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We
have always had a hard on for boats with big bulb keels, non overlapping
jibs, asymmetrical kites on sprit poles. The Aerodyne 38 is no exception.
We first saw the boat at the 2000 Sail Expo. While the interior did not
blow us away we liked what we saw everywhere else. Big wide open cockpit
with a giant wheel. A big, fun-looking 38' that didn't look like every
other R/C on the market Later that year we watched in disbelief as the
Aerodyne 38 "Matador" finished boat for boat behind Antrim 27
"E.T". in the Pacific Cup. Now let's jump ahead to 2001 and
were racing in the Singlehanded Sailing Society East Bay Race. Conditions
are light, I mean flat water with about 5 - 8 knots breeze sailing upwind
towards Raccoon Straight. The Aerodyne is being sailed double-handed while
I was single-handed. Unbelievably, were much faster than the Aerodyne
in our little sportboat which is not considered a stellar upwind performer
certainly not without the aide of tons of crew weight. Never was able
to figure out why this supposed A-38 speedster was so damn sticky in light
air, flat water. We finished over an hour ahead. Jump ahead to today,
were out walking around the boat yard and what do we find? The Aerodyne
38 is hauled out. Christ look at the bottom of this boat. The bottom line
is there is way too much wetted surface. Great when the wind pipes up,
but hard to break free in the light stuff. What's the word? Yeah Pig that's
it.
Sportboat.
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