Choosing
a boat.
By
Tim Claypole
Version 2, June 2005
So you have started sailing and are thinking of buying a boat. The proliferation of designs, promoted by various commercial forces over the fifty years that dinghy sailing has been popular, has led to a bewildering choice of boats. Mumbles Yacht Club has produced this guide to help you choose a boat. Sailing need not be an expensive sport, so this guide has focused on good value for money. The goal of this guide is to promote club sailing. Club sailing is the grass roots of the sport. It should be able to be enjoyed by all. It is intended to create an avenue for those who do not aspire to the Olympics, but just enjoy the pleasure of an environmentally friendly sport.
The dinghies featured in this guide are all established classes, which are known to perform well in sea sailing conditions. They have also a track record of maintaining their performance with time. This is important for club sailors, as even if one is sailing an older boat you still want to be able to race successfully. These classes are also characterised by a plentiful supply of boats at all prices, although you may need to travel beyond Swansea to buy one!
If you are racing against another person in the same type of boat, when you cross the finish line you know you have won, not have to wait and calculate whether the conditions suited your type of boat better than another sailors. Class sailing can be described as athletic chess, where one pits one’s tactical ability and boat handling skills, as well as pure sailing speed against your opponents. By identifying classes that are suited to the club, it is the intention to promote strong class sailing as well as handicap racing in the club.
The main consideration when choosing the class of boat you want to sail is you! The choice is dependent on your size and then your personal preference. The first thing to decide is do you want to sail it on your own or with somebody. Sailing a single handed dinghy has the advantage of never needing to find a crew. However, it does mean you have to pull the boat up the slipway on your own (although all club members will help you to launch and recover). Two man dinghies require you to be organised and have a crew. This makes them better for family sailing where members of the family can be introduced to sailing via crewing. It also can be suitable for couples who wish to share the sport. The other choice is between mono-hull and catamaran.
The following table gives details of the classes. The size and weight of the hull plus the sail area to give a feel for the size of boat and the ease with which you would be able recover/balance it. The PY number is boats handicap and is a guide to boat performance. The lower the handicap the faster the boat. However, it is not a guide to how ease it is to sail.
|
|
Crew |
Length (m) |
Width (m) |
Weight (kg) |
PY |
Main (m2) |
Jib (m2) |
Spinnaker (m2) |
|
Topper |
1 |
3.4 |
1.2 |
43 |
1288 |
5.2 |
- |
- |
|
Laser Radial |
1 |
4.23 |
1.42 |
59 |
1101 |
|
- |
- |
|
Laser |
1 |
4.23 |
1.42 |
59 |
1078 |
7.06 |
- |
- |
|
Mirror |
1/2 |
3.3 |
1.39 |
61 |
1386 |
4.6 |
1.9 |
4.4 |
|
Scorpion |
2 |
4.27 |
1.45 |
81 |
1060 |
6.7 |
3.25 |
11.14 |
|
420 |
2 |
4.2 |
1.63 |
80 |
|
10.28 |
2.8 |
6 |
|
Wayfarer |
2/3 |
4.8 |
1.8 |
169 |
1099 |
8.8 |
2.8 |
13.5 |
|
Dart 18 |
1/2 |
5.5 |
2.3 |
130 |
798 |
12.92 |
3.16 |
|
|
F18 |
2 |
5.5 |
2.6 |
|
|
|
|
21 |
It is a good idea to have a look at or a test sail in the classes you are thinking of buying. There are examples of all of these boats owned by members of the club, so it should be possible to arranged at least to view a similar boat. Details of the individual classes follow next.
Topper
One of the key
advantages of the Topper is its unique injection moulded construction. This has
made the topper remarkably tough. The
simple rig and the ability to reef the sail make it a good boat for someone to
graduate to after sailing Oppy’s. The club owns several Topper’s that it uses
for sail training.
