Why the Buccaneer 18?

The Buccaneer 18 is the official one design racing dingy of the Alaska Sailing Club (ASC). You can find information regarding the national class association here and you also might want to take a look at the Buccaneer 18 Wikipedia entry.

The ASC put over a year of time and effort into the process of selecting a one-design standard. A lot of people were consulted and many boats were considered. Below is the text of the recommendation that Geoff Wright submitted to the ASC board in September of 2007. This document should give you some insight regarding our selection process and why the ASC finally settled on the Bucc 18.

ASC board members:

As chair of the boats committee I’d like to (finally) make a formal recommendation for the “official” ASC successor to the Skipjack.

The ASC has long been using our current fleet of Skipjacks. These boats serve three core purposes for the club:

  1. They are our teaching boats for the yearly adult sailing class
  2. They are boats for members to use for recreational sailing throughout the year
  3. They serve as our “one-design racing fleet”

I believe that the time has come to start replacing the Skips with an official successor boat.

The Reasons:

#1 - Age

These boats are getting long in the tooth. They were built (I think) in the late 60s and show quite a bit of wear. All have more than a few soft-spots in the hull (Blue #4 is a particular issue since the whole floor is starting to go), all are “creatively rigged” to work around missing or broken equipment, and in general these boats are not far away from retirement age.

I don’t know how much longer these boats will last. We may manage to get five or more years out of them and I think it is in the best interest of the ASC to keep them going as long as they are safe and fun to sail. But I fear that the demands of the class and our expanding membership are going to hasten their inevitable end. Further, since the boats are all of the same vintage, it’s possible that we could loose several in quick succession.

#2 - Cost

Replacing these boats will be expensive. Purchasing a “gently used” equivalent (similar size and sailing characteristics) to the Skipjack will run somewhere between 5k and 10k (depending on the make and age of the boat) minus transportation costs. These are likely to be another 1.5k+ per boat. (And it could be worse if we have to bring in these boats one-by-one.)

The ASC will be hard-pressed to fund adding more than one boat every other year year to the fleet, and unless we grow our membership even this may be a stretch. Because of this I think the ASC needs to start planning and saving NOW.

#3 - Racing

Part of the mission of the ASC is to promote one-design racing. The Skip is a “dead boat”. New Skips haven’t been made for decades, and there is no real used market. So as stands that no way for ASC member to purchase our official one-design class.

The Recommendation:

I’ve spent most of last winter researching the question of what boat to recommend as an official replacement for the Skipjack. In process I’ve asked for input from many ASC members, done research online, and spoken to many of my racing friends from Back East.

This exercise quickly led me to the conclusion that I needed concrete criteria by which to review possible candidates. Here’s what I came up with in order of priority:

The official successor to the Skipjack needs to be:

  1. A good boat for novice sailing. This is important in order for the yearly class to be a success. It’s also probably important from a member-retenstion standpoint. If new members feel frustrated with or frightened of the club boats they’ll less likely to stick around.
  2. Sturdy and long-lasting. It’s expensive to bring a boat to Alaska, so we need something that will last for a long time once we get it up here. Further, a boat that needs a great deal of repair work and upkeep will be a drain on the club in terms of both money and volunteer time.
  3. Very popular and established. This is critical for a number of reasons. First, a popular boat will have a strong used market and this will allow both members and the ASC to purchase boats at a reasonable price. Second, it makes finding replacement parts and equipment much easier. Third, it means that we’ll have a large community of sailors to turn for advise regarding repairs, tuning, etc.
  4. A fun boat to sail in the prevailing conditions at Big Lake. The wind at the lake is usually fairly light, and a boat the performs poorly in these conditions is going to be no fun to sail or race most of the time. At the same time, the water at the lake is fairly cold for most of the year, so we need a boat that isn’t going to capsize on a regular basis.
  5. A good boat for sailors of all ages. There is a substantial age range at the ASC. We need to boat that is, to the greatest degree possible, fun for both older and younger sailors. This means that the boat needs to be interesting from a performance standpoint but at the same time shouldn’t require unusual strength or agility to sail in normal conditions
  6. A boat with a solid racing scene. If we’re going to truly promote one-design racing, then we need a class that will allows interested ASC member to compete nationally should they so desire.

