DSK wrote:
Two modern designs I admire, the Viper and the Johnson 18, can race
and have lots of fun in 30 ~ 35... maybe more.


Navigator wrote:
You've lost the distinction between your fantasies and reality!

Not at all. When I have fantasies about sailing, it usually involves
something like 18-footer skiffs or brigantines. Why fantasize about
sailing in 35 knots when that happens a few times every season?

... I'd go
so far as top say that 35kn is outside the range of manageability for
all dinghies.


We used to take the NC State racing team out for practice in 20+ knot
winds any time we got the chance, and often got out in 30+. That was in
420s (which get to be more than a handful) and in JY-15s (which are nice
heavy air boats).

My wife and I have raced the Johnson 18 several times in 30+ and twice
won regattas where the wind was measured 33 steady and 40+ peak. This
was in racing mode, playing shifts and tactics, rather than survival
mode. Would you call that "in the range of manageability?"

In one of those regattas, the Johnsons and the Vipers were the only
classes to finish races. BTW there were a bunch of small keelboats and
ballasted centerboarders that gave up and/or suffered a lot of breakage.

A 470 in 35 knot winds is most likely in survival mode, except for the
very top sailors in the class. A lot of the more traditional boats would
be over the top. Lightnings, for example, get to be a very difficult
handful in 25 knots and over. The Daysailer, a nice Uffa Fox design, is
one that suffers breakage and unmanageability in 30+.

I can see how you arrived at your opinion... but you just don't have the
experience. You have scorned dinghy sailing all along.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King