Rondar Raceboats
recently built the prototype KISS Rondar, a simply rigged, US-spec rig, vinylester 505. It
is the same hull shape as the Rondars that have won four of the last five world
championships (including Nick Trotman/Mike Mills winning in 1998) The KISS Rondar was at
Hyannis for the pre-worlds and Worlds, and has been at West River Sailing Club racing the
fall events after the Worlds.
The boat was recently
purchased by Steve Yates, who wrote the following about it;
"... the foils are the nicest 50 foils
I have ever seen. The overall quality of workmanship on the entire boat, I think, is quite
superb!"
After having raced the boat
myself in a couple of events, I have some very positive initial impressions.
Ali Meller
Initial Impressions
 Both Peter Alarie and I, independently - had
extremely positive impressions of the boat when we first saw it. The boat, with two tone
blue and white hull, looks fabulous. The finish is excellent, high quality fittings and
fasteners are used throughout, the controls appear to be well led, the boat has a very
clean layout. The boat comes with - for example -the new Ronstan auto ratchets for the
spinnaker sheets; very nice!
The boat was very easy to rig, and where
things went was quite obvious. Unfortunately, I did not have time to sail the boat prior
to the worlds, so it first went into the water in Hyannis.
Construction
Very shiny gelcoat finish, no noticeable
unfair spots, no thin gelcoat spots, one very small delamination on the foredeck. The
hull, seat tanks and foredeck are fully cored, rail to rail. As on all Rondar 505s the
hull uses two different thicknesses of foam, with a thinner core well above the waterline.
While most Rondar 505s after 8300 have been built of epoxy resin, the KISS Rondar is a
vinylester boat. Vinylester is somewhere between polyester and epoxy in both cost and
properties, and is the standard construction resin of all sea kayaks and offshore racing
powerboats. This construction is light years past the partly cored polyester boats that we
used to import from England. Highly loaded areas are reinforced; the diagonal bulkheads
are reinforced with marine plywood. The boat was quite light, and needed 10 kg (22 lbs.)
of lead to get up to weight.
Control Systems
Fittings are mostly Ronstan and Holt-Allen;
fasteners are very nice bolts with Allen key heads. Attention to detail is very good;
there are cap nuts on the bailer bolts, no noticeable sharp corners or edges, lines were
cut to the correct length.
Rake and rig tension are easily accessible
from either side of the boat, mounted on the CB cap close to the mainsheet swivel jammer,
with very nice shockcord takeups. The rig can be stood up more upright than 25' 8"
with low rig tension (or tight if you want), and can be raked well back with lots of rig
tension (I have not measured where max aft rake and tension are yet - it appears to be
well aft of 25' 2"). The shrouds are rigged with a 2"1 above the rail, 6:1
inboard of the through-seat-tank-tubes, and a final 2:1 along the CB case side.
Vang is led to either side and is easy to
pull - you pull out rather than up - and easy to uncleat and ease. A very nice shockcord
takeup keeps the tails out from underfoot.
Cunningham is led to the back of the CB
cap, a little further aft than I was used to on my Waterat, but very easy to reach while
reaching or in heavy air (which is when I use it).
Outhaul is at the front of the boom, pole
topping lift is on a cleat on the mast underneath the gooseneck, led through a turning
block, so you can pull it up from anywhere.
The centerboard up and down controls are
rigged with a continuous line. The system works well, with no loose lines in the cockpit,
as the same line is used to pull the board up and down
Overall the boat has a very clean layout,
with control easy to reach, but not in the way, and almost no loose lines to tangle. It
just looks easy to sail.
Foils
The foils are gorgeous, a somewhat
elliptical rudder that looks about the size of the Waterat rudders many of us are used to,
perhaps very slightly smaller. The centerboard is a gybing Milanes & White with an
elliptical planform. It is very slightly deeper than a Waterat, with a slightly longer
chord where the board comes out of the trunk. It will have a similar gybe angle to the
Waterat or Lindsay and has an interesting molded in "gybe stopper" that causes
the CB to stop gybing and be centered, with no play, as you bring the board up into the
trunk. Some people believe it is very important to stop the board from gybing once you are
planing, which reduces drag when there is plenty of lift available, and these gybe
stoppers achieve this nicely. I believe the area of the board is close to that of a
Waterat CB. Both foils are clear finished and look fabulous.
