Detuning a Penultimate International 14?

Hmm, yes, I very much doubt that setup is original, but I would definitely want lowers with any distance of gooseneck above mast. The kicker load is going in the mast whatever.

The big question is what are you planning to do with mast and sails. And a second question, which you probably can't answer, is how well does the rig you've got actually work.

A mainsail for a properly designed twin spreader rig will have entirely the wrong luff round to be used without caps, but there was a tendency in some classes and some places to just bung caps on a single spreader rig to hold up a kite downwind without much thought about upwind. In my opinion that was not a good rig, but if you have one taking caps off isn't an issue.

It took some time to realise there were better ways of doing things. Its not so much that space frames are bad per se but that those big fabricated aluminium constructions were expensive and heavy, especially compared to having the same strength built into internal framing with carbon. And also the 14 rule set of the time tended to push people down odd paths. Neither expensive nor heavy were significant issues for the 14s of that period!

That space frame looks identical to the one we had in 1188, I think that boat went to Belgium?????
I'm sure the number will be in the hull somewhere.
1188 was a single trapeze rules converted to twin trapeze rules, great boat but the mast was long, heavy & didn't bend at all!

We do not really know the sail number of our current i14 as the paperwork is lost and we did not find any number on the hull yet. But it looks like it was built for asymmetric kites right away, so it should be after the rule change in 1989.

 

The aluminum mast would still qualify as heavy (though shorter as it is stepped on top of the space frame) but I hope it will bend somewhat at the top due to being tapered.

 

There are probably only 2 or 3 RS400 in Germany so spare riggs will be hard to find. Sail area would be on the high side of what we are targeting and I am not sure how well they would take a single trapeze.

 

However we looked at the suggestion to use a 29er rig again: Actually there are quite a few 29er for sale to due to “serious” youth teams moving on. Maybe we should talk some of the teams into selling their spare parts/sails separately and build a rigg from that??? I guess that would break our “low budget approach” and we would end up paying ten times the money for rigg & sails compared to what we initially paid for the boat J

 

Today will be another day putting glass&epoxy on rudderblade  and daggerboard, at the same time the parcels with parts for the “bespoke” rudder stock we are intending to  build are arriving….

Good news is that pressure testing the hull went kind of o.k., even though the hull does not meet the class rules from back then anymore.

Edited by skslr - 01 Jun 21 at 6:59am