My Boat List

Only you can say   

Putting the 59er to one side as that is far more a product of the modern age, both the Jacksnipe and Spearhead were good boats, with the latter surely deserving a better epitaph than 'a quarter tonner for a sailor with one friend'.

However, they have to be seen as products of their time that we subjected to the problems of  build issues, politics (including the politics of the international scene) and the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes'. How one boat could have so much bad luck in so short a time.....or the other boat suffer initially from poor quality control and then become a toxic political football to kick around, should not detract from their undoubted intentions to raise the bar in development terms.

Just the other week my searches turned up a nice example of another  candidate that could easily join the Spearhead and Jacksnipe, the Peter Milne designed Bullet aka the Baby 'ball.

I was reminded recently of my series that Dinghy Mag carried ...must be 15 years ago now, titled the 'Lost Classes', which took a more detailed look at boats that are no longer with us. Yes, of course there were some howlers in there, but there was also no shortage of cleverly designed examples, across the range of genres, that either never got past the prototype (or prototype plus a handful) OR sold enough to be a runaway success by the standards of today....yet still vanished from trace apart from the odd barn find and E-bay bargain. Maybe it is time for a reworking of Lost Classes, it is on the list but there are more pressing articles ahead of it - for now!

If it were not for the people behind these boats and others...and in this list one would have to include the likes of iGRF who put money on the line to follow his own philosophy of design, not just the boats were sail, but the sport itself would be a bland and far less interesting place to be!

Dougal

Be in no doubt, those cold moulded SA boats had the potential to be very quick with those who sailed them rating them highly.  However, the 5o5 was already established out  in the 'dark continent' and as I've researched the 5o5 story for the book, I've been surprised how strong the class was out there, SA, Rhodesia and other old colonial countries. Also interestingly, the Contender was also strong in the same locations.....

The other Spearhead, the late 1970s performance two-man boat, was  so put it mildly, an interesting proposition. There was talk of a project to 'sort' the rig that I was going to be a part of but then after the whole backing for the boat went up in smoke (literally!!) we did other things. But I could  see the potential for the boat, in light airs, inland....yes, it could have been quick. But a single hander - sorry no, not that I'm aware of.

The space frame also needed some sorting but it is easy to forget how difficult it was back then to lock in the hull stiffness, as was proved by the 470s as this was the time when you could all but destroy a hull in a couple of events with excessive rig tension.

Bullet is a BIG story for a small boat but it was not the first to be using flooding side tanks!

D