Dear Sir

It was with regret that I found the April issue of Sea Spray reporting the formation of yet another so-called "class" of small boats in this country. I would have thought that the battle of the freaks now taking place amongst the 18-footers would have been sufficient as a warning and an example of what can happen when class rules are so loosely drawn up.

The rules of the Leander R Class can only produce one result: a group of boats where money or professional facilities will always triumph over skill at the tiller or ingenuity in construction. For one thing there is no price restriction, so I am presumably at liberty to import plans or possibly a finished hull from overseas at tremendous cost, and, assuming I had even average merit as a skipper, I could render obsolete all the other craft in the class. This is but one glaring error in the construction of the rules and is by no means confined to this class alone.

The statement in your article that "spinnakers can be used off the wind and reaching" intrigues me. As the only other practical use for a spinnaker is tent making, I presume this rule is intended to prevent R Class owners from camping out at weekend? The claim that the best of this class will outsail any other small boat class in New Zealand , when analysed, means precisely nothing, and is only fit to precede the next few lines of the article. There I presume were intended to convey a description of a typical boat of the class, but which in fact read like a typical flamboyant American car advertisement. Who ever heard of dinghies with "finger tip steering?" Surely a reference to the lack of weather helm would have been more nautical. As for the claim of "18 miles per hour," boats rate their speed in knots.

Dinghies, like other boats, are controlled as far as their speed through the water is concerned by a physical law hinged upon their wetted length. This would restrict normal sailing speeds to approximately 4 to 5 knots through the water, with no allowance for tide or current. Only at moments when the hull is truly planing does the law of the wetted length cease to apply. Even then I doubt that speeds of 16 knots are possible to sustain in a hull of these dimensions for any reasonable period of time. At this stage I would like to add a brief warning to intending skippers of this new class. In such open company you must be prepared to find you new boat rendered obsolete at least every season, and progressively to spend more on gadgets and finishes. You might also first find a market for the obsolete hulls which you will have to dispose of each year, as an alternative to trailing in at the rear of the fortunate few.

All that I have written so far may leave you with the impression that I am a hide-bound conservative. Far from it, I am all for progress and as a matter of fact I consider our National classes a deplorable bunch of butter boxes. Most of the fault in their design and development can be traced to loosely constructed rules and restrictions, which hamper general progress but at the same time permit money to substitute for skill.

In my opinion it it high time that we followed the practice of the YRA in the home country. This controlling body insists on a near perfect set of rules and restrictions for each national class. Even when accepted, the rules are regularly amended on the light of experience. The dinghies that have resulted from this practice are boat for boat so far in advance of our local classes that comparison is ridiculous. The National 12, International 14, Yachting World Cadet, and the combined Merlin-Rocket Class, are only a few examples of developments within well constructed regulations. The few International 14's so far racing in Auckland have made our local T's, X's etc. look like punts. The National 12's have now appeared in increasing numbers and at present three of them are making a weekly procession of the Pennant Class races. As the Rockets and Merlins are reputedly faster than the International 14's, the first yachtsman to enter one of these in the T Class would have every chance of outsailing any boat present in that class.

In conclusion I would like to protest against the present state of affairs where loose regulations are involving owners in thousands of pounds worth of loss each season, in terms of boats that are useless for racing against the latest "rule-cheaters," and have to be sold as knockabouts for a small percentage of their original cost. If we are not careful, yachting will become a rich man's hobby and New Zealand will lose a great national asset - the large following that this healthy sport enjoys.

ONLOOKER

Does anyone support Onlookers views? Will anyone take him to task and present another view-point? Is Onlooker a Hobie sailer???