59er sailboat

• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

Ovi’s new 59er

• March 3, 2002

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend.

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend. This two-man sitting out boat was certainly drawing the crowds and if any of the other Ovington boats any thing to go by, this new design has every chance of success.

According to Ovington’s Dave Hall, Frank Bethwaite has taken the Tasar just one step further: ‘It’s a boat which will perform and give asymmetric apparent wind sailing using the shift techniques – balance, and steerage – without having to be an athlete.’

To ensure the boat can be sailed equally by similar weight crews there’s a minimum crew weight of 150kg. So if you’re too light, you simply need to add some lead kilos to get up to weight. ‘It’s a penalisation system,’ says Hall, ‘to stop the lightweights winning all the time. They’re welcome to sail but they’ll have to top up their weight.’

Although the layout and rig is virtually the same as the 29er and 49er, the hull is quite different. To take the increased crew weight, there’s more volumn and the chine is further aft.

The moulds for this new boat are now complete and Ovington will be starting to build for a May delivery. And the price? ‘7,200 ready to race.

For more details, contact Ovington Boats at [email protected]

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Ovi’s new 59er

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend.

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend. This two-man sitting out boat was certainly drawing the crowds and if any of the other Ovington boats any thing to go by, this new design has every chance of success.

According to Ovington’s Dave Hall, Frank Bethwaite has taken the Tasar just one step further: ‘It’s a boat which will perform and give asymmetric apparent wind sailing using the shift techniques – balance, and steerage – without having to be an athlete.’

To ensure the boat can be sailed equally by similar weight crews there’s a minimum crew weight of 150kg. So if you’re too light, you simply need to add some lead kilos to get up to weight. ‘It’s a penalisation system,’ says Hall, ‘to stop the lightweights winning all the time. They’re welcome to sail but they’ll have to top up their weight.’

Although the layout and rig is virtually the same as the 29er and 49er, the hull is quite different. To take the increased crew weight, there’s more volumn and the chine is further aft.

The moulds for this new boat are now complete and Ovington will be starting to build for a May delivery. And the price? £7,200 ready to race.

For more details, contact Ovington Boats at [email protected]

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GIRLS THAT FLY - OLYMPIC 49ERFX RACING

Technical overview.

Over four Olympic cycles (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012) where you can view the results  here . The 49er evolved into a finely tuned boat that is nicely balanced in all conditions with a rig that is able to be adjusted for best performance in each windspeed and sea state.

The FX has the benefit of this evolution as well as new developments in skiff rig design to achieve a great set up very quickly.

Starting with the 49er hull, wings, and foils, the goal was all about designing a rig that would go straight into the existing 49er boats and provide the correct amount of power for the lighter crew target weight specified by World Sailing.

Using the North Sails suite of analysis software, John Clinton optimised the new sailplan using the Flow program. Clinton also designed the current carbon 49er rig and 18ft skiff rigs that have won a number of the recent World Championships.

The sailplan was designed to produce the correct amount of power for a 120kg crew so that they would be fully powered up at a similar windspeed as the men in the 49er, and start depowering at a the same windspeed.

The size of the main and jib were adjusted to get the correct fore/aft aerodynamic centre of effort to retain the same balance as the 49er.

A more efficient main was introduced with a wider head as a result of recent 18ft skiff and America’s Cup technology. To make this head work a stiffer mast is required. This was achieved by raising the hounds- again like the top 18ft skiff teams-and adding a little carbon to the middle section of the mast to ensure the mid leech stays under control throughout the wind range.

The main was designed with only 5 battens to reduce the rig weight while using rugged purpose designed skiff cloth to ensure the sails last well.

Since the 49er was first introduced, gennaker designs have evolved to become flatter for high speed skiffs and multihulls. The new FX gennaker was based on recent top skiff designs to produce a very efficient sail that allows the smaller rigged FX to compete equally with the 49er downwind in most conditions.

Upwind the new FX sailplan is also able to compete with the 49er in many conditions with the rig settings being adjusted through the range in the same fashion to the 49er to get optimum performance in all wind strengths.

The shorter, lower aspect ratio sailplan has lowered the centre of effort making the boat easier to sail- and easier to right from a capsize while enhancing the overall performance of the boat!

Specifications:

If you want to follow along with all the action from the worlds best 49erFX sailors, sign up to keep in touch!

Advantages of the FX

A proven platform.

The 49er was a quantum leap in terms of high performance Olympic sailing. It still leads the field. It’s a boat that captures the essence of true Olympic athleticism, based on a strict and well proven one design concept. The FX rig is perfectly suited to the 49er hull. The performance is outstanding.

