boats colliding where the give way boat was penalised, but also in some circumstances the right of way boat was also penalised for not taking due care and attention around their boat. Near misses were also penalised. From my experience of sailing at many venues around the country very few can actual set a long enough first beat to separate the fleet by the first mark at a readable sail number distance. The big events such as Ranking and Nationals have fleets of 20 to 24 boats, this is essential for those skippers wishing to get experience of what a big Europeans or Worlds will be like, but it brings it's own challenges and we as skippers have to change our approach to sailing in 20 boat fleets compared with 10 at club level when approaching on port very likely will work as you're only navigating around 2 or 3 boats at a time and not 10+. I also think skippers should be taking far more care in the smaller classes to avoid contact and avoid situations where contact is highly likely.

I was filling in the excel voting form earlier and came across the Hollow in the bow profile within 10mm of the LWL. Why are there no accompanying diagrams showing the bridging points and how these will be used given different shapes of "chins". Without these diagrams we are unable to see the true potential this rule change may have. If a waterline is bridged and it moves the LWL point 30mm forward, where are the girth measurements points now taken from? A - From the original LWL point B - From the new bridged point where ever that may be If from the new point, in the formula you'll be loosing numbers on the extended waterline, but gaining on the reduced girth measurements. Where are the freeboards now taken from? This could make measuring a 6m in the dry measure a lot harder than it currently is, and mean a lot of other rule numbers will have to change to reflect this change if carried through.

No Reason for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th mast, it is opening up a massive opportunity to having different mast standards for different conditions and gaining an advantage. 5% tolerances may not sound a lot but in reality that could make a totally different mast for different conditions. I'd need 5 masts at a cost of approx £300 per mast, gooseneck and boom: Light weight main Working main Flat main (reduced roach) 2nd working 3rd working One of the main reasons I sail the 6m and A classes is the simplified rig requirements of single mast, gooseneck and boom, allows me to compete at the top level without costing a fortune, otherwise it's another class I'll be priced out of if I want to be competitive.

A piece of 4mm stainless appropriately bent to go up and over the well sides would do the same job - but it wouldn’t give me the extra 190 squ mm of sail area. So why did I have to cut my Potter goosenecks down again? Let’s have some consistency. So it’s not a free for all or he that shouts loudest gets their own way.

Instead of just firing off a email, our suppliers are great at giving advise from their many years of sailing. Give PJ a ring, explain what you are doing and they’ll advise appropriately.

Gosport didn't forward them on and passed to me at December. They are with me ready to hand out at Pracc 3 &4 Blue Lagoons, which is the first race since Christmas.

Templates - All depends on the class. As the discussion has centred around the IOM class, I find it easier to use sticks that have tape wrapped around them to show the min and max dimensions, so much easier than using a tape measure or metre rule and you don’t have to keep referring back to figures in the class rules.