Olympic 49er - Adrenaline Junkies Need Only Apply

MadforSailing took the Olympic Skiff for a jog round the park, and came back breathless

The 49er has come a long way since its launch in 1996. The top 18 Foot Skiff designer, Julian Bethwaite, conceived the boat as a global grand prix racing machine. It was quickly earmarked for Olympic selection, and that status was achieved soon after. In mid-2000 the boat is just weeks away from its first Games appearance. In the natural amphitheatre of Sydney Harbour, everything that Bethwaite dreamed should come to pass.

MadforSailing reviewer Peter Bentley originally looked at the 49er in 1996, when Tim Robinson and Gareth Kelly did the sailing in some pretty fresh conditions. That was before its Olympic selection, and a subsequent series of improvements. Many of the 49er's modifications were forced by the pressure following on from Olympic selection. With the world’s top skiff and dinghy sailors pounding on the boats seven-days-a-week, even the most minor flaws showed up.

The mast has been improved, the metal riveted top section replaced with a glassfibre glued on section. Changes have been made to mouldings and the bow area, with the wings now made in one complete piece instead of two. As a consequence, ISAF has ruled that only 49ers built after March 1999 can be used for the Olympics. That will ensure that all boats are identical. The UK builder, Ovington Boats, told us that these modifications were quite minor and cosmetic, and class racing for all generations of boat remains extremely level. We guess you could regard the differences as being unacceptable at Olympic level, but lesser mortals needn’t worry too much.

The 49er looks as if she has been designed by a deranged powerboat stylist in one of his wackier moods. And those radical looks are easily matched by the performance. There was never any doubt about where this puppy was going to score high MadforSailing marks - the sizzling, snatch-your-breath performance. And it isn’t just downwind - where other skiff-derived boats offer similar pace - the 49er is also fabulous upwind.

But there’s a price for those adrenaline-rush rewards. The 49er provides perhaps the greatest sailing challenge of any production mono-hull dinghy. Both hull shape and weight - extremely light at just 124 kg all up - reflect the fact that performance was the priority. But this makes her twitchy and highly critical of handling errors. Left to her own devices the 49er is much more stable upside down than the right way up - and her Ease of Sailing score reflects that.

We’ve also scored the 49er low on Anticipated Durability. Largely as a result of the number of times the reviewer has walked through Olympic class dinghy parks and seen the 49er sailors still there, boat bimbling, long after everyone else has gone home. There’s no question of the pedigree of the worldwide builders. Perhaps it’s just that these are extreme boats sailed by the world’s top sailors, often in extreme conditions. And they suffer.

The race circuit is two-tiered, as is the case with Olympic classes. There are now 600 worldwide, with the UK builder reporting the sale of 30 new boats in 2000. There is strong 49er racing at Open Meeting level and above - Olympic status has never done much for a boat’s club popularity. But anyone can join the 50 plus boats already on the European Grand Prix circuit. There were over a hundred boats on the start line at this year's World Championship, and 30 at the UK Nationals.

Overall, the 49er came out pretty well. And while no one would deny that the boat is anything but a challenge, there is no reason why two competent dinghy sailors could not quickly master the 49er. In mid-2000 there were plenty of second-hand boats around at good prices - partly due to the pre-March '99 ruling and the high throughput of Olympic boats. Lots of fun, for not a lot of money.

Rants Boat bimblers pleasure dome
Raves The last stop before 18 Foot Skiff performance

Photo by Peter Bentley

The Nitty Gritty

Ease of Sailing

This boat is a bigger handful than Melissa Messenger from the moment she hits the water. Getting her off the beach is like starting a short-board. The helmsman sheets in while the crew grabs the wire from the water, moving swiftly and agilely into a trapezing position - you hope. From there, the transition between displacement sailing and planing is virtually seamless, such is the power to weight ratio. Happier at speed than going slowly, sailing the 49er upwind is pretty straightforward. With an easily handled self-tacking jib, either the crew or helmsman can take the mainsheet. Directional control is extremely positive both at low and high speeds, without the boat ever feeling skittish. Quick decisive changes of direction are very much the order of the day, while still leaving the helmsman very much in charge. Perhaps surprisingly, this upwind performance is achieved with very small foils. Designer Julian Bethwaite has used all his hard-won skiff experience to design a rudder and centreboard that offer low drag and minimal heeling forces, while at the same time offering exceptional performance.

The spinnaker is set from a short pole, tall, narrow and powerful - but for all that, surprisingly easy to trim. Gybing is always a relatively straight-forward task in bowsprit boats. It’s aided on the 49er by the high boom, inverted vang lever and perhaps most importantly, the self-tacking jib. That means the crew’s efforts can be focused totally on the biggest sail. Which is important, because smooth coordination and maintaining the speed is essential to getting the best out of the boat (and staying upright). Few concessions have been made to light airs performance. Once the wind drops to a point where helm and crew are fully in the boat, performance and comfort deteriorate. This is not a major drawback, the boat is so light and so powerful that marginal wiring gets started in five to six knots and by the time the wind speed reaches double figures the boat is fully powered up. And anyway, 49er sailors should be having a cappuccino and a lie-down in less than five knots.