Reliable equipment

The hulls, wings and foils are made by established Olympic Class boat builders – Ovington Boats, McConaghy Boats and MacKay Boats. All well experienced in the manufacture of strict one design boats. Southern Spars manufacture the FX masts in a facility with tight management and control procedures that ensure rigs are built within tight tolerances. The 49er mast is also made at Southern Spars and has been accepted by the class as being of a highly uniform performance and quality. North Sails manufacture the sails and have a solid reputation across many classes for producing quality strict one design sails.

Lower campaign costs

The opportunity to share equipment, coaching, transport and regatta costs between the men and women skiff teams will reduce campaign costs. It is easy to run joint training and racing with both the 49er and 49erFX. There is very little difference in performance between the 2 boats. The FX will have popular support from weekend warrior and youth sailors who find the 49er too much of a handful. FX fleets will be large. Quality racing will be found closer to home.

True High Performance

The FX is a true high performance skiff. It demands athleticism, balance, skill and daring. The FX is a skiff that will show to the world how spectacular our sport is and what amazing athletes our women sailors are. Our top women sailors want a skiff that is thrilling in 10 knots and still racing in 25 knots. This is the FX. Media and spectators already love the 49erFX. The women’s skiff event in the 49erFX has the potential to be one of the glamour events of the entire Olympics.

Mackay Boats developed the new FX rig for the 49er. After 9 months of testing by the Mackay team the boat was taken to Santander (ESP) and trialed againt 5 other boats by the ISAF evaluation committee.

The boat was finally selected at the ISAF mid-year conderence in early May and will be used for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.  Further refinements were made over many hours of 2 boats testing.

Details have been fine tuned things like jib battens, sail corner reinforcement, jib sheeting angles and establishing base rig settings in a range of conditions. The results from this have been included in the sails which are made by North Sails in Sri Lanka.

The sails are built from the same cloth as the 49er. Gennakers are being offered in Black, Dark Blue, Red, White, Pink and Light blue

Sailing versus the 49er

A key feature is how much the 49erFX rig depowers. It’s very cool to watch it in action in 20-25 knots! You can see this in action on our heavy air  YouTube clip .

Another big positive is the downwind performance.  In the 49er you get to the point where you bear away so much that the spinnaker begins to collapse from the back. This does not happen in the FX. The spinnaker is much flatter and flies further off the boat. The girls at 125kg can push it hard in 25 knots and were slightly faster than the guys. The dynamics of the rig are such that the bow lifts a lot more than the 49er and it’s much harder to nosedive. They can send it through the waves with much more confidence. The guys commented that the FX is much easier to bear away than the 49er.

The FX class rules stipulate that the hull, wings, foils, boom and pole must be 49er class parts.

The jib sheet is allowed an extra purchase, and the gennaker sheet is allowed an extra block to increase the efficiency of the ratchet block.

The new carbon FX mast is made by Southern Spars in Sri Lanka.

The top and bottom tubes are about 450mm shorter than the 49er mast tubes.

The spreaders are the same as the 49er and can be used on either boat.

All of the mast fittings are the same on the 49er and FX, so spare parts can be used for either boat.

The Sails are made by North Sails in Sri Lanka.

North Sails  and  Southern Spars  are in the same industrial zone near Colombo and both share the same logistics team. This means that the mast and sails can be shipped together to save costs.

Join the Elite Community of 49er Sailors and Fans

We are passionate about sailing and the 49er class, and we are committed to promoting and growing the sport of sailing around the world. Join us today and be a part of the 49er sailing community!.

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• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

Ovi’s new 59er

• March 3, 2002

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend.

The new Frank Bethwaite-designed Ovington 59er is making its debut at the Sailboat and Windsurf Show this weekend. This two-man sitting out boat was certainly drawing the crowds and if any of the other Ovington boats any thing to go by, this new design has every chance of success.

According to Ovington’s Dave Hall, Frank Bethwaite has taken the Tasar just one step further: ‘It’s a boat which will perform and give asymmetric apparent wind sailing using the shift techniques – balance, and steerage – without having to be an athlete.’

To ensure the boat can be sailed equally by similar weight crews there’s a minimum crew weight of 150kg. So if you’re too light, you simply need to add some lead kilos to get up to weight. ‘It’s a penalisation system,’ says Hall, ‘to stop the lightweights winning all the time. They’re welcome to sail but they’ll have to top up their weight.’

Although the layout and rig is virtually the same as the 29er and 49er, the hull is quite different. To take the increased crew weight, there’s more volumn and the chine is further aft.

The moulds for this new boat are now complete and Ovington will be starting to build for a May delivery. And the price? ‘7,200 ready to race.

For more details, contact Ovington Boats at [email protected]

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• Sailboat Guide

29ER is a 14 ′ 7 ″ / 4.5 m monohull sailboat designed by Bethwaite Design and built by Ovington Boats Ltd., MacKay Boats Ltd., Performance Sailcraft, Xtreme Sailing Products, and Nautivela starting in 2001.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Length including bowsprit: 20.8’/6.15m Spinnaker area: 205sq ft/19m2

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