On the Water
How a boat looks is nice, how it goes is
what matters. On the water, I found getting used to a launcher boat - I have raced forward
tack bag boats almost exclusively since 1983 - a little challenging. I am still not sure
exactly where to sheet the jib. The boat has a very nice feel, going through waves without
any pounding or apparent slowing. It subjectively feels very easy to steer, and seems to
accelerate very quickly in any puff or when you bear off slightly.
In the only race I sailed in over 13 knots,
the boat was very smooth and fast, and easily led at the weather mark, planing upwind
quickly.
Downwind it seemed to surf easily and it
seemed very easy to get the bow to point where you wanted it to..The bow is quite fine,
with less volume/buoyancy forward of the shrouds than other 505s, it seems to cut rather
than trying to go over waves. We had some boathandling problems - I was sailing with
different crews who I had not sailed with before - that hampered us on tight reaches, but
we typically gained ground on broader reaches and runs.
Prior to the boat arriving, and while it
was in Hyannis, there was considerable speculation about the problems of racing the boat
without a mast ram strut. I have raced it in two regattas with blocks in the mast gate,
and can state that it does work, but perhaps not perfectly. We were careful to calibrate
mast position in the gate relative to my Waterat, so I knew where I wanted the mast to be
in the gate. We were able to position the mast to where we wanted it with the blocks;
typically by easing the jib halyard to drop the rig back and create room in front of the
mast for the blocks, shoving the blocks in, then pulling the halyard back on... it takes
just a few seconds. We simply tightened the vang to induce bend in the mast and allow us
to put blocks behind the mast. In each case we blocked fore and aft, picking our location
based on wind conditions.
In any breeze, we ended up putting more
blocks in front of the mast to reduce bend. I believe we were getting more low down bend
than we expected, particularly as we started tightening the vang to power up the main
leech. The KISS Rondar mast is supposed to have a C section sleeve from step to spinnaker
pole fitting, to stiffen the lower mast and - we hope - deal with the lower bend
situation, but the mast that came from Proctor appears not to have this C section sleeve.
We did not have outstanding pointing, I suspect due to the lower mast bend. We will either
add the long C section sleeve, or add a mast ram strut.
You probably want to know how we did in the
racing. We were hampered in the racing due to being holed on the port side before the
start of the first race. We taped it up and sailed the two regattas, but were taking water
in the bow tank some of the time, which made a noticeable difference to the boat's speed.
We were also hampered by a sliding boom vang attachment, the CB controls not working until
I restored them to the original configuration and by not getting the lower mast bend
exactly where we wanted it. None-the-less, the boat was fast, and finished 3rd and 2nd in
the two regattas so far. It was particularly fast upwind in the windy race we sailed.
Conclusion
Though we still have to tweak a couple of
things such as building up the CB head so we don't need the teflon tape, and determining
whether a C section sleeve is enough or if the boat needs a mast ram strut, overall I am
very impressed with the boat. This is going to be a world class 505, and for quite a bit
less money than what we have had to spend before this boat came on the market. The large
group of people hoping to find a good used Waterat would be very well served by looking at
the KISS Rondar.
Crew's Comments
Jesse Falsone
The KISS Rondar is very nice and definitely
fast. Control lines are set up well with some exceptions. The boat definitely needs a mast
ram for US sails - no question about it. There are some finishing touches that it could
use like end caps on the jib tracks so you don't cut your hands. The jib cleat height
needs to be adjusted - they re-cleat very easily when tacking. The Ronstan Auto ratchets
are nice on the spinnaker. Personally, I like ratchets on the jib too. A crew would be
well served to tape his knuckles since the non-skid on the rail is quite abrasive.
However, I don't think you would ever slip on that rail. The spinnaker seems to come down
through the launcher tube more easily than on the Waterat. The bow is definitely finer
with less waterplane area through the forward sections of the hull. The crew seems to
stand about 6" further aft than in a Waterat under normal conditions. The boat felt
light and nimble, cutting through waves well (when the bow tank wasn't filled with water
from leaking through the patch). This boat is every bit as fast as a new Waterat with an
excellent fit and finish for the money. |
