New Aussie dinghy a Topper replacement?

The X3 Fun dinghy was designed by Whitbread sailor Jim Close after ISAF chief, Paul Henderson, had said he wanted to see a boat produced for youth, at low cost and durable, suitable for an eight year old or a couple of teenagers.

Jim thought that existing designs had become too expensive and required to be updated, so he set to work to design a replacement, and what a little rocket he has come up with.

The criteria included being cheap, rugged, quick to rig and sailed by a seven year old and up to 120kg with two kids and an adult single-handed.

The resulting little flyer is produced in roto moulded polyethylene over a foam core; 12mm foam and 3mm skin.

The hull is 3.1m long and has a maximum beam of 1.5m and weighs in at 55kg. This makes it a little shorter than a similarly constructed Topper but wider and weighing 12kg heavier.

Two rigs are available the Education with mast height 4m, a mainsail of 4sqm and a gennaker of 4.5sqm. A larger Fun rig with mast height 5m, mainsail of 5.8sqm and a gennaker of 8.2sqm is also available. The Fun rig main is slightly bigger than a Topper, which does not have the gennaker option.

The hull has a very clean, simple self-draining cockpit with a pivoting centreboard and rudder, both injection moulded.

The free standing mast is an aluminium extrusion with reinforcing internal cross-section and incorporates an internal sail track.

On the gennaker equipped versions the one-line system pulls out the gennaker out of the sock, which doubles as the port toestrap. The mainsail is fully battened and sail controls a re a simple transom rope horse led to a centre take-off, with boom jamber, skiff style.

The X3 is available in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA and sells fro A$2420 for the basic version in Australia.

To find out more check the web site at http://www.sailextreme.com/dingfrme.html