Swiss races

[thommerrill]

My Chiro is from Switzerland. He has crewed on a couple of the cats over the years. I was wondering how the RC boats match up with the latest 28s??? I told him there were RC27s in that area but he didn't know of them. He doesn't race all that much so one could have been beside him and he may not have known what one is.

With all the new big cat designs coming out it makes me wonder why they just don't use whats available...

[Matt Haberman]

Thom,
From what I have heard through the grapevine is that the RC-27 is still very competive with the Ventillo 28 and even the Decision 35's. In fact several months ago I stumbled across a foreign web site that talked about the fact that the boat to "Try" and beat was the RC-27. I don't recall what website that was, but maybe Claus will chime in here and comment on this since he is sailing with some of these boats.

[Claas van der Linde]

Frankly, I don't know, but I guess the Ventilo is faster. Performance wise, on paper, the RC-27 and the Ventilo M2 are quite similar. On the water, we don't know for sure as only one RC-27 remains in the French-speaking part of Switzerland on Lake Geneva and competed against the Ventilos last year. It had a crew that was new to this type of boat and fared badly. There are two more RC-27 in Switzerland (mine), but they are in the German-speaking part at the other end of the country, on Lake Constance. A former RC-27 owner who last year bought a new Ventilo says the Ventilo is much faster. I would think the same if I had just spent much money on a new boat. :-) It should be faster in light winds, but I don't know how it looks in strong winds. The RC-27 has always been very fast in strong winds, but the Ventilo is optimized for light winds. The Ventilo has a larger rig, longer mast, and much longer daggerboards. All things which favor it in light wind conditions. It also has no frontbeam which should be a real benefit in strong winds. But it's huge rig which will have to be reefed by then, which might be a problem in strong wind conditions.

The M2 class (of which the RC-27 are part of) is currently extremely successful. It may actually be the world's largest of its kind and 25 boats, many of them brandnew, will be competing this year.

To see some photos, have a look at http://www.am2.org/visuels/galerie/index.htm

The class website is at http://www.am2.org

Cheers from Switzerland,

Claas

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[thommerrill]

Claas-

Thanks for the response. I am curious as to how long those carbon beams will last??? The beam wall thickness appears thin to me. With that main sail being so full at the top I bet its an experience to remember in a blow as well as punishing on the main beam.

[Claas van der Linde]

In my experience carbon either breaks (right away) or it lasts. Beams on my boat (made by same firm which makes the Ventilos) have lasted almost 20 years now. 3.5mm thickness.

Cheers, Claas