We finally got out on an Open 5.70 today. Brendan met us down at Sail Newport at 11:30 in the morning. We had the boat rigged and floating by 12:45 with a health dose of “what’s this do” along with “where’s this go?” and general BSing/introductions (we actually know Brendan from racing etchells agaisnt each other ~10 years ago now). Honestly it’s VERY EASY to rig these things, even clueless, but with 4 people and only one with a clue of what was what, we had it all together and splashed in 1:15 which is very reasonable IMHO. It’s easy to see if you knew what you were doing and not BSing, it’s a half hours job. We also hand pushed it to the lift to see how easy that is and how light the boat is. Everything worked very well. We hoist launched it with the keel puller in place.
Continue reading ‘Open 5.70 test sail!’
Both Pumas are sitting in the water now. The new boat was delivered sometime this week I believe. It’s very interesting to be able to see the 2 generations side by side on the dock. At first glance they’re very similar. But after drooling on them for a bit, it’s fun to see what’s been changed. The chine is much more distinct on the new boat. It looks wider aft, but the wetted surface is actually less on the waterline aft. The cockpit has been reworked. The paint job on the new boat is quite sexy, the carbon has been left with a clearcoat for most of what looks black. I wish the crew the best, can’t wait to see what sort of numbers the new boats can do in 24hours. Bermuda in a day?
Click below for the rest of the images.
Continue reading ‘A tail of 2 pumas!’
Got to see numbers down at American today. It’s a pretty incredible boat. I can only imagine what something like this costs, especially considering it’s a privateer boat. Seems to be getting a bit of work done. The keep is getting something done around the top of the fin. Can’t really see it well as you’re around 20′ below it when it’s out of the water with the keep down! They also have the motor dropped out of it’s box and the rig is out where you can check it out. The rig is rather interesting as it’s very “slick”. They’ve reduced it’s windage as much as possible. It also looks to have halyard locks at the sheaves for each halyard which is interesting. It’s also got a finish on it that looks like aluminum, but it’s definately carbon.
click below to see the gallery.
Continue reading ‘Numbers…’
Sunday is the Open 5.70 demo day in Newport. Not sure how many people will show up, but we’ve spoken with Brendan who owns the local 5.70 and we’ve got a “date” for sure. We’ll be meeting him to rig at Sail Newport so we can see just how easy it is to rig (he laughed and said it is indeed very easy when I asked if we could help). The weather is for high 40s so I doubt we’ll see a seabreeze. The forecast is calling for east winds around 10kts. We were hoping for more to see what the boat can do 2 up with our typical breeze, but we’ll take anything we can get. We’re just very excited to see the boat in person and answer about a million questions we have about it they best way possible, TO GO SAILING!
I’ll have a post up either Sunday night or Monday night with pictures and hopefully videos as well as our thoughts on the boat. Can’t wait.
Click below for another gallery of borrowed 5.70 images.
Continue reading ‘Open 5.70 Newport Demo Day.’
The Brenta 30 might seem like an odd boat for this site. It’s not that I wouldn’t love to sail on one, but it is way bigger than what we’re after. The reason I’ve bothered to share my thoughts on it is I feel if Brenta were to make a 20′ version it could be the EXACT boat I’m after.
Brenta makes a sexy boat. Their idea seems to be keeping things as simple as possible and also keep the lines as clean as possible. The results are amazing. Their boats look and sail very well and everything is kept simple which is always good. The Brenta 30 was also at the Newport Boat show back in the fall and it looked awesome.
Continue reading ‘Brenta 30′
Melges has their first 20 out of the molds. It looks like a melges, but it’s also interesting to see the hard chine placement in the back. I’m really looking forward to seeing one put together so see how it really sails and how their idea comes together. Should be a few months before they have one on the water I’d imagine.
You can go to melges20.com to checkout the gallery there, or click below to see the images here.
Continue reading ‘Melges20 first hull.’
The other interesting new boat is the Melges 20. It’s not even out yet, but it’s still very promising. Rumor has it it’s come into existence just because the SB3 is being sold direct from the factory… Melges is a Vanguard dealer. Vanguard opted to sell the SB3 direct in order to offer it at a more competitive price. Well Melges didn’t like that idea as they’re one of Vanguards better dealers, so they decided to build a better mousetrap. The interesting thing about that is everyone complains that the SB3 is overpriced since it’s old technology. It’s said you’re paying for the marketing behind the boat, and that Laser is getting a hefty margin on it. Well melges has gone out and designed a boat that on paper is very similar to the SB3. Sit in, no hiking asym screamer. But theirs is all high tech, and their prices is the same exact price ($39,999!). Hmmmmm…. Continue reading ‘Melges 20′
The speedfeet 18 is another interesting boat I’ve found online. It’s site is in French (paste the url into google for a translation option) so it’s hard to make sure I’m understanding everything correctly. It appears they offer a dingy and keel option (the dinghy having a centerboard). The boat is very similar to the open 5.70 and they are both French. The open has slightly more upwind sail area (and more weight in a deeper keel) and a tad less sail area downwind.
I like the look of the open a bit better overall, but there are a few ideas implemented on the speedfeet that are interesting. It’s mainsheet comes forward which might work better (I need to sail an open so I can see how the aft mainsheet works for me). The huge difference though is that the spinnaker hoist is about halfway between the jib and the top of the mast on the speedfeet while it’s much closer to the jib on the open. This gives the speed feet a larger downwind sail area by ~70²’ (always a good thing) but more importantly a better shape to their A sail. I’m not a huge fan of broad shouldered chutes to squeeze sail area into a short space, I’d much rather see a mast head that’s narrow….
Continue reading ‘Speedfeet 18′
