Carbonising the 49er
It’s one of the fastest growing Olympic classes, with over 1000 yachts sailed in over 40 countries. The 49er is a One Design class known for its high performance, adrenaline pumping speeds. And it’s only going to get better given the latest development in moving to a carbon rig. Read an interview with John Clinton of Southern Spars here
Read an e-mail from sailors testing the new rig at Sail Melbourne below:
Hi Dave
Both us and the British pair of Paul Cambell James and Mark Asquith sailed our 49ers from Sorrento to Sandringham on Sunday. 30nm downwind in 20+ knots with waves left over from a southerly gale from the day before. The trip took 3 hours half of which we were swimming for, we each had about 10 capsizes, all from nosediving, both kite bags were torn to pieces.
We were both very impressed with the rigs, they held up extremely well. On the British boat they used the ease technique on their kite to slow their boat down to stop nosediving. That meant that their kite was flogging for large parts of the trip especially at the end, even with this shock loading the rigs showed no weakness. Both us and the brits said that if we had the old rigs on, at least one would not have made it! Apart from being more reliable they were generally easier to handle when in the sky and the water.
looks like the 49er class is onto a winner
Will Phillips
