FReak out

[broz]

How does the Freak out compare tothe Design 8, Crew weights 16 and 23 stone the boat is wanted for open water and open meetings.
We are getting good results out of our design 8 sailing against Lasers, ff15 Laser 2000 etc. better result than in our Merlin.

[Tim L]

deck stepped rig, wood decks , possibly lower freeboard and a little flatter underneath.  Not a lot in it really - I looked at he same trade when I had a D8 but decided it wasn't going to be much of a difference.

That said the two sisterships 3378 and 3404 are arguably two of the best looking 12s going, I'd probably buy the Mouser if I wasn't trying to buy a flat...

[John Meadowcroft]

freak out is a morrison development of his design 8.  At the time Kevin Driver & Adam May sailed very light and was particularly devastating in light winds.  Like the D8, the weakness was perceived to be planing offwind, but these were very marginal differences between the leading lights in the Class.  As an investment you could argue that a GRP Design 8 is better than a Freak Out which whilst likely epoxy sheaved will be wood cored.  In summary not much difference to the D8 really.  

Your crew weights are at the extremes - a Final Chapter would probably carry weight better.

[beans]

  Well THANKS!  3378 Shake yer Beans is our boat since 12 months ago and she is indeed a pretty looking boat.
But there is more to the story than good looks, this is our first 12, so I have no other benchmark for comparison, BUT freak out design certainly does seem to go very well in handicap races.  We race a lot in the handicap fleet at Chew Valley. Chew is a pretty large lake with some pretty good sailors in the mixed fleet.  Over the winter series we were always in top half and have some 1sts, 2nds and 3rds.  The design of course does very well in light winds, but our good results have also been obtained in stronger winds too.
I have been sailing with a total of about 22 stone which is probably a bit on the heavy side, but it seems ok for this design.
Looking forward to finding out how our winter practice will affect our position in the Open Fleet.  We have tons of experience against RS800s, Fireballs and Foiling Moths, but that doesn't count for much against some hot, modern 12s :-)
Ken

[Derek]

There are actually at least 4 Freak Outs.

Beans, Arouser (renamed Mouser) 3396 Rob Peebles yellow soap dish configured Burton winner and 3406 Agent Orange.

As Meads says they are a derivative of D8 with less rocker and more beam aft.
They are therefore more sensitive to weight (the less rocker bit) but if sailed appropriately light can be faster downwind. Whether that is down to the weight or the rocker is another question...

All hulls were glass foam sandwich and made by Rowsell and Morrison.
Beans and Mouser were both finished by Kevin Driver.
Rob finished his and I finished 3406 as an amateur replica of the R&M type.

Strong point is light winds - very quick.

Weak points - wide, flat and shallow at the back so ships water tacking, particularly short tacking in tidal conditions where you tend to ship the whole of your quarter wake as you tack out from the shallows.

Marginal planing in waves is not so strong but seems OK on finer legs. Also quite reasonable uphill.

All except 3396 are wooden deck and varnished so reasonably pretty but rather more work than an all plastic D8.

Driver boats (being built by and for a Merlin sailor around 10 years ago are deck stepped.
The other two are more conventional.

Derek N3510