Origins
The Byte, like the Laser several decades earlier, is the brainchild of Ian Bruce of Performance Sailcraft (now PS2000), builder of a dozen ISAF International or Recognized Classes and two-time Canadian Olympic contender. It had its genesis in the mid-1990s, when Ian decided to design a single-handed dinghy that would satisfy two primary criteria: it would be inexpensive, and it would target a range of weights that were much more typical of the human population as a whole than the optimum sailing weights of the designs that dominated singlehanded sailing at the time: the Finn, the Laser, and the Europe.
What emerged off the drawing board was the Byte with what is now referred to as the “Standard” aluminum rig and dacron sail combination. Although very different from the Laser—the adjustable, track-mounted traveler in the cockpit being perhaps the most obvious difference—it shared many of Laser's general features and from a design perspective was very much in line with the larger singlehanders that preceded it.
In 1995, the Byte became an ISAF “Recognized Class” and gained popularity worldwide, particularly among Canadian youth sailors, but also among adults in the U.S. and the U.K.
Nearly 10 years later, the Byte got a radical makeover. With an eye to creating an “out-of-the-box,” cost-effective design that would serve as the Olympic women's singlehander—the analogue of the Laser for male Olympians—Ian teamed up with Julian Bethwaite of the Bethwaite clan that had produced the 49er, the 29er, the Tasar and numerous other fast shapes. And what emerged was something completely different—the Byte CII.
The CII
The CII—the “C” standing for “carbon”; the Roman numeral “II” for “two-piece,” in reference to the two-sectioned mast—looks radically different from the deck up. The carbon mast is taller, highly-tapered, and bendy. The higher aspect-ratio sail is made of a laminated “string” cloth, with load-bearing carbon threads sandwiched under high pressure and heat beween two thin sheets of mylar. With six full-length battens, generous roach, and a cuff wrapping around the lower mast under the boom, the spar and sail combination altogether look much more like a skiff's rig—which is essentially what it is.
The CII rig not only looks radically different, it functions in a radically different way as well. In a nutshell—and in stark contrast to how things work with the old-school Standard rig—the sailor now has the ability to control sail twist and chord depth completely independently. Instead of moving the deepest part of the sail forward or aft, the cunningham controls the sail's flatness: the load is transfered straight to the masthead, which induces or reduces mast bend as it moves pulled down or eased up. It works something like a keelboat's backstay. Because the mainsheet is no longer needed to create bend (the way it does in a Laser), the sailor is free to ease it (and the vang) off, allowing one to go upwind with a sail that is both very flat and very twisted—which is impossible with the older Laser-style aluminum/dacron design.
Summary
In short, with the combination of a flexible carbon mast, cunnhingham, a fully adjustable traveler, and, of course, the mainsheet, pretty much any sail shape becomes possible, and the sailor can make very fine trim adjustments in response to a very wide range of conditions. Two of the most important effects of this are (1) that the boat is faster than it used to be and (2) that it can accommodate broad spectrum of weights, instead of devolving onto a single “optimum” one. Flyweights and heavyweights can make very different trim adjustments in the same sailing conditions to accommodate their body weights: instead of the difficult process of trimming body weight to suit the boat, the boat is trimmed to suit body weight. And suddenly the playing field has become much flatter for everyone between 100-160 lbs. Anyone with doubts need only look at the results of the 2008 World Championships in Weymouth, U.K. The event was won overall by a Laser Radial champion in his 30s and well into the upper half of that range. At the same regatta, the Canadian national CII champion not much over 100 lbs. was able to hold her own at the front of the pack with steady winds in the high-20s and gusts over 30.
San Francisco Bay area Byte sailors were enthusiastic early-adopters of the new rig, and most have made the conversion to the CII.
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