The Skate is a high performance two-person racing
dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...
unique to
Australia. Designed as a
monohull
right
A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another.
Fundamental concept
Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unstabl ...
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 ...
it's fourteen feet long (4.27m) with a 7.2m mast, 1.8m bow pole and
masthead
Masthead may refer to:
* Nameplate (publishing), the banner name on the front page of a newspaper or periodical (UK "masthead")
* Masthead (American publishing), details of the owners, publisher, departments, officers, contributors and address d ...
asymmetrical spinnaker An asymmetrical spinnaker is a sail used when sailing downwind. Also known as an "asym", "aspin", or "A-sail" it can be described as a cross between a genoa jib and a spinnaker. It is asymmetric like a genoa, but, the asymmetrical spinnaker is not ...
. It is an Australian national class.
Because of its small size and lightness it keeps the sailor close to the elements and at the edge of control when
navigating water and wind. It makes for wild rides and a relative exhilarating experience of speed at 15 to 25
knots
A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines.
Knot may also refer to:
Places
* Knot, Nancowry, a village in India
Archaeology
* Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life.
* Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot
Arts, entertainmen ...
. Most Skates have a 10-foot-long hiking
plank
Plank may refer to:
*Plank (wood), flat, elongated, and rectangular timber with parallel faces
* Plank (exercise), an isometric exercise for the abdominal muscles
*Martins Creek (Kentucky), the location of Plank post office
* ''The Plank'' (1967 fi ...
for the crew and an 8-foot plank for the
skipper. Planks are slid across the
hull from one side to the other when
tacking and
gybing. Other
hiking
Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A His ...
configurations include short wings with two
trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...
s, longer wings with one trapeze, or
trampolines. Many Skates now feature winged
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 ...
s to provide increased speed and stability in choppy conditions.
One of the top ranked websites quote: "Those who have sailed a Skate will testify that, they provide the most exciting and best sensation of speed of any monohull sailing boat. Even after graduating to other larger
boats
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on i ...
, people hold the Skate in high esteem. They remember it for providing the best ride they ever had on a sailing boat."
History
The Skate sailing dinghy was designed in 1956. It is a two-man dinghy and was the original performance development class, with the sail plan created by J. Herrick and the hull by Vince Minter.
Australian 14' Skate
/ref> Vince's idea was to design a boat that was easy to build, cost effective and would keep the older and bigger sailors of the day who were mainly sailing VJ's to stay on the water. And that was exactly the Skate did in those days. It offered high performance at an affordable price. Today Skates are regularly updated and take advantage of technological advances to maintain the "excitement" factor and original spirit. Skates are currently sailed in three states of NSW, WA and SA. Although boats still exist in Victoria, they are not sailed regularly and are older boats. Good class racing takes place at a number of clubs during the summer months.
The VJ and VS associations were not interested in adopting the Skate as a class, so the Skate association was formed in 1957 and 1958. The Skate itself was actually launched in 1956 and 14 races were held over the season with 14 wins against all comers from Lake Macquarie to Lake Illawarra. 1957/1958 saw three clubs sailing Skates. The first title was won by Ray Young at Georges River Sailing Club and the winning boat was the original Skate. The Skate class became more popular and boomed over the next couple of years culminated in the Australian titles being held at Nedlands Club in WA.
Skate sailing continues to be enjoyed by Australian sailors. The 2014, 57th Nationals were held at Port Dalrymple
George Town (Palawa_kani: ''kinimathatakinta'') is a large town in north-east Tasmania, on the eastern bank of the mouth of the Tamar River. The Australian Bureau of Statistics records the George Town Municipal Area had a population of 6,764 as ...
in Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
. David Luck and Anthony Sinton were the winning team. It was the ninth win for David Luck setting a new record for the most Skate National Championships won by an individual.
Design Development
The hull was redesigned and widened in 1971 by Doug Jefkins and the measurement tolerances were tightened, and the size of the mainsail and spinnaker were increased in 1983-84 season.
The first fibreglass
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 clot ...
hulls appeared in 1971, with foam
Foams are materials formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid.
A bath sponge and the head on a glass of beer are examples of foams. In most foams, the volume of gas is large, with thin films of liquid or solid separating the ...
sandwich hulls being produced from 1979.
During the 1990s the rig was lengthened and the sail plan modified to improve the aspect ratio.
The class further evolved in 2000 with thoughts of using an asymmetrical
Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pr ...
spinnaker mounted from a bow pole. Skates are now configured with the taller rig and bow pole (either carbon fibre
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English
The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited fro ...
or aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...
, extendable or fixed depending on personal preference).
These changes have made the Skate easier to sail, and crew weight is now less critical, as evidenced by the number of younger sailors competing at a high level in the fleet.
Also involved in building the original Skate were: Boat - Vince Minter Sails - Jack Herrick Spars - Ray Keating Skating Insignia - Bill Denman Naval Architect - Don Dixon
Australian National Class Championships
In 1965 Chelsea Yacht Club adopts the "Skate" class yacht. It went on and became a strong and successful class, with Kim Clarke winning 2 Australian titles, John Manfield winning 2 Australian titles.[Chelsea Yacht Club, Victori]
"history"
/ref>
The 57th Skate Nationals were held in 2014 at Port Dalrymple in Tasmania. David Luck and Anthony Sinton were the winning team. It was the ninth win for Dave - setting a record for the most Skate National Championships won by an individual, and the second for Anthony.[Skate Sailing Australi]
"News 2014"
/ref>
References
External links
*http://www.skate.asn.au/home
*http://skatesailing.tripod.com/history.html
*http://www.sail-news.com.au/2014/01/03/skate-nationals-tough-racing-on-day-four/
*http://www.chelseayachtclub.com.au/history.html
*http://www.skatesailingaustralia.org/
Dinghies