opti 650

[heiko]

i was just watching this video where d. raison explains that the idea of his design came out of joking around on the paris boat show where he considered to blow up an optimist to fit into class mini rules: " just take 5 boards for the hull and off you go to brazil - there aren't any other boats of the length of an optimist that sail that well".
it would be so easy to build - and it even would give this "design" a new shine.
could this work out?

[thomas]

It would be easy to build, but not easy to make it light. You'd also not want it to be open, the ocean is a bit unforgiving there unless you find a way to make it go fast enough to bail itself constantly. So it's not that easy as it looks, especially with building a closed boat that withstands the forces of the ocean ;)

[heiko]

yes, effectively one would need quite a bit more than 5 boards.

found some of it discussed here already:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/mini-ocean-racing-scow-39114.html

[ctut]

Do any of the people on that other thread actually sail or are they all dock stars?

[thomas]

Do any of the people on that other thread actually sail or are they all dock stars?

Good question, Chris. You mean apart from Doug Lord who I remember has some sort of connection with professional naval architects? ;)