RCU Forums - sea lite

I can now add a little to my earlier report on the Sea-Lite, having visited the London Boat Show. Firstly, it was not a model of any of the yachts in the show [ not surprising], but I am inclined to think that the original was not of UK build. That leaves a lot of choice - but perhaps the Southampton Show will come up with something more specific.
Secondly, I said that the original was possibly 40 ft, because the Club President roughly measured and said so. But it seems more likely, given the labelling, that it was actually 37ft.
I have also had a serious discussion with one of the sail lofts at the show. Advice he gave on sail design was, in effect, to try out a range of combinations - since that would be quite simple in this case. However he did suggest starting with a bit more on the head of the jib to balance the main with dimensions as listed in my earlier note. He offered sail cloth, but I am inclined to go to one of the specialist model suppliers, as his will be a bit heavy. I suppose that we could call up the Southampton wind tunnel, but that seems overkill.

Most of the problems people report in sailing the boat will possibly have come from the cut of the as-supplied sails, since they are, by conventional practice, far too loose for beating. In anything of a wind there is there is likely to be too much of them also [ scale effect]. But they look nice.

Nearly all serious yachts nowadays have either inboard or outboard power. It would be a bit tricky getting into the average marina otherwise. The days of picking up a mooring under sail have now shrunk in the overcrowded south of the UK. So I don't regard the outboard on the back as undignified.

For anyone in the UK, the "RC Laser" people have a round of open meetings, reported in the magazine Yachts and Yachting together with the ordinary dinghy opens, which gives them perhaps more respectability in the big world than the regular model classes - though not for me to say.

ianmcphsn