The Fun 23 is a French trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

, that was designed by Joubert-Nivelt for one design racing and first built in 1982. The design is out of production.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 125.

International Marine S&P Global Inc. (prior to April 2016 McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., and prior to 2013 The McGraw–Hill Companies, Inc.) is an American publicly traded corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. Its primary areas of business are finan ...

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...

, 2010.

Production

The boat was built by Jeanneau in France,

Ranger Yachts Ranger Yachts was an American boat builder founded by Jack Jensen. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of sailboats for the North American market. History The company was formed by Jensen in 1970 to complement his existing ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and Cantiere Nautico Lillia in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Jeanneau built a small number of the design, while Ranger completed about 100 examples.

Design

The Fun 23 was conceived by French sailor Alain Forgeot and became an active one-design class in Europe. The design shares a sailplan with the

Soling The Soling is an open keelboat that holds the World Sailing " International class" status. The class was used from the 1972 Olympics (Kiel) until the 2000 Olympics (Sydney) as " Open Three Person Keelboat". Besides the Olympic career of the So ...

design. The Fun 23 is a small recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, built predominantly of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

. It has a fractional

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

rig, an internally-mounted spade-type

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw a ...

and a swing-up fin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in B ...

. It displaces and carries of iron ballast. The design has a draft of with the keel down and with the keel up. The boat is normally fitted with a small

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method o ...

for docking and maneuvering. The design has sleeping accommodation for four people, with a double

"V"-berth A berth is a bed or sleeping accommodation on vehicles. Space accommodations have contributed to certain common design elements of berths. Beds in boats or ships While beds on large ships are little different from those on shore, the lack ...

in the bow cabin and two straight settee berths in the main cabin. Cabin headroom is . The boat has a PHRF racing average handicap of 180 with a high of 192 and low of 174. It has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of .

Operational history

In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "Ranger Yachts built about 100 Fun 23's ... The French team of Joubert & Nivelt designed her ... Jeanneau in France also built a few, and an Itallian firm, Lillia, also has been a builder. Although the Fun is said to have the same sailplan as a

(a 27-foot one-design racing sailboat), actually the mainsails have same dimensions but the foretriangle on the Fun is much smaller than the Soling’s. There are two rigs, a short rig and a 'regular' rig ... the regular rig has a taller but still less-than-masthead jib ... she is strictly a bare-bones overnighter when it comes to accommodations."

References

{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1980s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Joubert-Nivelt Sailboat types built by Jeanneau Sailboat types built by Ranger Yachts Sailboat types built by Cantiere Nautico Lillia

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References