RS800

Yes, you've got it, another one of Phil Morrison's designs. Today's boat, though, is a little different to both the RS400 and RS200, with it being a twin trapeze skiff, being 4.8m long, and with a handicap of 820, it isn't slow either. With a self tacking jib, light sheet loads with adjustable racks, and a carbon mast, make the RS800 suitable to be sailed by a huge weight range, with between 120kg, and up to around 160kg(?) the RS800 is a particularly versatile boat, meaning, almost any weight of crew can sail it.

It is well balanced and well built too, making it a good class to get in to, and with quite a number having been built, make it a good boat for fleet racing.

With a sail area of 16 metres squared (upwind), a spinnaker of 21 metres squared, and an all up sailing weight of 110kg, you can see where the RS800 gets its speed from.

For more information and images, please see: Click here....

The RS200

4m long, with a PN of 1057, the RS200, like the RS400 was designed by Phil Morrison, a little like a slightly larger National 12, with a sleek hull, which travels smoothly through the water, and Phil Morrison, being one of the good N12 and Merlin Rocket designer, you can see where he got his ideas.

Designed in 1995, the RS200 has been one of the more popular boats within the RS range, and with a latest sail number of over 1200 it has been a success. Although, the success it has had is not unfounded, after all the RS200, goes well on anything from seas to the smallest pond, and this is aided with the fact it has a swivelling centreboard.

The RS200 is a nice boat to sail, with very smooth sailing characteristics, and a comfortable hiking positiong to go from, much like many N12's.

For more information, please see: Click here...

The RS400

Something interesting, about the RS400 is the way it has the ability to adjust the angle of the spinnaker pole, so it can sail deeper angles, something which has also really been utilised on the Alto (a boat which can sail its assymetric on a run).

Designed in 1993 by the well known dingy designer and naval architect Phil Morrison, the RS400, is a well thought out boat, giving good performance with a relatively stable hull shape, although, is by no means, a cruising boat.

With both a fully battened main and jib, the sail plan is particularly powerful, and can provide a lot of thrills. Being 4.52m long, and with a sail area of 14.8 metres squared (upwind) and with a spinnaker area of 14 metres squared the RS400 is a powerful boat, and can reach decent speeds with a handicap of 948, and is suitable for both the larger (not too big though) and small inland lakes and reservoirs, with a decent sized fleet at my local sailing club; Bartley SC.

For more information, on the RS400 (and images) please see: Click here....

The 404.

Essetially, the 404, was a Lark hull with more powerful sails, a larger symmetric spinnaker, a trapeze, and a more skiff style type deck layout.

With a large rudder, giving more control, a pretty quick hull shape, with a decent sized sail area, the 404 is not a slow boat, but isn't particularly fast either, with a handicap of 1050 (roughly). Therefore, it is a little faster than a Laser, when the 404 is sailing with the big rig - there were two rigs, a smaller sail area and a larger one, although (I believe) they both fitted the same mast.

With a sail area of around 9.74 metres squared, upwind, and with a spinnaker size of 9.25 square metres, the 404 can provide a fun ride.

For more information, and an image, please see: http://www.noblemarine.co.uk/boats/dinghy/404/

The 18' Skiff

Unlimited sail area, a weight of 170kg or less, almost an unlimited hull shape, and possibly more at the forefront of technology than the R Class skiff, the 18' skiff is an incredible site, reaching speeds not far off that of a foiling moth, with a handicap of 695 (the last time I checked), the 18' skiff is a three man skiff, with very limited rules. Infact, I am even lead to believe that in the beginning of the class, there were three rules:

1. It should be 18' or under.
2. The race should be at a cetain time.
3. Regardless of speed (handicap) the first to cross the line, is the winner.

It is this ideology, that first started the 18' skiff class, at lend it to being at the forefront of technology, and being all carbon fibre built over nomex honeycomb, these rocketships, really are rocketships. However, it is not just the hull which has a lot of technology and innovation in it. But, the rig aswell. The naval architect and well known sailor, Jonathan Witty, has designed and has had built his own wing mast for the 'Lumix' 18' skiff. Another unusual feature, being where the head of the jib sits, ouside the end of the mast, giving, a very squarehead jib (something, I have almost never seen before), and therefore, more sail area in the same given rules about the mast.

The original 18' skiff as taken a lot of design input from some of the great designers of the 20th and 21s centuries; Bruce Farr, Julian bethwaite, Ben Lexcen, and Ian Murray, just to name a few, to get from the heavy timber construction type 20 crew boats of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the innovation continues.

