Glass Boats

[lisalamaro5270]

Can someone tell me what number the first registered glass boat was??
My boat is a smackwater boat with a number of 1086 built in 85
thanks

[lamarstrehlow74]

Hi Ronnie
We have a glass club boat in Tassie with ply deck with sail no 999 that was built in SA.

Cheers
matt
1697
Zahir

[Meryl Todd]

I suggest you look at the topic ‘The history of fibreglass Sabres’ from March 06.

Kim Snowball of SA built some all fibreglass boats in 1981, my Wife’s is 982. I believe they created controversy at the time. The Victorians being naturally conservative declared them illegal, but SA disagreed and allowed them to race. Some years later all fibreglass dinghies were allowed nationally when Smackwater produced a middle of tolerances batch. The earlier fibreglass boats were heavier than ply, so a few composite boats were built. Later the production was better due to improved glass, resin and foam, and experience on where you could go light on the resin. The real advantage of ply is you can easily tweak the design of a one off version depending on your own ideas on optimal shape.

Many of the so called ‘one designs’ have wide tolerances to allow for errors in home construction, so you could play with rocker and sections for different sailing conditions building to the extreme tolerances. For a while the trend was skinny flat boats. I designed some five national winners in different one design classes! The Sabre is in the wide tolerance category, and most top skippers have their own idea which set of compromises [ for the technically minded ‘within the design envelope’] is the fastest depending on their weight and wind/wave conditions expected. Hence still a preference for ply boats by top skippers.

[Author]

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