Forgot to mention as well that a good, used Sunfish can be had for some
$2,000 (or less) with sail and trailer and a lightning with sails (maybe no
spinnaker) and trailer should set you back less than $5,000.


"Papa3" wrote in message
link.net...
Scott,

One problem with this idea is that the difference in "performance" in
sailing has a different impact than in gliding. I used to race Lightnings
as well as Sunfish. Two very different boats, one MUCH higher
"performance." However, as long as the wind was blowing even a little
bit,
you could have a good, fair race regardless of the craft. So, we were
able
to race almost every time we went to the marina. And, we could even run
the same courses, just a little slower.

Now think about soaring. Especially outside of those few areas that have
ideal conditions most of the time, the difference between 30:1 and a
sharply
descending polar vs. 40:1 and a relatively flat polar is the difference
between going somewhere and flying locally. Already in the US, we've had
a
number of "World Class" competitions in conjunction with the other FAI
classes. Almost without fail, the World Class folks have struggled to get
in a day (even a drastically shortened course) while the FAI guys were off
doing 300K. In some cases, these World Class ships were flown by good
competition pilots.

My conclusion is that performance matters more in soaring than in sailing.
Given that, the next question that pops up is purely one of economics. If
I
can have much better performance for a similar price, making the ship
usable
not only for races but badges and fun flying as well, then . . .






"Scott Correa" wrote in message
...
All a one design class needs to be successful is a sanctioning
body making it THE choice for contests. Look at the olympics.
Solings for gods sake, tornado's and other low performance
boats. Very strict rules on planform and construction. IMHO
there are much better race boats in the world than what theey use.
The key is that they use them, have contests and promote it as a
class boat.

The PW5 only needs for the sanctioning body of soaring to adopt it
and have a world championship at the venue that the other classes
are held. There are people who would fly for a world title in the class
if it was flown and promoted that way.

Scott.