Hi,
I’m, one of those sailors who tries to sail a full rig, but is bit on the light side; so when the breeze is a bit on the heavy side I go with a Radial rig. I am now using the Radial rig more and more as I enter more serious regattas where I have to state in advance which rig I want to race with. I find that the difference between the two rigs is quite a large one.
I have found plenty of publications on laser sailing, my favourite being the Ben Ainslie book, but precious little info on the specifics of a Radial rig. So I was quite pleased when I found an old copy of Yachts and Yachting (British sailing mag) from about a year ago that had an entire article devoted specifically to the Radial rig. What a disappointment. This article told me nothing knew, and I got the feeling that the author took an article on how to set up a standard rig and inserted the word “Radial” after every occurrence of the word “Laser”.
All of which made me determined to get on the information highway and see if I could track down some Radial specific articles. I am usually quite apt at surfing the web, so I am left quite surprised at my inability to find any Radial literature. For my money the Radial is now almost as popular as the standard rig. There were far more Radials at the UK national champs than the full rig (197 vs 104) and the Radial now has Olympic status. I was hoping that this would stir a lot of web based interest in the Radial, but so far I have not been able to find it. As fantastic as my sailing club in Sydney is, all of the racing is orientated around full rigs, with Radials being seen as a side show for those who are too old or not good enough.
Does anyone know where I can find some radial articles? I seem to remember reading one from an American class publication but can no longer find it. Perhaps this forum is the ideal place to maintain some documentation on how and why we should be setting up our Radial rigs?
Thanks for any advice.
I’m, one of those sailors who tries to sail a full rig, but is bit on the light side; so when the breeze is a bit on the heavy side I go with a Radial rig. I am now using the Radial rig more and more as I enter more serious regattas where I have to state in advance which rig I want to race with. I find that the difference between the two rigs is quite a large one.
I have found plenty of publications on laser sailing, my favourite being the Ben Ainslie book, but precious little info on the specifics of a Radial rig. So I was quite pleased when I found an old copy of Yachts and Yachting (British sailing mag) from about a year ago that had an entire article devoted specifically to the Radial rig. What a disappointment. This article told me nothing knew, and I got the feeling that the author took an article on how to set up a standard rig and inserted the word “Radial” after every occurrence of the word “Laser”.
All of which made me determined to get on the information highway and see if I could track down some Radial specific articles. I am usually quite apt at surfing the web, so I am left quite surprised at my inability to find any Radial literature. For my money the Radial is now almost as popular as the standard rig. There were far more Radials at the UK national champs than the full rig (197 vs 104) and the Radial now has Olympic status. I was hoping that this would stir a lot of web based interest in the Radial, but so far I have not been able to find it. As fantastic as my sailing club in Sydney is, all of the racing is orientated around full rigs, with Radials being seen as a side show for those who are too old or not good enough.
Does anyone know where I can find some radial articles? I seem to remember reading one from an American class publication but can no longer find it. Perhaps this forum is the ideal place to maintain some documentation on how and why we should be setting up our Radial rigs?
Thanks for any advice.
