Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Six Metre Worlds in Newport RI

Another photogenic class, the Six Metre keeler, is hosting their World Championship at Newport Rhode Island as we speak. Of the 32 entrants, 26 are classified as Classic Six Metre's (built before 1965). Within the Classic division, the Six Metre's split it even further into four time periods where different versions of the rule were in effect. I find this interesting because we also have divided the Classic Moth into three divisions; the Vintage, the Generation 1 (Gen1), and the Generation 2 (Gen2). In our case, the Vintage division is those hulls built prior to 1950, whereas the Gen1 and Gen2 is somewhat loosely based on design date but also wetted surface and stability. So in Gen1 you have 1950 designs such as the Challenger, Mint, and Cates mixed in with newer Europe dinghies and Masers (Laser conversions to Classic Moths). Gen2 is a true restricted class which you can design and build to a box rule though the 1960ish Mistral design still rules the roost.

A nice video of a German Classic Six Metre sailing out of the Solent.

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