Quote Originally Posted by Bombora View Post
Hello all,
I had a great time racing with you guys in the Vallejo 1-2.

Scott gave us a nice little demo of 8-ball on Sunday morning. It's quite the machine - there's a long list of controls that trim and ease automatically with the push of a button. There is nothing that isn't powered. The only control that doesn't ease automatically is spinnaker sheet and masthead genoa sheet - those sails sheet to the powered cabin top winch. Everything else - Backstay, main outhaul, vang, sheet, traveler, jib outhaul, sheet, furler, are captive and powered in and out with a remote control.

This is obviously a big performance difference from a boat with just a couple powered winches, especially in shorthanded racing. I do think it puts the boat in a different category from those of us racing "normal" boats. I think that the line needs to be drawn somewhere, and I'm not sure exactly where, between power assist and fully automated. Then fully automated boats should be racing in their own division and not eligible for the overall awards in SSS.

Rebecca
Bombora
Did Scott make any comments on Why he was making the efforts to automate everything? Curiosity.

Ants