Description
Designer: Jim Snyder
This new “short roundy” Jim Snyder design exploits the virtues of elliptical ends. An ellipse is the tightest curves you can draw around two points ( a pure circle is the tightest perimeter for one point). This helps ensure there are no extra bumps or flats in the perimeter- it’s a tight and spin-happy top view profile. It’s also effectively Jim’s first pure park and play design. The basic premise of the design is that easy spins can yield long high quality downtime.
Jim worked on this design for over 14 months- working through a series of shorter prototypes. The short (8′) prototypes were quite adaptable in the realm- but also ambiguous underwater- so the final design landed at 8′ 9″- not so much to add speed as to develop tool area in the ends of the boat.
The Slip also features a “shy” bow (narrow at the feet). This is a benefit for light legged people and also helps keep the bow dense- as the bow’s thickness has a fixed vertical height based on your ergonomics and can only be reduced to “your” size.
The Slip hull has two small divots in the bow but has a ‘soft’ (smooth- no divot) stern to get maximum drop at neutral angles of attack. The divots in the bow are to buy foot and knee room in the deck.
The wing theme is a blunted speed wing- so it doesn’t have big window of viable angles of attack- it’s more meant to spin as easily as possible. Its tweakablility comes from the shortness and elliptical ends. And it’s Jim most tweakable design ever.
So- how does it compare to the KOR? There are some basic differences- the Slip is slower and spins better but has less reach which can be a factor for some in subtle smooth arenas. If you want a sports car in a powered up arena- the Slip is a good choice. If you want a big harvesting machine- think KOR. Also- the Slip is not a great cruising choice whereas the right chop of KOR could be quite serviceable as a cruiser. The Slip is abysmally slow- the KOR not so much. But in the right arenas the Slip is incredibly easy and fun. So- if speed and cruising aren’t issues- the Slip should be on your short list for mid inseam range squirt boats.
So the Slip is a ‘small gear in the machine’ kind of boat and the KOR is a big gear. Both have won World Mystery Championships and both are used by top experts all around the world.
The Slip is a serious DT machine and geared towards being spin-happy and adaptable to the ever-changing conditions in the Realm. This makes it easier to deal with and so saves energy. And Zombies need all the energy they can get!
