Fast 1 Person Dinghy

[Steve Clark]

I have days of brilliance...   ...but often I'm the butt of my own sailing criticism.

Other restrictions are because I do not want to do what I've already done.  Now that the class of boat is no longer a consideration I'm focusing on faster designs that are well thought out and not half a century behind the curve

Almost 50 years ago I was bored with sailing.  It wasn’t challenging enough. I wasn’t wining all the time, but just SAILING was pretty boring.  I found and bought an old IC, broke it, fixed it, broke it, and generally sailed my ass off.  Point is that it wasn’t easy,  I didn’t need a fleet as an excuse to go sailing.  And there was plenty to think about.

Not being a one design invites you to play with things and explore what happens when you do so thing different.

The sliding seat is actually very cool.  It gives you the leverage of a trapeze and racks without the crap on the leeward side slowing you down.  It has some buoyancy, so it does float you a bit if you tea bag, and it skips. On top of the water when you are going fast, which means that you don’t get washed off if you clip the top of a wave or two.  Normal pundits look at ICs and completely miss the point.  They go upwind faster than 505s, and 505s return the favor off wind by about the same amount. And the IC is not a commodity, but an individual thing you can be proud of owning and being able to sail.

I can go on and on, in part because I am designing a new one with Fastyacht.

SHC

 

[ortegakid]

Come out to Texas, you can try IC(A) or IC or MXRAY or FD(A), and I will tell you, nothing compares to IC, even when light wind

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Hi, Foredeck Shuffle! if you get A-cat, you can keep it at my place, its only two miles up the creek from the club. I wrestle same thoughts as you do. Should I get a Buccaneer and depend on wife's schedule to race the only sizable one design class in the area? Race what I have already? Get a Laser? 

Getting A-class is the only appealing thought.  I owned one 20 years ago... I still miss the boat. 

I have clues who you are, can I buy you a beer or three?  PM me the day, preferred beer, location?

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Almost 50 years ago I was bored with sailing.  It wasn’t challenging enough. I wasn’t wining all the time, but just SAILING was pretty boring.  I found and bought an old IC, broke it, fixed it, broke it, and generally sailed my ass off.  Point is that it wasn’t easy,  I didn’t need a fleet as an excuse to go sailing.  And there was plenty to think about.

Not being a one design invites you to play with things and explore what happens when you do so thing different.

The sliding seat is actually very cool.  It gives you the leverage of a trapeze and racks without the crap on the leeward side slowing you down.  It has some buoyancy, so it does float you a bit if you tea bag, and it skips. On top of the water when you are going fast, which means that you don’t get washed off if you clip the top of a wave or two.  Normal pundits look at ICs and completely miss the point.  They go upwind faster than 505s, and 505s return the favor off wind by about the same amount. And the IC is not a commodity, but an individual thing you can be proud of owning and being able to sail.

I can go on and on, in part because I am designing a new one with Fastyacht.

SHC

You are hitting all the marks on this post.  I think I can handle buying one just to find out.  Thoughts on the following before I contact them?  Steve, says you owned 249.

• USA 249 "Wietzelsucht" $4,000
  
• USA 252 "El Crapitano" $5,000
  

Still going to look into a Musto versus a 29'er and talk to CrazyR about the A-Cat.  I'm not against buying more than one boat.  Some day when my wife tires of racing Bucc's I'll buy a VX/One.  The water venue here is beautiful and after surfing, sailing is my preferred activity.

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Your sub 7 knots problem is the real driver. Most boats are as boring as anything in those conditions. Of all the monohulls mentioned, only the Canoe is going to give you any thrills in those conditions. For me, it would be down to either the canoe, or find a way to make an A Class foiler work. The A will foil downwind in 6-7 knots and unless you are racing against a good classic A in light winds, the speed loss with a foiler will not be noticed.

Impossible to count how many time you and others in your area post about your sailing venue and I feel a lot of jealousy.  The list has been narrowed, just an issue of picking one or two and lock in, sell the one that ends up sitting on the shore.

 

[Steve Clark]

I can solve all your boat problems!

PM sent.

SHC

 

[Alan Crawford]

@Foredeck Shufflehave you seen this Canoe thread?

 

[bluelaser2]

I don't see any mono except in IC or Moth being what you are looking for in 6-7 knots of wind.   You either are or are not interested in sailing something athletic and tweaky.  If you just want to sit or hike lightly with a beer in hand and go really (relatively) fast without an outboard motor, your choices are slim Gee.  A Weta on a trailer is under 6 ft. beam.  If you don't have 6 feet for storage you probably don't have four or five, which means you are looking at a windsurfer or kite setup, and maybe just a nice fat windsurfer with a harness would give you the solo sailing pleasure you are seeking.   If that's too athletic...I'm not sure this itch can be scratched....

