Mainsheet/kicker.
Re: Mainsheet/kicker.
For a while it was a fashionable to mate up the mainsheet and kicker tails and couldn't complain about it not working because it did - but it had limitations. For those occasions such as coming back in over the bar at Hayling, when you could be as far aft as you could get, whilst wishing that you could get a lot further back than that you could end up running out of line - that you the rest of the time you had yards of it in the cockpit. This would have been in the day of kicker levels and sh*te cleats - not good in a boat where control of the kicker is vital to getting around the course (as it, letting it off to get under the boom) let alone get around quickly.
And that was a little harsh on the Boss..... carbon hull, monster kite, a huge amount of high speed fun for what was really a very limited outlay. So what that there were clear limitations with the hull design and some horror stories of quality control, but these were pretty much par for the pre-49er era. A step along the way towards high performance sailing...... a good boat, though not a great one. But oh boy, you knew it if you'd been out in one!
D
And that was a little harsh on the Boss..... carbon hull, monster kite, a huge amount of high speed fun for what was really a very limited outlay. So what that there were clear limitations with the hull design and some horror stories of quality control, but these were pretty much par for the pre-49er era. A step along the way towards high performance sailing...... a good boat, though not a great one. But oh boy, you knew it if you'd been out in one!
D
David H
Re: Mainsheet/kicker.
Rupert,
I would like to see it to.
I have decided to try a fitting off the seat, (I think you suggested this), their is plenty of seat edge going forwards, so I can link the two sides with a bar or similar, Aquabat mainsheet block is right beside you when you are in cockpit, so I do not think it will be in the way.
David,
I do not know anything about the Boss, technically, but the name just seems a bit masculine, perhaps suggested by the Mustang.
I would like to see it to.
I have decided to try a fitting off the seat, (I think you suggested this), their is plenty of seat edge going forwards, so I can link the two sides with a bar or similar, Aquabat mainsheet block is right beside you when you are in cockpit, so I do not think it will be in the way.
David,
I do not know anything about the Boss, technically, but the name just seems a bit masculine, perhaps suggested by the Mustang.
Re: Mainsheet/kicker.
Trebor.... at the time Topper International were busy trying to build what we'd now call 'brand identity' - so you have the Buzz, Blaze and Boss. The Boss wasn't such a bad name, it was very much a top of the range boat - bags of sail, monster kite, twin wire. Add in light weight, (for then) an attempt at high tech construction.... the Boss was pretty much what it said on the box - for a time it was indeed (or had pretentions to be) the boss of the race course. But just as Uffa Fox had pretty much a single line of design philosophy, so the Topper range were all a development of the same Howlett hull. Nothing wrong in that, but it wasn't long before better hulls and more innovative designs were eating into the Boss homeland, not to mention some quality control howlers.
So, Boss it was but not for long. The Laser name had provided more traction and the 5000, with the Audi sponsored, televised Eurocup pushed it to the margins before the 1997 Trials in Torbole when both boats were soundly beaten by the 49er. Most of the Boss hulls have long gone and it would be an expensive boat to get back afloat..... a shame because they weren't really THAT bad.....
D
So, Boss it was but not for long. The Laser name had provided more traction and the 5000, with the Audi sponsored, televised Eurocup pushed it to the margins before the 1997 Trials in Torbole when both boats were soundly beaten by the 49er. Most of the Boss hulls have long gone and it would be an expensive boat to get back afloat..... a shame because they weren't really THAT bad.....
D
David H
Re: Mainsheet/kicker.
The Boss certainly proved itself faster than the 5000 at the trials (better being a whole different thing, and far more personal) but, as you say, all the other boats were blown away by the 49er. Hard to believe it is knocking on 20 years ago now.
For those who aren't sailing gods, the Howlett designs had a lot going for them - plenty of speed on a pretty stable platform. The rigs, on the otherhand, seem like someone had seen a skiff rig in a picture and then designed something that sort of looked like it.
For those who aren't sailing gods, the Howlett designs had a lot going for them - plenty of speed on a pretty stable platform. The rigs, on the otherhand, seem like someone had seen a skiff rig in a picture and then designed something that sort of looked like it.
Rupert
Re: Mainsheet/kicker.
I presume your reference to the Mustang, Trebor, was in respect of the Boss 302 and 429 American muscle cars.
In England Dagenham did a Special edition Laser version of the hardly special 1600 Capri.
Also Ford has long since called their special hot versions RS for Rally Sport , so didn't have any beef about RS Boats.
Back in the day my parents lived in a Cottage that had been a pub on the Great North Road, a couple of properties away from the Brother of a quite well known race driver, Chris Craft, but having often wondered but it later turned out not to be the case, that there was any ascotiation with those Riva rivalling speed boats.
The car racing Chris did team up with Gordon Murray to produce a Tandem seated road car that was designed like a track car, but road legal. That was called Rocket, however I don't think that they amalgamated with Merlin.
Oh and I did have a Cunningham(the inventor of which produced sports cars in his own name)
And combined it with the kicker, but it didn't do anything to improve my handicap, my sailing.
In England Dagenham did a Special edition Laser version of the hardly special 1600 Capri.
Also Ford has long since called their special hot versions RS for Rally Sport , so didn't have any beef about RS Boats.
Back in the day my parents lived in a Cottage that had been a pub on the Great North Road, a couple of properties away from the Brother of a quite well known race driver, Chris Craft, but having often wondered but it later turned out not to be the case, that there was any ascotiation with those Riva rivalling speed boats.
The car racing Chris did team up with Gordon Murray to produce a Tandem seated road car that was designed like a track car, but road legal. That was called Rocket, however I don't think that they amalgamated with Merlin.
Oh and I did have a Cunningham(the inventor of which produced sports cars in his own name)
And combined it with the kicker, but it didn't do anything to improve my handicap, my sailing.