Sabre Dinghy of Australia

This 12' home build singlehander, popular in the South of Australia, is a favorite of blogger Joe Rouse over at the ever interesting blog, The Horse's Mouth . According to Wikipedia, the Sabre was designed by Rex Fettell in 1974.

A simple V-chine design, the hull weight comes in at 90 lbs. (41 kg.), a little lighter than the Europe Dinghy but still a lightweight compared to most other singlehanders out there.

Building a Sabre has been documented with lots of photos at this website .

A picture shamelessly lifted from the Woodenboat Forum.



And a great video of a top notch Sabre sailor battling a sudden storm out on the race course (Brighton and SeaCliff YC). (Looks like an all-glass Sabre in this video.)

Header Photo: Sabre Dinghy and the Return of the Retro Singlehanders

The previous header photo is of Aussie Matt Kiely sailing the Australian singlehander Sabre class dinghy. The photo was lifted from the South Gippsland Y.C.Facebook page.

Probably the major trend in dinghy racing over the last 30 or so years has been the growth of singlehanded racing at the expense of doublehanded or triplehanded classes. And the trend since the millenium has been the explosive comeback of  what I call the retro hiking singlehanders; those other singlehanded classes designed before, or around the date of the introduction of the Laser (1969). For the most part, these classes are not international (excepting the OK Dinghy and Europe Dinghy); they are popular country-by-country or region, and they attract fleets of thirty, forty or more boats at major championships. They have a builder or two turning out modern hulls, some have carbon masts, many have aluminum. They seem to fill a need in the marketplace that the Laser does not.

I have compiled a list of retro singlehanders. I have excluded the Olympic Finn - 1949 (which has a huge Masters scene) and singlehanders with hiking assists (trapeze, sliding seat). Feel free to add your thoughts about this list in the comments section. (Before the Sunfish sailors jump all over me for excluding the Sunfish from the list - let me state the Sunfish has maintained high levels of popularity in parts of North America and parts of South America for many, many years - I don't see a comeback in popularity - they just maintained it.):

• Solo (U.K.) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• OK Dinghy (Den.) - 1957 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Streaker (U,K.) - 1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Phantom (U.K.) - 1971 - carbon mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Lightning 368 (U.K.) - 1977 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Sabre (Aus.) - 1974 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• Impulse (Aus.) -1975 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, full battens
• O-Jolle (Ger.) - 1933 - aluminum mast, stayed rig, short battens
• Larken-Klasse (Ned.,Ger.) - 1920's - wood mast, stayed rig, full battens 
• Europe Dinghy (Moth) - 1960 - carbon mast, unstayed rig, short battens
• Zephyr (NZ) - 1956 - aluminum mast, stayed, full battens

Despite the recent introduction of the "modern" RS Aero, or Devoti D-Zero, with lightweight hulls, mylar sails (correction - the Aero has dacron sails), carbon rigs, it seems the singlehanded market is marching in the other direction. (I must admit the North American market is an anomaly here with not a lot of singlehanded classes under the Laser - still king by a long-shot-, and the Sunfish - a solid runner-up, The other singlehanded classes in North America - like my Classic Moth - are mustering small numbers...Oops! I forgot about the MC scow, now very popular in the U.S.)

Capsize Medley; A Sabre and a Topper

It's been some time since I posted on one of my favorite topics, small boat sailors capsizing.

In the first one, an Australian Sabre dinghy sailor was gybing to get back to the line before the start, spun out, and capsized to windward (the worst kind to rescue from). Said sailor performs stellar rescue with the added benefit he ends up on the right gybe heading back to the start line. Smiles all around.



In this second one, a junior sailor on a Topper (must be England) either collides with the coach boat, or the coach boat collides with him/her, net result, a rollover to leeward. Again, a TOH to this junior on a very speedy recovery.