 

[fastyacht]

I grew up partly in the Chesapeake. Yes the wind was light most of the time in summer. But the spring and fall sailing is spectacular and the sailing "season" at Nap is a month longer than Connecticut and at Hampton 2 months longer. There used to be an IC fleet at SSA. There was also a 14 fleet and a snipe fleet and a 505 fleet and a thistle fleet...who knows what is left.

There was even ice boating on the Magothy. But maybe that will never happen again.

What am I missing?

 

[Rodfavela]

The VX Evo is a great choice, checking all those points. The mainsails, A, B and C get smaller by foot and leech. Luff is the same in all three. There is only one size spinnaker.

These may help:

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

I grew up partly in the Chesapeake. Yes the wind was light most of the time in summer. But the spring and fall sailing is spectacular and the sailing "season" at Nap is a month longer than Connecticut and at Hampton 2 months longer. There used to be an IC fleet at SSA. There was also a 14 fleet and a snipe fleet and a 505 fleet and a thistle fleet...who knows what is left.

There was even ice boating on the Magothy. But maybe that will never happen again.

What am I missing?

Nothing.

It's odd but 60 miles south the sea breeze is very light compared to the average summer day further north where the breeze happens much more often than not and is a good extra 4-5kts.  You know the drill.  If there is a dominant breeze you may see a convergence zone with pressure variances and potentially wind direction confusion but once that dominant breeze is above 5kts the sea breeze only appllies if it is from a similar direction.  Otherwise if there is no wind the sea breeze becomes the dominant wind and there is good racing in the late afternoon with the breeze coming from the SE.

Go south to the Patuxent and that sea breeze barely registers.  I'm not sure if it is the colder water at the mouth of the Potomac that prevents it from arriving or the large width of the Bay at that point, but the sea breeze is barely a factor.  The Pax basin is also surrounded on 300 degrees with a small mouth for how large it is.  If you sail outside of the basin you will often find the breeze kicks up 2-4kts but you have to sail through several miles of dead air to get there.  The NOAA data from the Solomons Is. station  versus from Gooses Reef or Cove Pt show the increased breeze and slight change in direction that indicates that the sea breeze is not a dominant force in the Pax basin the way it is at the entrance to the Severn River.

 

[Surfer7]

Surprised none of you mericans have mentioned Melges 14, or indeed any singlehanded scows, would seem to tick the box for 'not as bad as a laser', just dead classes?  Always found the Melges (16/MC?) an intriguing thing, as an ex topper sailor, but never seen one in the flesh.

Scows were developed specifically for light air inland lake conditions. As such they are all over-canvassed and will usually sail faster than anything else in light air. They are also a very stable non-tippy hull shape. The MC would be a great choice for a single-handed light air boat with the ability to take a crew. The 400 pound weight can be trailered/launched by even small cars. I used to use a tiny Honda Civic for my MC.

 

[couchsurfer]

29ers make a great trapeze single-hander,  probably pretty simple to get a used one of good price, with a bonus at their nicely set up for two people when it goes beyond your wind strength.

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

29ers make a great trapeze single-hander,  probably pretty simple to get a used one of good price, with a bonus at their nicely set up for two people when it goes beyond your wind strength.

I was going to give the IC a go (thank you Clark family, always helpful and generous) but after finding that I have no place to launch and recover an IC due to restrictions of the yard and likelihood of an IC getting beat to death there, and no beaches to wet launch from, I'm about to purchase a 29er.  I'll try and make sure that in the years ahead what I buy is in good condition so the kid can kick me off it and go sail it with a friend.  By then I'll physically have to retire to something more humble.  Hopefully I find a farmer friend with some shoreline around here in the future, would still like to give the IC a go for a season or two.

 

[F18 Sailor]

Unfortunately, the Solomons Island area of the Chesapeake Bay isn’t the best for high performance boats, due to lack of a good launch site. This limits your boat choices, unfortunately.

West River Sailing Club (WRSC) in Galesville, MD, which is a bit of a hike from the Pax river area, remains the best location for high performance sailing on the bay. We have an excellent launch ramp, parking for boats up to 10’ wide, 2 club RIBs and very reasonable membership rates. I made the drive for years due to the awesome group of cat sailors at that club, but I get if it’s not doable with other time constraints at play.

Given that, the one choice not really discussed here is the F16. It’s really the perfect bay boat. Light and easy to move around solo on the beach, and if you rig it with the jib it and sail it one up, it rates as fast as a Nacra 20, which is about as quick a boat as you can get for sailing in 6-7kts. Both of the major builders (Falcon and AHPC/Goodall) produce a quality boat that is still well supported. As the class has had a bit of a falling out on the OD side, several good examples have sold recently at very good prices. There are a few at WRSC.

