International 14 in crisis! what crisis?

The rudder-foil debate threatens to get out of hand as the Australians throw down the gauntlet

The latest debate on the expanding use of foils has thrust the International 14 class into the limelight and revealed a considerable gulf in the thinking of class members worldwide.

Not that this is anything new in the long history of development in the class. For a class that has gone from copper fixed, ribbed hulls, through to lightweight carbon shells, with multi appendages and a multitude of rig changes including the infamous trapeze battles - one, none, one, two - this seems to be par for the course. One section beavers away at the next big bang while the other defends the last great leap forward too its death.

Rudder foil development came to a head with the clean-sweep win of Zach Berkowitz and Trevor Baylis at the last Worlds in Bermuda.

This followed Kris Bundy and Jamie Hanseler using a winged rudder to win the previous Worlds down at Beer in the south-west of England - making it foils two.... the rest nil.

Suddenly, from being a minor aberration the foil became the focus of attention and the Internet began to hum with flying emails, with the quantity of traffic doubling and trebling at the height of the argument with threats of bans!

The debate took some twists as the general future of the class as a development class and the way forward, a perennial debate within 14 history, revealed something of a sailing culture clash. Since the great melding of the Australian and International boats in 1996 the class had found a new lease of life and returned to its traditional position as the supreme development dinghy class, taking on the new skiff style one designs and their marketing muscle. The specter was now raised of the class once again losing its way in a frenzy of high-tech, costly developments and rule arguments that would split the fleets and frighten off potential owners.

New i14 Chairman Victor Brellisford was at pains to make clear to madfor sailing that the recent Emergency Proposal, put forward by the Australian fleet, calling for the banning of the foils and its subsequent failure to pass allowing the use of foils to continue, had cleared the air and that the class was now focused on working to produce sensible control of the foils. The Americans are to propose a limit to the chord length for the next ISAF meeting and the mechanism for the foils is to be published on the i14 website, plus the Canadians will produce the necessary parts in bulk to reduce the cost of fitting a foil rudder set-up.

With the great foil debate reaching a resolution the class is now looking to settle other outstanding issues and present a united front. Recent trials with wider racks have been undecided and the Americans are to propose a new rack width rule to force a decision and allay the uncertainty. Also to be proposed is a staged hull weight reduction. Measurers have found that most existing boats are carrying at least 5Kg in correctors and a staged reduction will be allowed, boats will we weighed in sailing mode (less rig) rather than stripped.


Bieker 3 design