Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Seahorse Magazine waxing lyrical about Classic Dinghies; What's Up With That?

Seahorse magazine, that esteemed English "yotting" publication known for featuring breathless articles on the latest carbon fiber this, and carbon fiber that, or very serious, convoluted, colorful CFD analysis by some big, bad designer of current fame, had, of all things, a picture of of one of the reproduction Australian 18 foot skiffs in the February 2011 issue. The caption read as follows;
"There is now a thriving historic 18ft skiff scene in Australia with fierce competition and entries from several of the different Commonweatlth nations ............... In fact, historic small boat racing seems to be on a roll everywhere right now - there is only so much white plastic anyone can take."
I would like to say "No sh*t Sherlock" but let's be nice, and congratulate Seahorse magazine on finally spotting a trend that this blog has been on top of for a while. It may be the greying of dinghy racers that is driving this trend but there definitely is exploding fleet racing in everything from the our local historic classes, the Chesapeake 20 and Log Canoes, to the Salcombe Yawls in England, to the Rainbow keelers of Holland et al. I'll be starting a series soon featuring current gaffer and gunter classes that are still going strong.

And let's go to the videotape..........

Historic 18 foot racing...........


And here are some pictures of the certified "Loonies" of the Historical crowd; the Australian Historical 10 footer skiffs (yes, that's right 10 footers with three crew) that are raced in Brisbane and Sydney. (As always, click on the image for a higher resolution display,)





A YouTube video on the Aussie 10 footers can be found here.

(Click here to view more posts on Australian Historical Skiffs.)
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2 comments:

  1. Bursledon BloggerApril 14, 2011 at 11:16 AM

    Love the Salcombe Yawls and such a great place to sail.

    And how about a mention for the Solent Scow

    http://bursledonblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/scow-update.html
    (must get on with my restoration)

    and the Seaview Mermaid

    http://www.svyc.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=83

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  2. TweezermanApril 18, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    Mr. Bursledon B.

    Took a look at the SeaView Mermaid link and I must admit a pretty keelboat with a long history. I like the club owned status of the class and the fact that every hull has a different color. This blog mostly features dinghies but I'll hold this class in my pocket for maybe a later post (particularly if they get a neat YouTube video up).

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