Why don't US sailors like metre boat?

[Chris.]

Firstly, I am A Metre Boat Bigot. :D
I have a 22 sq metre, and will likely get another metre boat of some sort this (southern) winter.
But why don't you Nth American guys like a metre boat - a 5.5 m in particular? They have to be the F1's of the water. All the go-fast trickery you can dream of. And they have three classes in racing so the older boats can still compete.
Anyhow, the 5.5 metre worlds are on in Sydney next January and I want to compete. I don't have a 5.5 but would buy one if I could. All those in Australia are already taken best I can find out so far.
To solve this 5.5 m drought in Sydney, I found a neglected 5.5 listed on Yachtworld. Bjarne Aase designed and built, nice history, listed at $3700 but will sell for a lot less. It's at the Palmer Johnson yard at Sturgeon Bay, and belonged to a recently deceased principal of the firm (so I assume it got looked after). Unfortunately, it will cost a multiple of the purchase price to get to Sydney, which makes it both financially and matrimonally risky.
But the broker can't get anyone to take it. Has been advertised for some time now, and sure it needs some work, but what 42 year old boat doesn't? And the work is typical metre boat stuff (floors and frames at the mast step) and not too hard.
The shed owner wants it out and the widow wants it sold, but still no takers.
Is there something about a 5.5 that makes it unattractive in the US? Maybe in Michigan they are more interested in scows...
Anyway, I hope someone buys it before they strip the fittings and put a chainsaw through it.
I'd buy and fix it in a flash if I could justify it. :confused: Maybe I am more of a deviant than my wife says I am.

[Andreas Jordahl Rhude]

There is a small fleet of 5.5's at the M & M Yacht Club in Menominee, Michigan. My brother has a 22 square meter built in Sweden in the 1930s. I believe there are fleets of both types at Belmont Harbor in Chicago.

[Andreas Jordahl Rhude]

Sturgeon Bay is only 20 miles (as the crow flies) from Menominee. I wonder if the broker has contacted the M & M Yacht Club?

[Don Z.]

Good Question. I don't know the answer, but I'll add to it...

There is an 8mR fleet in Rochester and Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario.

I have an 8 on the Chesapeake... I'd like to get more 8s there, so we can actually race together. Really neat would be starting a club with 2.4s, 6s and 8s... but for right now, I'll settle for a few more 8s.

Of course, attempts to get more 8s here would be further along if IEMA would just answer some emails, but I digress.

Seriously, if anyone has any ideas on how to campaign for a "fleet creation", I'm all ears

[rbgarr]

I think the meter classes fell from favor here because they were dropped from Olympic and inter-nation (US vs. Canada) competition. The Soling, then Etchells, then J-24 and Melges keelboats attracted the sailors who might have been meter boat sailors. There is also a group that favors the International One Design. I sail a Shields, which is a 30' sloop based on the 5.5 meter class. I like to sail singlehanded, which almost requires an open cockpit so I can get fore and aft. Many of the older 5.5 meter boats here have separate cockpits for the skipper and crew which is fine for racing but awkward for daysailing or singlehanding.

I also think the meter boats became ugly in their later iterations.

[Noah]

I really like the Meter boats, but for me a 5.5 just isn't the right boat. I came very close to purchasing a 22 SQ boat last spring. It was actually an Udell 22, designed by Reimers. I think there were about 12 of them built, and this one was built out of Fiberglass. In the end the owner couldn't get a clear title for the boat so I purchased a different boat. (A Hinckley actually)

There is one 6-meter boat locally, but other than that there aren't many to race against for me. If I'm looking for a go fast boat, it may very well be a more modern boat. Only so that I can race competitively here in Vermont. This means a J80 (Pigger boat) a Melges 24 (which I currently race on and fast as hell) or something like that.

Anyway, I looked at the ad for the boat in question. To me the scary thing was the fiberglass...it can be a deathblow to a boat if done the wrong way. I can picture pulling the cloth off and finding a totally rotten boat.

Noah

[Wild Wassa]

Originally posted by Chris.:
... "They have to be the F1's of the water."

The International Moth is the F-1 on water. From 'a crew of one' point of view.

I think, 30-35 kts on an 18ft skiff, would qualify.

Warren.

[ 03-04-2004, 02:14 PM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[rbgarr]

See http://www.cppyacht.com for two Gary Mull design 6 meters if interested.

[Chris.]

I am very glad to get so many positive responses from like-minded sailors. And I hope the broker gets some interest before too long.
To respond to a couple of the points that were raised: the glass isn't glass I found out. The hull was coated with an epoxy paint (?). And no worries with a soggy hull, it has been prodded diligently with a small pointy object and no soft patches found.
And I have to agree that Moths and 18 ft skiffs are pretty fast and spectacular, but if you have looked at any modern 18 in the last couple of years it is easy to form an opinion that they are now a one design class. The only major difference is the advertisements on the sail and hull, and the only new thing they have done recently is to use wider wings. Not really a development class at all any more.
The moth definitely is though; those foil-borne versions are really something.
So maybe 5.5s are really F1 class KEELBOATS. tongue.gif OK?. The most modern versions are way out there in interpretation of rules; for example, they are not allowed rotating masts so some have built mast designed to twist. Made of carbon of course, the step is firmly fixed but torsion is applied to the mast to twist the mid to upper sections, especially when on the wind. This is kind of stressful as you would imagine: applied torsion + compression + bending + local shroud and vang loads = a delicate situation. When one of these masts goes there are small pieces of carbon fibre scattered everywhere. :eek:
And that Mull design 6 metrte is very very nice.
See you at the 5.5 worlds in january! ;)

[Dan McCosh]

There are quite a few meter boats sailing on Lake Huron out of the Port Huron Yacht Club, including 22-squares, 30-squares, 6-meter, etc. There also is a double-ended 12-meter under reconstruction, but not actively raced. Toronto sails 8-meters. There is an active fleet of R-boats for those who think a meter class is too avante guarde, sailing out of Cleveland. Main problem today is that everybody wants to plane, rather than knife through the water.

[Ron Williamson]

My brother in law has a 6m that he wants to sell.

Dan
There was a 12m in Sarnia,at Bridgeview,last June.Would that be the same one?An American was working on it,IIRC.
R

[John Gearing]

Square-meter boats (e.g. 22 Sq, 30Sq) have some important differences from Meter boats (6's and 8's) and from R-boats. IIRC WB did a nice story on the square-meters a few years back. In Britain, Uffa Fox became an enthusiastic promoter of square-meters, claiming, IIRC, that they were lighter, cheaper, and faster than the other classes mentioned above. Pretty minimal room down below, as I recall, however, so although Fox cruised his, he must have done so in what today would probably be seen as a rather Spartan manner. One reason they might not be more popular in the US is that they suffer from the "not invented here" syndrome. But that's just supposition on my part.

[ahp]

These days if you are going to sell a 30+ LOA boat it must have two heads, with showers, a wet bar, queen size beds, and a billard room. It is also a selling point if it can sail, but not essential. Some owners don't know how and don't plan to learn.