Should the Flying Fifteen look at Carbon rigs?

World Champion Charles Apthorp tells us his views, reveals the secrets of his hull and takes a swipe at the K6

From Charles Apthorp
Should the Flying Fifteen look at Carbon rigs? I used a medium genoa at the Worlds most of the time which was a copy of a 1993 Goacher with a longer leech in addition to a 3.8 G1 from 1998! The hull design was based on a mk V, our old Four Winds.

The hull was extensively altered by Chris Benedict prior to being painted by Brett Dingwall. This was done in conjunction with Windebank who suggested various measurements. The boat is much fuller in the middle than a V [12-15mm] and finer at the ends than a Ovi ix. The aft run is straight but not minimum, as this would cause a hollow. All FF's are now minimum rocker under the mast. the effect is to improve upwind and running performance at the expense of marginal planing on a reach. But the final top speed reaching is higher.

The old Four Winds won the Nationals twice, was second twice and third and fourth, as well as picking up the old boat prize. In 1999 and 2000 she won the Dinard Euro cup, still very fast against new boats, she was also third in the 2000 inlands as well. The new boat's hull is built out of a mould off her, the deck is lifted from a Benedict design. The hull was cut off and a new Fourwinds style hull was bonded on. I redesigned the deck with Brett, moving the bulkhead at the back forward and cut out the mast gate to allow the one piece deck moulding to be taken.

I knew it could be done this way because I had helped Benedict put the original boat's design together. He was working out of a workshop I had when the design was finalised. Much of the deck design follows the Tempest set up. (I had won the Tempest Nationals twice in the early 80s). Many of the features follow the original 1979 Fourwinds which I won the Nationals with in 1981, floor and enclose back end and the design of the wooden frame in the middle. (this is for info. only, a full account was published in FF news several years ago).

As to carbon masts, it is sensible to allow the development work to be carried out in the development classes like the International 14 and Merlin.

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