New Flying Fifteen ... The Stensons' New Boat...

Richard and David Stenson have been sailing a Flying Fifteen from the Trial Sail program for the last few months - and very promising they looked too. Now we need to really look out - they have bought a 'new' boat - 3632. It's an Ovington Mk IX Smoothie, built I think in around 1998. The boat is in simply superb condition - it has been fitted out by P&B and looks great, inside and out. The hull especially looks tip-top. It has a red waterline and quite a lot of red cordage - very easy on the eye!!! The sails look in great condition too - Goachers, I think.

They have grey painted non-slip panels on the deck. It's very practical and to my mind it looks very smart. When I had 3644 built by Ovington in 1998, if you phoned Ovington you spoke to the great man himself, Dave Ovington. I called Dave and explained I wanted grey non-slip panels on the boat. "No", he said. "Have you thought through the weight implications? That much paint weighs 2 kilos..." I naturally said, "Come on Dave, it's inside the minimum weight, so who cares?"

The line fell silent for a moment and Dave said, "No, Richard. Not the absolute weight - think about the fact that it is distributed across the length of the whole boat and not a the centre of gravity...". In the end, 3644 had white decks.... And so does 3934.....