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Board » Flag Officers » Races » VOTE for your choice of Tall Ship for the 2013 Season

WHICH TALL SHIP?

OK folks - rather than insist on SOLers sailing the classic Class A Tall Ship polar which has been our staple for the first two seasons of tall ships racing, you may now vote for one of the following three.

The "pure" Class A Tall Ship


SOL's Clipper



SOL's Barque



Sailonline, in partnership with Sail Training International will be racing in the Med, in the Baltic and from Australia to New Zealand before the year is out!

_______________

--- Last Edited by RainbowChaser at 2013-06-24 11:57:24 ---

Poll: Which Tall Ship shall we sail in 2013

You need to be logged in to vote.
Does the classic "pure" really slow down bearing off from 65 TWA.
Hirilonde - I am not one of SOL's polar experts but, yes, she sails as her polar shows. The polar was the product of dialogue between STI (Sail Training International) and SOL's Polar gurus but still had its critics :-)

I am sure others will chip in on this discussion. :-)
Rather than choose a single type of Square-rigged vessel for all sailing for the year, I would much rather see a choice of several vessels for each race, with part of the "seamanship" to involve a SOLer choosing the vessel that he/she feels is most suitable for the expected weather. We have done this before, last year I believe.
While this may have effects upon the "handicapping" and the accumulation of "points", it nevertheless would add to the historical interest in what are really archaic races.
If pure speed is the only criterion for choice of boat, why are we not then limiting all of our ocean racing to the latest America's Cup design with wing sails and foils? Is it perhaps because using such designs in open ocean racing would be just ridiculous......
I, for one, would like to see a "tall ships" race that replicated the old "Tea clipper" races from China to the Port of London, or a race around the Horn to the California gold rush. Such races would have a direct reference to an important part of maritime history.
If it breaks, it's not strong enough--if it doesn't, it's too heavy.
There is information related to this decision in the Sticky thread at the top of this category.

Essentially to preserve server performance, availability & reliability it is necessary to select one type of polar for the period under discussion.

The other consideration being that in order to include these races under the current ranking system, which has been expressed by many as a priority, a single choice is a prerequisite.

--- Last Edited by A2R at 2013-06-25 06:37:44 ---
None so blind
A2R - I couldn't have put it better! Thanks ;-)
*All three boats are "Class A Tallships".

The original class A/B/C polars do not in any way resemble the performance of the actual boats (or any boats). If we want to sail them because the funky shape is fun, or for nostalgic reasons I say go for it in non-buddied races, but it feels like a disservice to SOL and STI to continue using them when sailing actual events, with tracking, etc.

We describe ourselves as having "super realistic boat performance".
76T - ah :-(

So you would be averse to the Class A... and consider our choice should only be between the Barque and the Clipper?

<<sighs>>
First, thank you SOL for your democratic policy. Give voice to the sailors.
Second, in the great spirit of old merchant sailing boats - need for speed - I’ll choose to go seafaring with a clipper. Let there be wind and speed for her!
Sail Fair.
Since the original vote was posted there has been some debate as to the merits of the Class A TS vs SOL's Full Rigger (which was not part of the vote)!

Consequently, with a tie between the Clipper and the Class A, we will sail the Clipper for the first European Tall Ships Race and... will probably ring the changes with other vessels for the remaining races during 2013!!

Trust that meets with everyone's approval :-)

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