Marauder, Minisail and ???

[davidh]

Nessa,

I think so. The side tank is formed of two compartments. One (the forrard) is vent and therefore floods in the event of a capsize. On righting, the tank drains into the helm area.

D

[JimC]

The first shows very nicely the flat after sections and lack of flare in the hull - quite dissimilar to the very interesting Cherub pic that Jim C posted earlier.

Plenty of flat transom Cherubs about then too, but I didn't have any suitable pics of UK designed ones... Here's a Kiwi one from 1971, familiar to some at CVRDA...

[davidh]

Jim,

Cracking picture. I'm trying to work out in my mind the chicken and egg - M14 or cherub leading the way to lighter, flatter and beamier. I'm sure in the antipodes the Bruce Farr lead thinking means that they were ahead of things but at that time it is not clear how quickly boats made the transition from northern to southern hemisphere - and vicci verki

But yes, the cherubs have to have an integral part in that history

D

[davidh]

Nessa,

Jims pic sent me back to the emails you sent with the pics. Back to the pics of 1007 - I now know that I was involved in their taking! There was a big and rather tricky story with the building of 1006 and 1007 - suffice to say that in the end a 'raiding party' was formed that involved myself, Ian Ridge and John Marston, Class Sec at the time and a large (though gentle) giant of a man from Scotland. We went to the workshop where the boats were supposed to have been completed (Ian having laid up the GRP hulls) and found a terrible situation - so we liberated them along with the ply and brought them down to Hamble and Ian's workshop.

Once all the work done to date had been ripped out, Ian was able to do the work and made a really nice job of finishing both boats off - one went to Northern Island, the other john took to Anstruther on the northern shores of the Firth of Forth. I came up with the deal with Banks for the sails, part of this was that I'd go north and set the sails up on the boat. The boats were on the beach there and that is when the pics were taken. Mid summer - sunny and a good breeze BUT to share the experience - put on sailing gear, have a shower and then climb into the freezer compartment of the fridge...'kin hell, it were cold (all the more so for a wee southern chappie like me!)

d

[Rod]

I love a good thread that bounces to and fro......... home building, to Hornets making a complete hash of class affairs, to Minisails giving way to Toppers, to who in the U.K was first in introducing the skiff hull shape, to the M14 tank layouts. As they say, all good stuff.

It is somewhat strange that here in the U.S, home building of kit kayaks and even kit sailboats has found some level of popularity again.... so perhaps not dead, though this hasn't translated into a new class of racing dinghies.

Re: Minisails supreseded by Toppers. It may be the the original concept may prove too simplistic for mass appeal. I wrote about this over on my blog (shameless advert) when I compared the original lateen rigged Sailfish to the still popular Sunfish;

http://earwigoagin.blogspot.com/2009/10 ... h-not.html

Hornets making the wrong moves as a class.... Maybe DavidH could give some specifics. My thought is as you go higher in the food chain (i.e. high performance, spin, trapeze) the sailing population playing that game becomes limited and the penalties for falling out of favor more severe (Marauder = Lost class status). Whereas it is easier to keep a older singlehander class (Streaker) going as the pool of sailors is that much larger. (It amazes me at the number of viable singlehander classes in the U.K).

Don't forget John Shelly in your "first to the skiff shape" designer. Int 14, Moth and a very pretty entrant in the 1960's IYRU Singlehanded trials.

From the other side of the pond

P.S I would have never have thought it, but at this time we have in the U.S (and not in the U.K) probably the preeminent home build dinghy class, The Classic Moth, with 8 out of top ten at the Nationals being home built out of wood. (Another shameless plug... but let me know if I'm wrong on this).

Let's go to YouTube............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MEpevO6q1E