Sabot (dinghy)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Specifications Under Current Rules | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||
The Sabot is a sailing dinghy that is sailed and raced singlehandedly usually by young sailors in various places around the world.
It is a hard-chine pram 8 feet (2.44m)in length with a maximum width of 3'11" (1.19m). It was designed by Charles McGregor and appeared in the April 1939 edition of Rudder magazine.
The boat was suitable for amateur production. Early models were usually made in plywood. More recent models have been made in fibreglass. The Sabot is equipped with a dagger board or leeboard, and a 36 square-foot (3.35 square meter) bermuda-rigged sail. Variations on the design include "El Toro" from the Richmond Yacht Club in San Francisco Bay Area, the "Naples Sabot" from Naples community of Long Beach, California, as well as Australian varieties. The two fastest designs at the moment are the Jeffries hull, and Vanmunster boats. The Jeffries hulls although fast, are no longer in production, and are therefore limited in numbers. Like the Jeffries hull, the vanmunster boats are the fastest sabots out there, but are still beng made in Sydney, by Brett Vanmunster, and can be bought new for about $8,000.
In Australia, children may sail two-up up to and including the season they turn twelve (although often they change to one-up during that season, or even earlier) and one-up til they are 16. Unlike in the Optimist, their last season is the one in which they turn 16, not the one in which they turn 15.