By changing only the sail
and lower mast the Laser hull produced two competitive boats for different crew
weights. The Laser full rig is better suited to higher sailor weights (11 stone
plus, 14 stone is probably best). The Laser Radial uses a more flexible and
slightly shorter lower mast together with a sail area 18% smaller than the
Laser Standard. The Laser Radial is used for youth, women and
lighter weight sailors (typically 8 to 10 stone).
There are generally plenty
of Lasers available, as the hulls are extremely tough. You need to be pay
attention to points of wear, such as the mast step, as this can lead to small
holes that leak into the buoyancy tanks. The full rig is generally more widely
available and you will have either to pay a premium for a radial rig or buy it
separately, in which case you may end up having to pay over £400 for a new
lower mast section and sail. The key to performance is the quality of the
sails, so you want to ensure these are in good condition or may look to buy new
to improve boat speed. Another good investment is to fit the power pack as it
provides better control of the sail shape and enables you to depower either rig
more easily.
The Mirror is a stable boat ideal for young sailors who prefer two man sailing. The Mirror sails are red to match the top of the Daily Mirror who sponsored the original project.
There are many Mirrors around, but beware as their age and all wood construction can lead to considerable rot. If stored on a trolley, then they rot around the bailers, whereas if they are stored up turned, then water gathers on the gunwales and the top of the boat rots away. The boat was designed to be built by amateurs, so if you have the time plans are available and you could build a new hull.
The Scorpion, a
high performance non-trapeze two person racing dinghy. It is a light weight
boat with an easily managed upwind rig together with a large spinnaker to give
exhilarating downwind sailing. The hard chine planing hull built to a strict
set of measurements with small tolerances. The rig controls and the cockpit
layout are left to personal choice. The small jib and centre main sheet do not
require great crew strength. This makes the boat suitable for youth sailing, as
well as husbands and wife teams. Both the rig and the spinnaker compensate for
the weight differences, giving the wide range of competitive crew weights
(typically 16 to 26 stone).
Modern adhesives and paint finishes mean the
Scorpion hulls retain their weight, strength and stiffness for decades allowing
older hulls to be competitive. There is also the option of a foam sandwhich
hull (the same as used in
the newest dinghy classes). This produces a competitive, low maintenance hull.
Scorpions have been sailed in South and West Wales since the early sixties, so
boats can be found locally. However, a list of second hand boats for sail in
the UK can be obtained from the Scorpion class association.
www.ybw.com/sp/features/scorpion/
The 420 is a two person trapeze and spinnaker racing dinghy. The 420 is the RYA youth development boat in the UK. The club has several 420’s for youth training.
420’s can be readily purchased cheaply second hand. However, the boat was designed in the early days of working with composite materials. While this led to a low maintenance hull, it is prone to soften through fatigue (i.e. the cyclic loads that occur while sailing) and loose stiffness. This affects the ability of the power generated by the wind in the sails to be translated into forward motion as some power is dissipated in twisting the hull. Thus hulls rapidly become uncompetitive and hence the lower prices for older boats.
Wayfarer
The Wayfarer dinghy was designed by Ian Proctor in 1957 and has since acquired an unrivalled reputation as a tough and seaworthy dinghy. The club has several Wayfarers that it uses for adult training. It is a good solid family boat, capable of taking all the family in relative comfort. However, all will have to help when it comes to pulling the boat up the slipway.
www.wayfarer.org.uk/index.shtml
The Dart18 is 18ft (5.5m) long, and 7 1/2ft (2.3m) wide, making it a large and stable platform for sailing. Dart18's are simply & solidly designed. It has a simple two sail plan, with double purchase on the jib, loose footed main (no boom), no spinnaker or dagger boards. This makes is a good club boat and family catamaran, as it is robust and can be sailed with a novice crew. It can also be raced single handed.
A more advanced high performance two-man
catamaran. The club has one of the largest numbers of this type of catamaran
sailing in club racing in the UK. It has
twin trapezes and an asymmetric spinnaker, giving it outstanding
performance, but it does require team work and experience to get the best out
of the boat.