6ft Skiff

How about a 6 foot uni-rigged foiler......

There'y' go boys, that's the rig I have...



(rescaled slightly)

Edited by JimC

Loads off comments so if i miss replying to a few shout at me and il come back to you...

No reason why scows should be banned... although the current ruleset seems to sduggest otherwise. The intension of having a vertical section on the stem was to limit snouts being used to increase LWL (banning them altogether was decided against) but the wording needs to be updated to allow for scows ideally.

The historic sixers were 6' long 6'6" wide saucer type things going for maximum volume but they were a lot heavier and carried 3 crew... initial calcs only but I think I can get away with a far finer entry with respect to overall volume (but will suffer with not having enough of that volume up front) My design on the website is a 'look pretty' kinda thing rather than a 'be fast' or even 'sailable' type thing... ive got 2 designs in process at the mo with one a lot closer to the original style and it is slowly becomming more scow-like with a lot more volume up front but the ussue there is that these things will be incredibly pitch-sensitive and if you stuff the bows of a scow under you're screwed, a finner bow and you might survive

Thanks for doing the pics Jim... another new perspective on things although you might need to resize a bit... my sketch on the last page is to scale using my 97cherub spars (boom longer than hull) Good luck flying a pole kite too! 

Turnturtle: loving the names!

Tornado_Alive: Nothing CURRENTLY in the rules to prevent you building a foiler but only because we decided the foilbase would be far to short to be practical. I have nothing against foils (I sail a moth and after the cherub mods are finished ill probibly look at foiling myself) but i dont think they have a place here if im honest.

Edited by Isis

OK guys, firstly I would like to thank everyone for the interest and support in the class which you are all showing at such an early stage. 38 replies and over 1000 views already.

Secondly I would like to apologise for for the lack of input into this thread by myself. I have jotted down some bullit points of issues which have been mentioned so far, and will try to address some of them now.

Windsurfers - I would expect a 6ft surf board to be MUCH faster than a 6ft "skiff". I don't believe this to be compatible with the class ethos, and would therefore push for these to be explicitly excluded by the rules. Have just scanned through the Moth rules and couldn't find the rule regarding windsurfers there, I'm sure I've missed it, but ran out of patience looking. Maybe someone could point it out for me?

T-foils - Again, I'm sure it would be fast to put a skiff on hydrofoils, Moth stylee. But as before I do not think this would be in the best interests of the class. However, a t-foil rudder would help greatly with fore/aft stability. I would suggest that to avoid boats being capable of fully foiling, the rules stipulate that only one horizontal foil should be used, ie. on either the rudder OR the c/b. Further to this, I would like to see a rule which makes it illegal to adjust the angle of attack of the horizontal foil. The reason for this is that it requires some complicated engineering to adjust the foil on the water, and this will greatly complicate the build of such a simple boat. I think the best compromise is to allow the use of a t-foil rudder, but it must be in a fixed position, as on the "conventional" Moths. Any views on this?

"Scow" shaped hulls -

Originally posted by isis No reason why scows should be banned... although the current ruleset seems to sduggest otherwise. The intension of having a vertical section on the stem was to limit snouts being used to increase LWL (banning them altogether was decided against) but the wording needs to be updated to allow for scows ideally.

Ben, I agree entirely. The intention of the rule is to prevent a buoyant "snout" being used to increase waterline length. I don't see a problem with scow shaped hulls. Maybe this is a rule which needs some re-wording.

Sail numbers - I agree with you Jim, totally unnecasary and against the class principle of being a true "skiff".

Min crew - I would not support a rule which limited the weight of crew which must be on board. I would not like to isolate particually heavy/light people. Also, I cannot think of another class where crew numbers are not limited, and in the future this could be an interesting area of development in the class.

As for the mysterious "Paul N", can someone suggest where I even start looking to contact the fella? Is he Australian? Connected with the Historic Skiff Sailing Society?

To those who have already begun developing their own concepts:
It must be worth putting it into practice, what have you got to loose!


Edited by Strawberry

What are you planning on making these hulls out of?  Admittedly my boat building knowledge is close to zero, but making some of the flat-nosed hull shapes out of ply and on a student budget looks like something of a challenge. Can't see how you could keep the wood stressed like in some of the moth designs