For more information, and images, please see: http://www.18footer.org/

The Swift Solo

Todays boat, is one not often found in Europe, but more in the far away lands of America.

Having an ineresting sheeting system, with the mainsheet controlling, not just the mainsail, but also the jib, this works by having a self-tacking jib, with the sheets of both the mainsheet and jibsheet spliced together, meaning, as you pull on the main, you also pull on the jib.

Bram Dally (the designer) soon got the idea for the boat, after watching a 49er being sailed singlehanded in around 4 knots of wind, this soon got him thinking. Later, he cut down some 49er sails he had, made his mast 3/4 length, and was soon sailing singlehanded.

After experimenting with this 'cut down' 49er, he eventually decided to design his own version, this is what became the Swift Solo.

The class was formed in 2003, and since, there have been aprroaching 100 having been built in America and Canada.

With Julian Bethwaite commending it, it is obviously a good design, and not slow either.

For more information, please see: http://www.single-handedskiffs.com/home.html

And: http://www.swiftsolo.com/home.html

The Blaze

The Blaze was designed in 1996, by John Craig and Ian Howlett who is well known for his I14 designs and associations with the America's Cup. It has a 10 metres squared mainsail, which is well developed, and a pivoting centreboard and rudder, meaning it can be sailed in relatively shallow areas easily.

In the year 2000 a call was made by the class association members to reduce the size of the leech of the sail, as it was too much sail area for most helms to handle. With the reduced sail area, a more efficient sail was made, and it made for a more balanced boat.

The company, who markets the Blaze: Topper International, dropped the class in 2007, and the boats construction has been taken over by Rondar Raceboats, and the marketing, by Cirrus Raceboats.

Sailing of a handicap of 1032, it is around the same speed as a Farr 3.7, and a little faster than a Laser, but with its relatively slow speeds and pretty stable hull shape, it makes this boat suitable for small lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

For more information, and images, please see: http://www.blaze-sailing.co.uk/

The Spearhead.

First dreamt up by a 505 class world championship measurer, who thought 'what if?'. To be precise; 'what if' you could create a boat free of class rules and parameters, and 'what if' you could have a class with all the benefit of what the 505's wanted to go faster (lighter weight, deeper pointed bow, and flatter and longer hull shape).

So the designing started.

This is where the Spearhead, has some real innovation, as you can see from images, is the way it has an interesting layout of the stays, and not much, if at all reinforcement of the mast step. And ofcourse, all of this saves weight! This was done by having aluminium tubing to support the stays, and as a result, has saved a lot of weight, and increased the longevity of the boat. To give more strength the boat was also constructed from epoxy resins and kevlar, as opposed to the more commonly used (at the time) polyester resin.

Sadly, with the death of the designer, and the moulds beig burnt in a fire, the Spearhead, didn't really have much of a chance to compete against other classes, and as a result, only 24 were ever built. Because of this some of the innovations in the class, never really took off, which is a shame as the class really was very innovative, and from what I have heard, an interesting one, and one which continues to interest me, and being well built, aids the boat's longevity.

For more information and images, please visit: Click here...

The Blue Peter

Todays, boat, is an interesting one, designed by Ian Poctor although, unfortunately never really took off, although a number were constructed. With a pocket luff sail, the Blue Peter, is primarily a childrens boat, although can be used as a tender, or cruiser, with ease. Constructed entirely out of fibreglass, the boat was designed and produced to become a childs racing dinghy.

8' long, 4'2" wide and with a draught of just 3", it is ideal for learning to sail on, and with its small sail area of 3.5 metres squared can take light weights well, however, it also has a lot of bouyancy, so, can be a very useful and versatile boat, as a tender (for example).

I have a feeling that the boat never really took off due to the competition it had at the time, such as the optimist, and possibly the up and coming (at the time) topper.

For more information, and images, please see: Click here....

B14

Being 14' long and with a handicap the same as an AC (870) the B14 was designed by Julian Bethwaite as a smaller version to his successful 18' skiffs, the B18. Designed in 1986, and released into Australia in 1987 and Europe in 1993, the B14 has been a small success from the start, with a steady increase in numbers from the start.

The boat, having been claimed to be easy to sail, yet fast, makes it an attractive prospect to future owners, and being as fast (overall) as an AC makes it seem like an exciting boat too, and has (supposedly) the same feel of acceleration of that of an 18' skiff.

One of the great attributes of the B14 is its ability to carry a wide range of weights so both men and women can sail it, as well as lightweights, heavyweights, and short and tall people. And all this can be done without the added complexion of a weight equalisation system.

