Una belleza... International 8-meter class - Defender

[Xinanhook]

The hull and keel calculations were an exercise in detective work; there was a small note on the lines plan that said, "Yacht reduced in loft by scale 0.9941"; a typical Fife tweak which resulted in some head scratching, especially deciphering which of the long-hand calculations of Fife from his original notebook applied to the pre- or post-tweak hull. Eventually it was straightened out; and armed with all that, and knowledge of Saskia and several other Fife 8s, we finally felt equipped to build an accurate replica.

One area that was always going to be different was the rig. Here the owner's wish was to respect the 8-M rules, but accommodate the possibility of short-handed day sailing, and also handicap racing in a mixed fleet on the notoriously light-winded Oyster Bay. We also had to parse that she had a reputation for firm weather helm in period, which made her the subject of several re-rigs (including one drawn in 1933 by the Starling Burgess & Boyd Donaldson partnership), and really came into her own after Cuthbertson's mods in the 1950s. The result is a rule-optimized Sitka spruce mast with rod-rigging, maximum hoist and foretriangle height, but set with aft-swept spreaders. That means the runners can be ignored much of the time except for adding a bit more headstay tension, or to stabilize the mast in a chop or higher winds.

With the furling headsail, cut deliberately higher at the clew than a typical 8-M full overlap genoa for visibility, she is proving easy (by 8-M standards). North Sails did their usual high-quality work, especially Hugh Beaton of the Toronto loft, who has a lot of experience with the class; and Rockport Marine executed a superb mast & rig package, including all the custom stainless hardware.

The masthead option for a Code Zero or asymmetric helps her out on the ultra-light days, and can be removed if she has to race under the 8-M rules. She hasn't been measured yet, but she was pretty well on her lines and we are optimistic that she would do so. The mast is positioned as originally, rather than shifting it aft (as many have done), so "J" is modest compared to some of the tweaked 8s out there, but we did push the forestay forwards as far as we could, allowing for the Bartel's furler under deck. In other words, reverting to a totally authentic rig as Fife drew it is perfectly possible, but in the meantime, we have a nicely balanced rig which meets the design criteria.

Continúa... *_*