Y flyer

Y Flyer
Class symbol
Development
Designer Alvin Youngquist
Location Toledo Ohio USA
Year 1938
Boat
Crew 2
Draft 1.219 m (4 ft 0 in)
Trapeze None
Hull
Type Monohull
Construction Wood; Fiberglass
Hull weight 226.7 kg (500 lb)
LOA 5.486 m (18 ft 0 in)
Beam 1.767 m (5 ft 9.6 in)
Hull appendages
Keel/board type 4 feet - retractable rear-swing centerboard
Rig
Rig type Marconi
Sails
Spinnaker area 51.15 m2 (550.6 sq ft)
Upwind sail area 14.9 m2 (160 sq ft)
Racing
PHRF 86.5 Portsmouth

The Y Flyer is an 18-foot (5.5m) sloop-rigged racing dinghy designed to be sailed by 2 people. Although the boat looks and performs like a scow, the bottom of the hull is not quite flat, but split along the centerline into two flat chines. Y-flyers are built of either wood or fiberglass. The Y Flyer was designed in 1938 by Alvin Youngquist, a Naval Architect working in Toledo Ohio, who wished to build a two-person performance dinghy as a training boat for the larger A-Scow. He published the design in Rudder magazine with instructions for how to build it at home using marine plywood. Many Y Flyers are built by their owners following the class rules and design which remain little changed since 1938. Several commercial boat builders have also built Y-Flyers, including Turner Marine, who are the only builder commercially offering the design today.

The Y Flyer is an active one-design class with fleets, sailing clubs and regattas primarily in the US Southeast, US Upper Midwest and Eastern Canada. The class is designated by a "Y" on the mainsail. Approximately 3000 Y-Flyers have been registered to the class associations.

The Y Flyer class requires boats to weigh at least 500 pounds fully rigged, without crew or sails, and to carry class-approved upwind sails measuring 161 sq ft (14.9 m2). The Canadian Y-Flyer class allows for a spinnaker to be used downwind. The American Y-Flyer class rules forbid the use of spinnakers. When racing against non-class sailboats, the Y-Flyer uses a Portsmouth Yardstick rating of 86.5. The boat sailing characteristics are similar to other fast planing performance boats, but the Y Flyer is notable for having a bluntly squared-off fore-deck and using a whisker pole nearly half the length of the boat when setting the jib for running downwind.

The American Y-Flyer class has 19 active one-design fleets and supports a travelling regatta series including Midwinter Races and multi-regatta Mid-Western Cup and Helmsman Cup Awards. The class is noted for maintaining rules which minimize the advantages of high-tech, high-cost features. This focus allows sailors with a modest budget to remain highly competitive. Each year many older boats, with low sail numbers, place well in races at the club and regatta level.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.