I'm new to Sunfish (still shopping for one) and to the forum (thoroughly appreciate it) so, as I did as an eight year-old in Sunday School, I'll go ahead and ask the blasphemous question while I'm still a newbie. Please be kind.
A two-sentence background: My first experience on a Sunfish was a brief 20-minute sail where I asked myself, "Gee, this is really fun! They race these? What a blast that would be!" That was four years ago.
So, this year, and after being out of sailing (raced a Flying Scot for a couple of years--not very well) and missing it I decided that sailing and racing a Sunfish would be a great way to get back on the water and having some fun. Inexpensive. Simple.
Ok. So there's a Sunfish and a racing Sunfish, huh? Ok.
So my blasphemy is this: What makes racing with a racing sail and the added lines so much better that racing with the typical recreational cut sails? What's up with that? And when did the one-design Sunfish start down two paths: Race version and recreational version? Seems to me that racing the same boat is the fun!
And...if the racing cut sail is so much more "one-design fun," then why do we as a class not open the manufacture to any sail loft who wants to make them and get a little price competition going? If they're all made the same way, using the same measurements, the same cloth, then we could all watch the price go down. And it'd be even more fun!
Fire away.
A two-sentence background: My first experience on a Sunfish was a brief 20-minute sail where I asked myself, "Gee, this is really fun! They race these? What a blast that would be!" That was four years ago.
So, this year, and after being out of sailing (raced a Flying Scot for a couple of years--not very well) and missing it I decided that sailing and racing a Sunfish would be a great way to get back on the water and having some fun. Inexpensive. Simple.
Ok. So there's a Sunfish and a racing Sunfish, huh? Ok.
So my blasphemy is this: What makes racing with a racing sail and the added lines so much better that racing with the typical recreational cut sails? What's up with that? And when did the one-design Sunfish start down two paths: Race version and recreational version? Seems to me that racing the same boat is the fun!
And...if the racing cut sail is so much more "one-design fun," then why do we as a class not open the manufacture to any sail loft who wants to make them and get a little price competition going? If they're all made the same way, using the same measurements, the same cloth, then we could all watch the price go down. And it'd be even more fun!
Fire away.