Alerion

[Giulietta]

OK, bought SAIL magazine, (arghhhh that is bad...) Sorry Mum.....I will behave from now on.

Among the advertisments (pretty much the whole magazine) and boats for sale, crap about the ACC, do it your self obvious fixes for obvious things, and, my favorite, hippies cruising in Mexico, I saw a advertisment for the Alerion.

While at the Airport went to their web site.

What a load of BS and very well written commercial crap....its a pretty boat?? maybe to the US crowd...to me, not impressed. Give me an old Tartan that's a pretty boat......the Alerion is a hybrid thing...

Its like the new Mustang they make now, or the Thunderbird, somehow all car builders are "imitating" their own designs from the sixties now....its a fashion...

Anyway back to the Alerion...

They claim others have made imitations (what the hell are they talking about????)....they're doing it for 10 years, only....we have daysailers like that in Europe since 1969 or something.....are we also imitating them??? BS...

Then there is the "tech" explanation for the high roach main, the Hoyt jib....who is buying into that???? It has probably one of the ugliest sail plans I have seen in years..... Ahh the explanation for no back stay was good. I threw away the magazine, but kept the advertisment to show my friends!!

That boat, to me is POINTED at rich people that like to show off, classic design with hi tech gear....

Its ridiculous....they took a sixties type of look, (that they invented, obviously), and installed a 2007 carbon fiber rig on it...its like....I have no words...its like taking a beautiful 1959 Corvette, and put those Bling Bling wheels, you know...those that remain rotating after the car stops....or that murder that Boyd Codington makes to classic cars....

The boat is simply an attrocity in the water, Its OK with the sail down. Its small, narrow, low....I have no words....who buys them??? And the price?????? Actors?? Bill Gates??? Trump???

Sorry my American friends, it might be a pretty boat on a moor, sailing, it is not....sorry, ok??

Ahh the Hoyt, no words!!!! All race boats will from now on use the hoyt...its so efficient....

Please crucify me, my American friends....but I rather take a real classic design and recover it, like T34C did, than to be a classic wannabe. Its like the SUV from Porsche.....

Bad taste and money in sailing.....

Sorry no offense, ok?? Opinions are like ass holes, we all have one!!

[cardiacpaul]

I have big-azz problem with a wal-mart cooler that doubles as the companionway step in a boat that requires that many fun-tickets.

Gary Hoyt, (while not the designer) has had some (tongue in cheek) experience building holes in the water, most of them with less than standard rigging. Freedom Cat-Ketches come to mind, and various boats with the Hoyt "stick" thingy.

I don't know the company specifics, but Hoyt is involved somehow, TPI (old Freedom - current j/boat) is the builder the do some quality work, eh?

The Freedoms with the wishbone rig are remarkably easy to sail, the cuban can do it with ease.

The wrap around sails on the early Freedoms are heavy with large winches and long handles the order of the day.

[Sailormann]

So did you book a test-sail ?