Some of This Year's New Boats

We've a great surge in fleet members this year. I've not seen Jonathan Baggott's 1803 Classic yet, but we have three pretty interesting boats in recent weeks. Steve Bell's 3827 is extremely interesting technically. It is a carbon Coryn. I would guess that it's the same mould as Dave Harrop's old boat, which here at Datchet with dominantly light breezes went like absolute Stinkie. (We had better watch out!). It was previously owned by a disabled Fifteener so has some conversions like a short tiller which Steve is removing. Also interesting in that boat is the centre mainsheet post arrangement. Take a look when you get a moment. I was very taken by the hiking handles too! And the cream hull colour!

Then we have Mervyn Wright's 3536, sister boat to my old 3537 which is with Matt Glasgow now. This boat is in outstanding condition - it's a Mk IX Smoothie and reminds me what astonishing value these boats of that period (c 1995) are now. They don't cost a lot to buy and will hardly depreciate at all. And my goodness, they are fast. They were really well built and have retained their stiffness. Mervyn's boat is particularly clean too - and could pass for a two year old. Fantastic!

The final boat to tell you about is Andy Murphy's 3965(I think). This is straight out of the box from P&B and has got all the latest thinking in it. Very smart, but a couple of things grabbed my attention. One was a very interesting harken track on each cockpit side aimed at relieving those situations when you cant crank the pole off the forestay. Really clever. Also for a chute boat, the cockpit was very clear. The other thing I noted was the move to thinner jibsheets and tiny genoa cheekblocks as a consequence. I guess thinner sheets will anyway come with the new shape jib, but I am reminded that my Dragon had even thinner genoa sheets than that - and that on a genoa the size of an FF main. "Why?", some of you will ask. Well, it speeds up the tack is the answer - because they run out much easier. VC Tinsley took a thin pair with us to the Europeans, and actually it worked just fine. Take a look at Andy's boat if you can - it's very interesting.