Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

You're probably right Tom. But the "new thinking"

... is by young people -- more along the lines of performance oriented sailing and more "extreme" designs (e.g. board sailing, planing boats, multihulls and moth class). Even the (used-to-be stodgy) America's cup has gone with the technology that yields the best raw speed.

I'm with you on the J95 -- a family day sailor should sail well in light air first, and accommodate entertainment around a cockpit table second. Young people are mostly going to be drawn to performance boats. My kids started sailing with Hunter 15's (same boat as JY-15) and Lasers, and when I started looking for a family daysailor they told me (with enthusiasm) I HAVE to look at the Corsair tri.

I figured if this was going to be a family boat that would keep them interested I'd better listen. My wife's only requirement was that we get a boat large enough for an enclosed head. Some shopping lead me to buy the Dragonfly 920, with their approval . With narrow hulls and a SA/D above 50:1 it was a great light air boat. We up-sized twice as it became apparent that we need more space on family vacation cruises.

I'll admit to a dirty little secret -- in light air (below 7k true) a performance cruising tri like a Dragonfly doesn't perform radically better than one like the "J". The major difference is the leaning, and that's not a difference in the lightest air. It isn't until 10-15k+ apparent that we kick in the afterburners.

I live for 15-25 conditions (love those 2 days when summer cold fronts move in), but most July-August sailing is under 8k true here in western LIS. Image below is our DF-1200 sailing in light air in Fishers Island Sound, with light air #1 genoa on the sprit. That's me giving the thumbs-up.

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