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adrianhowse
Starting Member
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
 Posted - 08/24/2007 : 18:52:27
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I used to have a look at your discussion board but it has gone rather quiet. So here is a point to discuss.
Just sold my beautiful wood Ent 22922 and agreed to buy a newish Speed no 231**. The reason - simply ease of maintenance. Hope I did the right thing! I do not expect to go any faster really although I secretly hope we might.
Fellow club sailors who have gone down the FRP route in the past definitely improved their results. Indeed one, Philip Gower, amazingly went on to win a race at the worlds in Sri Lanka. even though he admits that there was possibly an element of luck involved, it was still a remarkable result.
Conversely, I appreciate that well known sailors with geriatric wooden boats do amazingly well and that the main factor is the nut on the tiller. But what do you lot expect our experience to be? Have we done the right thing? Bear in mind that while we are quite good racers by club standards -winning the odd series, we are little more than very average performers at open meetings.
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enterprisenw
Steve 21350
United Kingdom
40 Posts |
Posted - 09/11/2007 : 19:47:04
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My It has gone Quiet the disscussion forum.
I do like wood boats but I do not disagree a FRP Plastic. The Speed FRP is set up to the max. I have measured The centreboard, Mast to trampson and various parts of the the FRP Boat. It is 100% to max. 1mm give way. Its impressive. I have a wooden professional built boat and it is not quite to the max on measurement. 3mm hear and 5mm over there. Ok My wood boat is fast but Mold after Mold on FRP. The boat has to be as accurate as wood. No revarnishing in the winter. I'm sure you have made the right choise for yourself. |
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adrianhowse
Starting Member
United Kingdom
6 Posts |
 Posted - 09/17/2007 : 18:45:10
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Sailed in a minor handicap open at home club this weekend. Took new Speed Ent out for first time.
It proved to be super-fast even with some of the rig settings needing siignificant adjustment. We had v little rig tension, particularly given the strong wind.
Although we do regularly win races at club level, it tends to be on days when we get everything pretty much right or possibly others mess up or stay away. Yesterday, we won even though we made loads of mistakes.
My totally unscientific conlusion is that a two year old Speed Ent is significantly faster than my seven year old Thresher Ent even though the rigs , foils and sails are much the same.
I therefore recommend that anybody considering the possibility of clsing an account at the Northern Rock should spend some of the funds on on a new plastic a Ent.
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enterprisenw
Steve 21350
United Kingdom
40 Posts |
Posted - 09/25/2007 : 19:52:55
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| It sounds good. I want one. Last part was very funny. Steve |
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Paul Holdsworth
Starting Member
United Kingdom
10 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2007 : 07:25:09
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While I can see the logic in going plastic, there may be issues you're not addressing. For the record we're fairly recent to sailing (4 years), and, with good tuition, we can do no more than OK at present. We make tons of mistakes but know that, if we can keep the mast pointing skywards, we can get good boat-speed. We're better in light winds, as mistakes don't result in a swim, but tactically our lack of experience shows.
We've got a nice wooden boat and for us the enjoyment of sailing is partly how beautiful she looks (can you even call an FRP boat "she" ) This really matters when you're doing abysmally!
But there's a key advantage of a wooden boat over a new FRP. While the FRP may be millimetre-perfect when it comes to tolerances, a wooden boat can go one better.
We'd always been impressed by our pointing ability, and put this down to good rig adjustment and good tuition, with no bad habits. That was until we went to the Nationals for the first time this year - and discovered our fairleads were a good 12mm too far inboard! So while the FRPs around us were pointing as high as they legally could - we were pointing much higher!
Now I'm not saying that anyone else in a wooden boat is sailing something illegal - and I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone would do this consciously  - I guess there might be some wooden boats out there that are, ahem, not really within true Ent tolerances!
FYI, we promptly fixed our fairleads, so if you get beat by us now, there'll be No Excuses!
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enterprisenw
Steve 21350
United Kingdom
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/08/2007 : 20:02:10
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| Hi Paul, Yes i don't think i will buy an FRP. As you say you can call your boat a she. You can admire her and spend hours on her too. I also like the FRP, ok its not as pretty but it is a little cheaper and more praticle in this mad world we live in. They are all ents, loved, enjoyed and admire by all. its your choise what you buy aslong as it's an Enterprise! I used to have an old bacon with fairleads to close in. it was brill at pointing. Unfortunatley the boat was well overweight. Downwind everybody used to pass. There are also Bacon boats that are very narrow. There are a few a famous Bacon Ents that don't measure. they are still fast and are allowed to be sailed at the Nationals. I'm sure they wont win the nationals though. Fianlly are you sailing the last event at southport so you can qualify for NW curcuit? |
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Paul Holdsworth
Starting Member
United Kingdom
10 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2007 : 11:53:56
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Hi Steve, I dunno whether we'll be at Southport - we tend to decide at the last moment, but we'll certainly try to get along. It'd be good to qualify for the NW circuit - then we're more likely to get stuck in next year, for a better position in the fleet!
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Topic |
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Plastic or Wood
