After months of rumors, We can finally talk about Melges’s new boat, The Melges 15. Melges debut’d the boat on May 19th via Facebook and the Melges newsletter. The press release came out at 11 AM on 5/19/20 with a video and pictures, giving us a good look at the boat and how she sails. The Melges 15 comes in two … Read More
By Airwaves Writer Tyler Colvin In 1956, the International Yacht Racing Union (now the International Sailing Federation, ISAF) created a four-tiered developmental catamaran system with the categories as A-D. It was an attempt to split up the high performance catamaran world into classes and limited very little about each class. In the beginning, only length, … Read More
By Airwaves writer Tyler Colvin If any one-design class has a cult following, it would be the Etchells. The boat was designed in the mid 1960s by Skip Etchells as a candidate to be the three-man Olympic keelboat. Despite dominance in the trials, the Etchells lost out to the Soling, but gained a dedicated group … Read More
Youth sailing traditionally has been in dinghies designed 60 years ago with very few updates or improvements. The 29er changed all that when it was introduced in 1998 by acclaimed naval architect Julian Bethwaite. A high performance skiff aimed at young sailors, the 29er represents the future of the sport. The Boat: The Next Big … Read More
By Airwaves writer Tyler Colvin Hand building boats is an art overlooked by many. Many of today’s sailing dinghies were originally hand crafted in garages, barns and basements before they hit high volume assembly lines. The Lido 14 is no exception. Originally built by legendary boat builder Bill Schock, the Lido 14 came to life … Read More
Club FJ (Flying Junior): Youth Trainer Extraordinaire, by Airwaves writer Tyler Colvin Recognizable to many youth sailors who grew up on lakes, ponds, or on the west coast, the Club Flying Junior (CFJ) is often used instead of C420s in youth sailing and collegiate programs. Originating in the mid 20th century in the Netherlands, it … Read More
By Airwaves writer John Storck Recently, I had the opportunity to take the new Zim 15 out for a test sail. The whole experience was pretty cool, as the Zim team assembled sailors, boat designers, and sail makers at their “super secret test site” for a great afternoon. Post by Chuck Allen. When we arrived … Read More
420 Class: Club Versus Collegiate By Airwaves writer Tyler Colvin As one of the most highly utilized youth training boats in North America, the 420 was designed in the mid 20th century as a stepping stone for the Olympic 470 class (www.usi420.org). Since its introduction into the youth sailing community, two popular variations on the … Read More
Sail1Design would like to welcome John Storck to the Airwaves team! By John Storck III With the recent cancellations of both the NYYC Team Race, and the 2v2 Random Pairs Regatta (both historically strong events in the V15 class), it seems more evident than ever that the boat and its class are quickly decaying into … Read More
The drawing board: Over the past two and a half years the collegiate and post collegiate market has changed quite a bit. While other companies worked to freshen up the 420 the Zim team was not content to put a new deck on a boat designed in 1959. These introductions are not new, but based … Read More
By Tyler Colvin Introduction and History: The Start of an Empire In 1975, Rod Johnstone built a keelboat named Ragtime in his garage in Stonington, CT. Ragtime was the first J/24, a class that started the wildly successful J-Boats Empire and has grown into the world’s largest one design keelboat class. Since the class’ inception, … Read More
by Airwaves writer Emma White The optimist, originally designed by Clark Mills in 1947, became a registered One-Design boat in 1995; after a few modifications. It is roughly 8 feet long, precisely 3 feet and eight inches wide, and weighs approximately 77 pounds. Although, many describe this boat as a floating bathtub, it does not … Read More
By S1D One-Design Class manager Leslie Holt In 1995, Julian Bethwaite designed the 49er, and since then it has been gaining popularity world-wide for its incredible speed. The boat takes several design cues from the poplar three-man Aussie 18, which is a larger high performance skiff. In 1996, the 49er was selected for the 2000 Olympic … Read More