Weekend

As I was experiencing it, this past weekend didn't feel all that noteworthy. There was definitely more socializing than sailing. But now from midweek, reflecting on the weekend doings, I am struck at how the diversity in my boating friends mirrors many of the philosophical underpinnings to this blog.

On Friday evening, I day sailed my Classic Moth out of SSA. Driving over the Route 50 bridge I knew the wind on the Severn River was from the West. At the club, there was a light easterly wind, a 180 degree switch between the Chesapeake Bay and the Severn River. This sounds odd but isn't as rare as one would think. I launched and opted to try the Severn River, hoping for more wind strength. Off the Naval Academy, I had to endure a large windless hole where the two opposing breezes fought each other. However, once past, there was a pleasant 5 knots upwind to Manresa and then back again. On spring weekdays, there are a myriad of high school teams running their short course practice sessions, even upriver where the Severn School practices in the shadow of the Route 50 bridge. A very pleasant day sail.

On Saturday daytime, I cut the lawn but in the evening I was invited to a party of the Annapolis Section of the Carbon Makers Society (actually some International Canoe buddy's from yore who still race these challenging beasts but also get their jollies by designing and building lightweight carbon racing dinghies.... Bill Beaver, John Kells, George Saunders, and Gui with special guest Bob Ames). Well, I don't race International Canoes anymore, nor foiler Moths, nor do I build Carbon boats, but I get a pass since I've known most of these guys for over 20 years. As you can guess, the conversation is technical, engineering technical, naval architecture technical....... these guys love analyzing how to make sailing dinghies fast and light. But nowadays the conversation can't spiral too far into the nitty gritty of laminate schedules or daggerboard planforms as everyone (excepting "moi" and Bob Ames) are raising young families. Three year olds, seven year olds running hither and yon, sometimes with dangerous sticks, sometimes crying after spilling off the swing, sometimes hovering on their parents lap. Ah! the memories.... but I don't want to go back.

On Sunday morning, Bob Blomquist gave me a call about his adventures at the Cortez Small Boat Meet, held mid April at the North end of Sarasota Bay. Bob hauled his Bolger Light Schooner "Scoona" down to the meet and regaled me with stories of the sailing race around the island with the winner ringing a bell on a sandbar and his adventures in Ted Weihe's Flying Scot in big breeze on Sarasota Bay. You get Bob and I wound up and we can tell some sea stories, chuckling through all of them. You can see photos of the Cortez Small Craft meet here.

On Sunday late afternoon, I attended a theater party (my wife is very much involved with the Annapolis Colonial Players). Not to worry. This being Annapolis there are always sailors. I had an interesting conversation with Dick Whaley about the Sabre 28 he once owned and another conversation with Rolph Townshend, longtime Alberg 30 sailor and master model maker (he is currently scratch building a model of the "Pride of Baltimore"). He urged me to go see the recently reopened Naval Academy museum which he rates as one of the finest naval history museums going. I've been through it many years ago but with Rolph's superlatives ringing in my ears I've just added it to my immediate "to do" list (when I have a free afternoon).

Scow Moth Rendezvous: Albert Park Lake

A week ago, six Classic (non-wing) Aussie scow Moths made it out on the small lake in the Melbourne city park, Albert Park.



Details are sketchy but they raced in the first of the summer series racing. (It seems if it is fall in my neck of the woods in the Northern Hemisphere then it must be spring in Australia - but if they call it a summer series, then so be it.)

Rigging area. Not sure what the designs of these scow Moth they are but I imagine they are of the Imperium time-frame.

The original Len Morris Olive made it outside the museum. Next to her is the Len Morris Mk II.

The scow Moths started with a Europe dinghy and a Laser Radial. We see a Solo dinghy and Sabre dinghy in the background, waiting for their start.

Some racing pics:

.

.
Phil Johnson in his painstakingly restored Peter Cole Mouldie design.

.
Photos originally appeared in Scow Moth Club group on Facebook.

Annapolis Sailboat Show - Part 1 - I'm not making this up!

