100 years OF BOATS
Who doesn’t love one-designs? Not only do these boats arguably represent competitive sailing in its purest form, they also represent sailing at its most democratic, allowing even those of modest means to compete at the sport’s highest level. Think the ubiquitous Sunfish or, say, the Thistle class, in which decades-old “woodies” still find their way to the podium on a regular basis.
Not only that, but because one-design classes live and die by the number of participants they can attract, and because many, if not most of these sailors are going to want to use their boats for more than just racing, the one-design concept has also produced some of the finest boats the world has known.
A pair of Sanata 20s locking horns on a Wednesday evening
The Laser dinghy is as relevant today as ever
This, in turn, has created a kind of brand loyalty that is hard to match—much to the chagrin of naval architects and a boatbuilding industry forever trying to get sailors to switch to the next new thing. The hyper-competitive crucible of one-design development has, therefore, also become a driver for innovation, so that the evolution of one-designs has played a critical role in the evolution of sailboat design in general.
The design that started it all: Ireland’s Water Wag
Like the mousetrap, designers have yet to figure out how to improve on the Sunfish
Generations have learned to sail aboard the ubiquitous Optimist
The Star remains the boat of choice for some of the world’s best sailors (above); the boat with its orginal gaffrig (inset)
Today on a typical summer weekend, the
