Petrucci Design S1 ‘R’ @Rutland Open: Report by Matt Bell

S1R report sent by Matt Bell from Outlaw Sailing , dealers of the S1/S9 in UK and the guys behind the concept of the S1.
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Matt Bell: “When we set about creating the S1 we gave to Michele a list of what the boat needed to do, we created a target SCHRS rating and we asked him to work his magic. We wanted a boat that looked fast, went fast, was affordable, manageable on and off the water, simple but effective, sailable in 25knots, fun but most of all a race boat that performed on handicap in a mixed fleet i.e cats and
dinghies.

To say we are happy with the boat would be a massive under statement, Michele has taken the lines
of the S9 (IMHO one of the cutest cats around) and crafted a boat that looks meaner and more purposeful. The hulls have more rocker and longer planing surfaces, the bow’s have loads of low down volume and the beam system taken from the S9 makes the platform virtually as stiff as a fully bonded a class while being de mountable in 15 minutes.

The fat head mainsail provides enough power but is manageable over 20 knots while the Code Zero ensures exhilarating downwind performance at very deep angles off the wind (160 degrees+)
In lighter airs the code Zero is flat enough to be deployed on a beam reach.

Does she pitch pole’ …. sometimes, however easing the kite or bearing away solves the problem,
when she does stick her nose in there is enough volume up front to pop her up again in all but the
most extreme scenarios.

Rutland Cat Open
The Rutland Cat Open was the first official race outing for the S1R, we had specified the boat to perform on handicap and our testing had shown good performance; but with a very healthy and experienced A class fleet and perfect a class weather I must say I was a little nervous.

Helming the two boats we had the two ends of our target market, a young gun coming out of skiffs
(2 hours cat experience) and an experienced older cat sailor looking for a more manageable boat.
(60+ single handed F16)

We really shouldn’t have been nervous, the S1R performed as we fully expected it to, kept in touch  with the A-Class fleet upwind and gained / overtook them downwind. Generally the A-Class went
slightly higher (z board boats) and faster upwind. The S1 went deeper and faster downwind, it made for a very interesting game of cat and mouse.

The comment from Dan after the first day was that he didn’t expect to be mixing it at the front of the
A-Class fleet but was consistently finishing 3/4th on the water, on handicap this proved to be a
winning formula. The second S1R finished the event 9th (mid fleet) on corrected time with results
improving over the two days.

Following the cat open I think we have a little upwind tuning to do, (we need find the best mode) to
close the gap to the a class. Downwind, the furling kite worked beautifully but again I think there is
more potential with a little tuning.


Outlaw Sailing  Matt /
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