Mudeford Sailing Club

The rs 100

Or, a step too farfor the Harbour?

For a while now I have been looking for a new challenge in dinghy sailing. The Dart 15 was fun but far too heavy to move around the dinghy park on my own and the Supernova, although fast and easy to sail in light winds was much too difficult and uncomfortable in a breeze. When dear old 168890 started falling apart earlier this year I caught sight of an article about a hiking single-hander with an asymmetric.  This was the RS 100, a boat that existed in prototype form only.  If you are interested, a quick trip to the RS website gives you a fascinating blog by the development designers and lots of pictures and videos.

I have to admit that the boat looked stunning and the reports from ordinary club standard sailors who were lucky enough to have a test and development ride a few months ago were most interesting.

I happened to be across the water at Thorney Channel (just up from the end of Chichester Harbour) running a windsurfing event when lo! There were the two development boats and a RIB heading up towards me!

It was apparent that one of the sailors was much more competent than the other and we soon got a good plan view of the boat (sorry about the quality) as he capsized. Still, you can see the uncluttered cockpit and the wide wings, which must make hiking out far more comfortable than the Laser.

Sailor No 1 was off and away by this time and the heading picture shows him fully powered up and travelling at about 15 kts on a broad reach back down to the Harbour. What a blast!

The main is about 8 sq m and the asymmetric about 15 sq m, so it picks up its skirts pretty quickly. All the reports stress how easy it is to sail upwind on the main and how relaxed the spinnaker is to hoist and gybe.

Sailor No 2 here has dropped the kite after his dip and is reaching down under main, well in control but not going very fast of course.

So why did I get another Laser and not this little rocket ship? I suppose there are 3 reasons. Its draught is 1.2m and the Harbour would place big restrictions on its performance. Its PN is going to be between 1000 and 1010, so I would never race with the fleet.  Finally, it was twice as expensive...but what a beauty!

Mike

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