The 49er could not honestly be described as an easy boat to sail, but she is much less of a handful than one might expect - given the exceptional performance. While experience in fast boats would be an advantage, there seems no reason why two competent dinghy sailors from any number of classes could not quickly master her.

Systems and Layout

Julian Bethwaite is probably the world’s leading skiff designer, and he gathered round him an experienced team to put together the 49er. Rigging is an uncomplicated business similar to that on any other simple high performance boat. The glass-topped aluminium mast is an elegant if somewhat crude design which is easily stepped in the boat. There aren’t many control systems, and those that there are attach easily and quickly. Both the jib and mainsail hoist on halyards and there is no need to tip the boat over ashore to attach sails and rigging. If nothing else, the smaller space required will make it more attractive to UK crews than the land-hungry 18s. The jib simply hanks to the forestay while the main - to start with at least, is hoisted in a conventional luff track. Once aloft, one of the more unusual aspects of the 49er comes to light; a wrap-around lower luff section. Using a simple arrangement of zips and Velcro, the lower section of the mainsail (which extends below the boom) totally encloses the mast. Better aerodynamics and a unique appearance are the main benefits.

Simplicity is the key with most systems designed according to what test jockey Tim Robinson calls the ‘Laser mentality’ - simple and functional. But not always as effective or easy to work as the more highly developed systems found on development class boats. The systems are basically just vang, outhaul and cunningham (plus the sheets), all led to the gunwale, they fall easily to hand by bending the knees while trapezing. As is so often the case with Australian boats the really important controls - in this case the vang - have been made as easy to operate as the sheets, while the less important secondary controls are kept out of the way.

We had a couple of gripes during the original test. Getting the pole out and the spinnaker up ought to be simple; a single line controls both functions. For some inexplicable reason we always seemed to end up with a big ball of wet nylon in the mouth of the chute, followed by a few seconds of serious pulling before the spinnaker could be fully hoisted. The rudder fits in a cassette-style stock allowing reduced draft operation in the vicinity of the beach. Highly effective in use - but actually getting the rudder blade fully down did present some problems, eventually requiring the none too subtle application of a foot to resolve. The centreboard fits in a simple case and will, for the most part, be fully down while racing.

A facility to adjust the width of the racks - and thus the available righting moment - does exist, but Bethwaite is adamant that the performance of this kind of boat is to a great extent self regulating. He regards ‘weight equalisation’ as an unnecessary distraction.

Performance

Described by Tim Robinson (who should know) as a ‘real skiff without the hassle’ the 49er offers performance approaching that of an 18-footer at a fraction of the cost. If high performance is the only criteria, the 49er has few competitors. In anything but the lightest winds she is just plain quick. Downwind speeds are nothing short of phenomenal, with the photo boat revving hard to keep up in just 12 knots of breeze. Nor is this just a downwind phenomena, the straight line performance upwind is simply sensational. And while only a handful of the new breed of skiff-type boats offers similar performance downwind, none provides the stunning upwind capabilities of the 49er. Exceptional performance, only stopped short of a full five stars because the skiff is quicker, ‘nuff said.

Build Quality

Some of the world’s finest boat builders number amongst the group of world-wide 49er builders. However, they are building to a one-design construction specification that must also hold down costs. So the quality of the construction doesn’t necessarily match what you’d find in a custom boat from these same builders. The construction is a high-tech epoxy/glass/foam laminate, helping keep down the impressively low overall weight in pursuit of performance. The sail license comes up for renewal at the end of every Olympic cycle, and Neil Pryde takes over from North in September 2000. So it’s difficult to make a judgement at the time of writing on the quality of the sails on new boats. But Pryde are a very reputable firm, and there shouldn’t be any problems.

Anticipated Durability

This is uniquely difficult to judge in the case of the 49er. The reason being that high performance boats must be light, and lightness always compromises durability. In turn, this is a production one design that’s being asked to perform in the most extreme fashion, by some of the world’s best sailors. On the basis that it takes a serious amount of maintenance to keep one performing reliably at top flight level the boat should be marked lower. But we’ve bounced it up a point because we suspect that the same would happen to a lot of other - apparently highly durable boats - if they were ruthlessly abused in the same fashion as is the fate of the 49er.

Quality of Race Circuit

Being able to race the boat all they way up to the Olympics always does wonders for this score. But it would need the solid club level support of the original Laser to get a perfect five. But for an Olympic boat, the 49er has a surprisingly solid level of support at club and open meeting level, with 30 boats at the Nationals. Plenty of racing, and lots of it in glamorous places, can’t be bad if you can afford it.

Value for Money

In terms of fluid ounces of adrenaline for your buck, it doesn’t get much better value than the 49er. With performance approaching that of an 18 foot Skiff, but at a fraction of the cost, this is a good buy. Especially when you consider all those second-hand, ex-Olympic boats around. But beware, some of them have been raced and rallied pretty hard.