Art Read
06-21-2008, 11:30 AM
Glancing through the various "contemporary" sailing mags, I can't help but notice an increasingly obvious trend in "state of the art" racing designs. Four sided mainsails. True, they have done away with the peak halyard and traditional "gaff", replacing them with rigid, full length "battens" incorporated into the head of the sail itself, but damnme if they don't look awfully familiar to this old traditionalist... Perhaps they've watched too many of our "unrated" knockabout gaff sloops and schooners walking away from them every time they cracked their sheets a bit and stopped beating their heads against a wall. The tyranny of rule inspired tiny mains and huge jibs may finally be at an end.
There's a reason why virtually every sailboat over twenty feet manufactured today requires a huge mechanical winch just to sail upwind. I used to sail an 80 foot schooner without a single winch aboard. No high tech travellers, cunninghams or hydrolic backstays either. Yet we consistantly managed to embarass modern "racing machines" who made the the mistake of giving us a "tickle" on a reach, and we made offshore passages that invariably recieved only sceptical grunts from "modern sailors" when we bragged in the bar at the other end.
It appears that the boating public is finally waking up to the fact that a "good" boat is one that works. Period. Racing "rating" rules, Madison Avenue marketing and product driven "gimicks" aside, the only boat you'll ever really love is the one that feels "right"...
There's a reason why virtually every sailboat over twenty feet manufactured today requires a huge mechanical winch just to sail upwind. I used to sail an 80 foot schooner without a single winch aboard. No high tech travellers, cunninghams or hydrolic backstays either. Yet we consistantly managed to embarass modern "racing machines" who made the the mistake of giving us a "tickle" on a reach, and we made offshore passages that invariably recieved only sceptical grunts from "modern sailors" when we bragged in the bar at the other end.
It appears that the boating public is finally waking up to the fact that a "good" boat is one that works. Period. Racing "rating" rules, Madison Avenue marketing and product driven "gimicks" aside, the only boat you'll ever really love is the one that feels "right"...