12m² Sharpie

Current specifications
Class symbol
Crew	2
LOA	5.99 m (19.7 ft)
Beam	1.43 m (4 ft 8 in)
Draft	0.96 m (3 ft 2 in)
Hull weight	230 kg (510 lb)
Mast height	6.80 m (22.3 ft)
Main & jib area	12.7 m2 (137 sq ft)
D-PN	109
RYA PN	1026
Former Olympic class

The 12m² Sharpie was designed in 1931 by the Kroger Brothers. The peak of the class was in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. To this day, the original design has been preserved, and the class is sailed competitively in the UK,^[1] Holland,^[2] Germany,^[3] and Portugal,.^[4] The European Championships are rotated between these four countries every year.

The term 'Twelve Square Metre' evolves from the original sail area, though on modern sharpies due to modern sail designs has now reached to around sixteen square metres.

Past Australian champions to have passed through the ranks include Sir James Hardy, John Cuneo, Rolly Tasker and John Bertrand. Rolly Tasker won Australia's first sailing medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne when he and John Scott won a silver medal in their 12m² Sharpie.

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1956 Melbourne	New Zealand (NZL) Peter Mander Jack Cropp	Australia (AUS) Rolland Tasker John Scott	Great Britain (GBR) Jasper Blackall Terence Smith

The 12m² Sharpie is one of the potential Vintage classes for the 2016 Vintage Yachting Games.

There are still a small number of original sharpies in Australia and Brasil, though they have not been sailed competitively on International level since the 1960s. In Australia, the original 'heavyweight' Sharpie has now evolved into the lightweight Australian Sharpie.

When racing in a mixed fleet, the Sharpie has a Portsmouth number of 1026.^[5]

References

Sailing at the Summer Olympics 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 List of multiple medalists Table of competing nations List of medalists by class List of venues