My annual blitzkrieg of the Annapolis Sailboat Show begins like most everyone else; park at the Navy Marine Corps stadium and take the shuttle buses (yellow school buses) the 1/2 mile into downtown Annapolis. It was getting on in the afternoon, Trade Day, and this weekend has been the rainiest of the year so their weren't many in the bus into town, just the diehards. Up towards the front, three sailors started a conversation about cruising sailboats. One had flown in from Milwaukee and owned a Sabre 28, one had come from Chicago and owned a Moody 43 and there was a third fellow in a green rain jacket who I never got his boat type, though I did catch that he had served as a jib-trimmer on an E-scow. Since I'm not a cruising type, I half-listened to the their banter; cruising and racing in an around Lake Michigan, the advantages of propane outboards, where can you go with the 6' draft of the Moody 43.........Getting close to the first downtown disembarkation stop, the guy in the green rain jacket pronounced loudly enough to jolt me out of my trance, "I read Tillerman's blog. It's about an old guy who's trying to improve his racing of the Laser." Wow! His fame is widening! Hmmmm....maybe in a couple of years, Tillerman can also have lines snaking out of a liquor store, waiting for his autograph on his favorite beer brand.

As an aside, the couple sitting just in front of me on the bus, asked the question of typical newbies; which stop was the main show entrance? I said it was the last stop. They then asked if there were a lot of sailboats to look at in the show and would they be able to see them all in one day. I replied that it depended on whether they were gawkers, like me, or buyers. If you were a buyer you would want more than one day at the show. It turns out they had flown in from Dubai, they were definitely buyers and they wanted a sailboat to ship back to Dubai. They were going to make one salesman a very happy camper. (Unlike me, who had more or less emptied his billfold to pay the parking fee.)

Australian 2015 Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta

Andrew Chapman sends along some photos of the 2015 Australian Classic Wooden Dinghy Regatta, hosted by South Gippsland Y.C, out of Inverloch, Victoria, birthplace of the Australian scow Moth. Regatta was in late January.

A Classic 16-foot skiff.

One of the starts. Left to right is the pram-bowed Mirror, Heron, two Sabre's, an Oughtred Classic Shearwater dinghy, and a scow Moth.

A varnished Heron being rigged on the beach.

The Uffa Fox Jollyboat has a small fleet in Melbourne Australia. Popular in the 1960's, the 19 foot Jollyboat was eclipsed by the similar sized Flying Dutchman, with it's Olympic Status.

The two Jack Holt small doublehander designs; the Mirror Dinghy, at 10' 10" was the first stitch and glue kit dinghy and the earlier design, the 11' 3" Heron, was also designed for home boatbuilding in plywood. Both originally had gunter rigs as seen here.

This scow Moth Maggie was just recently built by Ray Eades over two weeks and is a modified Imperium design. Mark Rimington is the owner and skipper.

Beautiful decks on this new scow. Rather than aluminum wings this scow was built with shorter wooden winglets.

South Gippsland Y.C. is on Anderson Inlet, where a small protected bay meets the Bass Strait. As Maggie sails toward the sandbar break, one can see the nastiness at the entrance to the Inlet when the breeze is on.

The Ian Oughtred Shearwater Classic Dinghy.

Fitted around the on-the-water racing shedule, the dinghies are exhibited at a seaside park for the locals to come and peruse (and vote on their favorite).

On the left is  the Rainbow Scow, a popular class in southern Australia up to about 1970.

This scow Moth is of the 1970's 1980's vintage, with aluminum wings.

The VeeJay has a bigger brother, the double plank 14' Skate dinghy. This one looks as if it is being pieced together on the beach, after a long layoff.

Here is a single plank VeeJay racing against the Heron. (The Heron being a good weight carrier,  as we see here with three sailors stuffed into this rather small dinghy - plus one more! - I was informed there was also a small child tucked out of sight.)