We also now have 10 or so A-Cats at WRSC. 2 foiling and 8 classics. It’s possible to keep up with the classics in light conditions, but they usually walk away until it’s blowing 9kts or so and we can consistently foil downwind. I can count on one hand the number of folks that can foil in 7kts of breeze on an A on the U.S East Coast. I think a U.S 7kts is a good 2kts less than an Aussie 7kts! Of course, just having that ability is worth the small drag penalty; the challenge of foiling the boat upwind and downwind keeps you coming back for more!

Anyway, if you decide to go for something besides the 29er and the A peaks your interest, feel free to give me a shout. I know of one mint condition classic available locally at a stellar price!

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Decision made, happened to find a good price on a boat that has not seen much water time.  I have a powerboat to finish before setting this up for single handing but at least now I can stop thinking about this and start the work.  Thanks to everyone that entertained my over analyzing!

If anyone does have links to advice for setting up a 29er to single hand, I would again be very appreciative.

 

[Fabricensis]

Congrats on your new boat! From what I heard you should be very happy with it.

Those less than 7kt really hit home to me, I had exactly the same problem last year. I bought a Seascape 14 and it was exactly what I was looking for.

Here's what I think of the boat after one year of ownership (incase you or anyone else stumbling upon this thread are looking for a dinghy like this again):

The one thing I noticed first about it was that it was incredibly nimble, I have sailed a lot of boats and I can't remember any that could turn on a dime like a S14. The next thing is how light it is, 67kg/148lbs hull and 108kg/238lbs fully rigged is a lot lower than other boats in the same class. Especially if you are alone, you really feel the low weight.

It can be very fast downwind, owing to 21.8 sqm main+asym (I managed 12kt boat speed in 10kt wind on only my second day out), but upwind can be a bit 'boring'. It just doesn't seem to have the pull, although maybe I just haven't managed to set it up right yet. All in all, I'd say it is about as fast as a 470, losing on the upwind but gaining all that back on the downwind. One big plus is that it will plane downwind starting at about 5-7kt windspeed. On the wind side, one big upside ist that the boat is designed for a crew weight of ~80kg/175lbs on just the 8,5 sqm main, and ~120-160kg/250-350lbs on main+fore, but with the self-tacking jib you can just as easily sail the full 12sqm alone, a lot more fun at low winds.

The biggest selling point however is the practicability. It has a lot of space for a dinghy, you can easily fit 2 adults and some bags and not feel cramped at all. Or, if you're crazy enough, you can fit 2 siblings and supplies for 4 days on one boat and sail 360nm non stop to beak the guinnes world record for longest non stop sail in a dinghy. One more massive advantage is that it has a system where you can fit 2 wheels on the side of the hull that you can also take with you in special spots at the stern, so you can beach anywhere without danger to your hull. It is also quite forgiving but still exiting, so its perfect for introducing kids to dinghy sailing, should that be your cup of tea.

There are some some downsides as well, obviously. It is very expensive, I bought mine new for 15k€, including bags and cover, but not including transport. Used ones are rare and tend to be quite expensive still. If you are looking for a sporty boat, it might also be too stable. It is quite hard (but not impossible) to flip it, and if you turtle the stability works against you. I have seen more than enough people being unable to right it and needing help. One final downside is that the class scene is non-existent. If you don't know people in your area that own one or can be convinced to buy one, I wouldn't expect to be able to have a class race soon... or ever.

TL/DR: It is a fun little boat, perfect for having a nice, fun cruising day at low winds or a bit of a sporty sail at medium winds. Very good for lake sailing, especially if you go somewhere, land and then return later in the day. It can be a bit boring if you are used to trapeze skiffs, but will still be quite fun and fast downwind. However it is quite expensive

 

[fastyacht]

I am not a fan of singlehanding boats than cannot be righted alone.

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Ditto.  The 29er looks trivial, though a capsize with the spin up could be expensive if the water is too thin.

I'm working with a group that is bringing Julian's 29er Mk.8 carbon rig to life.  Seems he does a lot to help fleets evolve and then they pull the rug out on him after he does some very good work.  Sailing is very lucky to have people like him around.

I picked up the Laser C8 rig last year that he designed a few years ago for the Laser class and it turns a Laser into a joy to sail.  Put up the standard rig with a carbon top back in and it feels archaic and sloppy.

 

[Amati]

I am not a fan of singlehanding boats than cannot be righted alone.

Keith Callaghan has figured a way around that.  K1 also does that

https://www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk/articles/boat-test-hadron-h2/

K1- notice he climbs in from the low side and still rights it