Quote:
Originally Posted by paulk
Didn't the Scampi design win big at Cowes, or the half-ton (or whatever ton) championship when it first came out? Look up the inventory they used then. I would think sailing in Narragansett Bay & Block Island Sound means you'll have enough wind to use a #2 frequently while racing. The longer the legs, the more sense it will make, so it does depend upon the kind of racing you enjoy.
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The Scampi won the World Half Ton Cup in 1968, 1970 and 1971. In 1972 a Scampi took 2nd (and others 4th and 5th) in the North American Half Ton Cup. Sadly, knowledge about exactly how this all happened, with what crews and sails, is very hard to come by.
All that said, those were most likely European built boats. Some time right around then, someone decided that Scampi would sell well here in the US, so they started a company called Solna Marine (named for the town in Sweden where the Scampi's were built), brought a set of molds over and began building them at the Navy base in Newport, RI. As an interesting aside, which seems a harbinger of the company's fate, I was told that the first set of molds brought over fell off the truck while crossing one of the bridges, and had to be replaced with new ones from Sweden.
Of course the people at Solna made a few changes. I am told that someone decided the boats would sell better if they were enhanced for cruising, so a little more free board was added to make the cabin bigger.
To make matters worse, my Scampi has a non-standard rig. I learned after I bought the boat (too late - or I would have thought better of it) that my mast has only one set of spreaders where all the other US built Scampi's have two, and my mast seems to be 2 feet taller. It looks like this rig change is original because of the way the mast step seems original, but I have no idea.
Most likely it has the same keel. So that makes me wonder if the extra height will make it impossible to sail the boat correctly. Although I might be able to find a shorter rig, again I didn't know this before I ordered new sails, and I don't want to throw new sails and a rig away. The boat did very well in light air last season, which was the majority of evening races. So I guess the extra height was a benefit there. I'm thinking I can improve (if not solve) the problem with a smaller head sail in winds over 10 knots true.
I did speak with Steve O'Connell at Evolution, and he suggested a heavier, flatter genny, maybe at 145%, for winds over 10 to 12 knots true. But that's probably just an educated guess, and I thought I would ask and see what other people do with their properly equipped boats. I asked Steve if his designer's software can help estimate how much smaller a sail I might need based upon the extra height but he has not answered yet.
So that's the entire sad story. If I can find a way to keep the boat flat in moderate and heavy air, I can probably do well with it. But my boat design skills (or lack thereof) are not up to the task.
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