RE: Maniac MKII
looks good Sirit - well done
you're a busy bee working on your various models. IOM is what I know as I have been racing IOM for the past 5 years now. I started with a TS2 from Craig Smith. He won the 94 Worlds with his skiff design and I found it the easiest IOM to race. Her strengths are the fact that you can keep more sails for longer then other narrower designs so in varying wind conditions this is one great advantage. I use to point higher then others and this is because once heeled the gunwales helps and work with the keel. And it's a dam easy boat to sail. Her downside was the light wind as until she heels a bit the wetted area is greater then narrower designs and downwind speed. Though I found that by not goind dead downwind but by "playing" the angles more i could minimise the loss. Then I played these strengths and weaknesses in my tactics and won quite a number of races.
Now I race with a NZL design called a V6 which is built in Spain. Ian Vickers who is in BMW Oracle AC team is the designer and he's often in the top 10 at international event. I really like it but she's different from the TS2. She's also very smooth but her strengths are different from the TS2 and so I have to adapt.
This one looks great - what's the max beam on her ? when are you expecting to do some trials with this design ?