For more information, and for images, please see: http://alan-davis.net/sites/b14/

The DC

This boat completes our trio of International Canoe's, first with the ICOD, the AC and now, the DC. This type of boat has (technically) been the predecessor of the ICOD, or IC as it is more commonly known as. This is because, ever since the 1880's and 1890's, the IC has been a development class, and between the 1880's and 1930's a lot of development took place, with first the Americans sitting on the side of the hull, giving them more leverage, eventually people then started using sliding seats to get more leverage. But it wasn't until Uffa Fox, when the sail plan became more recognisable, with the rules stating you need two masts, however, Uffa, got around this by making a solid wood forestay, which made the rule of two masts essentially obsolete. This led to a rule change allowing a more efficient sail plan, such as Uffa's.

During the early years of the class, there were a number of interesting designs, both in rig and hull shape, even one boat had a 3 spreader mast! something, that (as far as I am aware) hasn't been used on many other small boats until some much more modern 18' skiffs.

Anyway, after a short history of the development of the class, in the early years of the class, now on to more recent developments.

It wasn't until 1972 when the class adopted the Nethercotte one design IC to be the standard hull shape, however, in 2008 the class made a change in rules, allowing development to the hull shape (again) although the foils, rig and spars were allowed to develop during the 'Nethercotte years', so development wasn't completely out of the question.

At the moment, there have been a number of interesting developments to the IC, most namely the fastest current design, often compared to a monohull A class cat, is Chris Maas's design, String Theory, and the design, from the past two world championships is the current winner. However, there are others out there, most notably, the Josie hull shape, Dragonfly, 21st Century Hollow Log, Monkey, the Morrison designs, and Asbo, all of which are very quick, although being more narrow than the ICOD and AC tend to make them even harder to sail.

Overall, the DC is a great area of innovation, and a very exciting development to keep an eye on in the sailing world.

For more information, and images please see: Click here...

The Flying Junior

First of I would like to say, it is nice to be back writing the calendar, despite the fact I had a wonderful holiday.

Anyway, now on to the boat, this one (as far as I can tell) is not often sailed in the UK, although is more popular in America and mainland Europe.

The boat itself (as the name suggests) was designed as a feeder class for the Flying Dutchman. With a sail area of 9.3 metres squared, the flying junior has a single trapeze, and symmetric spinnaker, and in America, there is also a variation, that many schools use for sailing, that doesn't utilise the trapeze or spinnaker.

Designed in 1955, and the first to be produced being cold moulded, and despite the fact it is a one design, the class has allowed development in a similar manner to the FD, and as a result, can be a very technical boat, meaning the class allows for learning the technicalities and fine tuning (mast bend and rake etc.) required to sail at the top level.

An interesting rule in the class, means that you have to be 12 years of age to sail with the trapeze, a rule I am not aware of in many other classes.

For more information, please see: http://www.ifjo.org

And for images, please visit: Click here...

The boat with a running asymmetric.

Of course, this being the Alto, one of the few boats (at least that I know of) which has a running asymmetric.

Being almost as fast as a 505, and with easy handling, the Alto provides a fun ride, with the added 'quirkiness' of the running asymmetric. It achieves the running asymmetric spinnaker by having a swinging spinnaker pole, meaning you can swing the tack of the spinnaker right over, and run it (essentially).

The Alto, despite being a rather modern boat, has had a fair number built, and looking to the future, it wouldn't surprise me if the class grew a fair amount.

For more information, and images, please see: http://www.altoboats.com/index.html

16' Skiff

The class, started in 1901 is one of the oldest classes out there, and by 1908 a small fleet had built up. Originally, the 16' skiffs hull shape was based on the waterman's rowing skiff, which (at the time) was known for its speed and stability. In 1926 the construction had changed to the new clinker style type construction, and during the 1940's development of new glues and adhesives made way to new wooden moulded boats to be formed.

By the 1970's the class allowed for GRP construction, and the rules were updated later this decade, to allow any construction material available to be used. And in 1983 the biggest allowed spinnaker size was increased to 30 metres squared, increasing downwind speed significantly.

During earlier years, you had to race with a crew of 4 or more, although in 1986 the minimum crew amount was changed to 3, as with the effective use of trapeze, the skiff could be handled in all weathers like this (although the use of trapeze had been since the '50's).

Eventually, due to the ever increasing costs of keeping the boats competitive the hull shape and asymmetric spinnaker pole size was fixed, and the class essentially became a one design.

Since then, a new skiff class has been introduced called the 13' skiff, and this was made to create a junior class for the 16' skiff.

For more information and images, please visit: http://www.skiffs.org.au