Cowes Port Handbook 2014-2015 April 2014 | Page 80

COWES PORT HANDBOOK 2014 - 2015

Flying Fifteens

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ff

The Flying Fifteen came
off the drawing board
of legendary designer
and well-known Cowes
sailing personality Uffa Fox in 1947.
Flying Fifteens are an exciting
two person racing keelboat with
the characteristics of a dinghy.
The boat planes (you get wet),
it’s exhilarating, small enough
to trail to open meetings, there
is competitive fleet sailing, it
involves a great bunch of people
young and old, and you have fun
on the water and ashore.

Rick Tomlinson

With over 4,000 Flying Fifteens built to date (a large proportion of these
are still sailing somewhere in the world) you are buying into what really
is the most popular small keelboat in the world. Flying Fifteens have long
been associated with the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club, from which the
Solent fleet is generally dry sailed. www.flying15.org.uk Class contact
in Cowes, Andrew Millband.

Sonars

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Designed by Bruce
Kirby, of Laser dinghy
fame, the Sonar
combines sparkling
performance as well
as high-level one-design
competition with comfort
and safety suitable for
family and friends. This is
Rick Tomlinson
a keelboat that thinks it’s
a dinghy when it comes to performance while offering the security and
flexibility of a larger boat.
Sonars are crew-friendly, and can be raced competitively with three
to five crew in all conditions. The Sonar has become the one design
keelboat of choice for a growing list of sailing clubs worldwide; locally,
the Island Sailing Club has a fleet of nine Sonars for hire.
The Sonar was adopted as a Paralympic class of yacht, partly because
of the excellent cockpit layout, and Cowes sailor Andy Cassell won gold
in a Sonar at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Sonars are built here on the
Isle of Wight. www.sonar.org Cowes Fleet Captain and Class builder,
Duncan Bates.
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