I reviewed quite a few boats against this criteria. The following list is top five contenders in order from least workable to the best:

  1. Laser. Lasers are great boats. They don’t cost very much, they are great for teaching (especially for teens), they are amazingly popular, are fun to sail and they have one of the best racing scenes out there. They are also easy to transport and reasonably priced. However, the have two fairly critical flaws when judged against the above ASC criteria. First, they require a fair amount of agility and strength to sail successfully. This means that older and less athletic sailors will have a hard time with them. Secondly, they capsize very easily. This means that it’s inevitable that people sailing Lasers are going to spend some time in the water. Novice sailors will probably end up spending a lot of time in the water. And I think that this means that a Laser would be a pretty discouraging boat to sail for the “average” ASC new member.
  2. Wayfarer 16. The Wayfarer is similar to the Skipjack in terms of size and weight. It’s reputed to be an excellent boat for beginners and is extremely stable. They are famous for being bulletproof, and many older Wayfarers from the 50s and 60s are still actively sailing and racing. Wayfarers are very popular in England, Scandinavia and to a lesser extent in Canada. They don’t carry a lot of sail relative to their size and weight. This is a plus from a stability standpoint, but hurts them in terms of light-air performance. Do to their stability, Wayfarers are sailed and raced by sailors well into their 70s. The racing scene is pretty solid but most of the competition is in Europe. I think the Wayfarer would be a solid boat for the ASC except for two issues. First, their light-air performance is fairly lackluster and second, most of the available used boats are in England.
  3. Rebel 16. The Rebel is another “Skip-like” boat. It’s well-known to be friendly for beginners. The Rebel was the first one-design fiberglass boat build and is still actively raced today. The boats are extremely sturdy and are easily available used. They are fairly stable and better from a light-air standpoint than a Wayfarer. Because of their stability they are often raced by older sailors and are popular for teaching as well. They have a solid racing scene in the US. Rebels have an unusually spacious cockpit so they can be sailed by three or even four people. A big downside for the Rebel (at least from a racing / advanced sailing standpoint) is that they do not have a spinnaker.
  4. Flying Scot. The Flying Scott is “one size up” from the Skipjack. It’s 19 feet long and weighs about 800 pounds. They are very stable and comfortable to sail — they are very, very difficult to capsize. Scots are popular for instruction, day sailing and racing. On the Chesapeake Scots were very popular racing boats favored by those who preferred tactical racing (where sail trim and position on the course where more critical then crew weight and extreme boat handling) and older sailors who had retired from more aggressive classes like International 14s and 505s. They are extremely sturdy and have a very rich used market. They have a large cockpit that makes them a comfortable day sailor for up to four people. They are decent all-around performers, but because of their weight they aren’t at their best in light air. (Although they were very popular on the Chesapeake Bay, and conditions there were similar to Big Lake.) The biggest downside to Scots is that they hold their value very well, so used boats can be spendy. The Scot has been included in the American Sailing Hall of Fame with only 13 other boats.
  5. Buccaneer 18. The Bucc is similar to a Scott from an overall dimensions standpoint, but weighs about 300 pounds less and carries slightly less sail. The Bucc is like the Scot in may respects but is a little more tender and faster — especially in light air. Buccs are actively sailed and raced, and have experiencing a lot of growth as a class in the last five years. They are a sturdy boat — hulls built in the 70s are being competed successfully in the nationals. Buccs are a very popular boat, especially on the great lakes. There have been just over 5000 boats built (about the same as the Scot). Like the Scot, they are popular as a family day sailor and gunkholer because of a roomy, comfortable cockpit and general stability. The Bucc has a good reputation as a light-air boat and can plane in as little as eight knots of wind.

In final analysis I think the Rebel, Scott and Bucc would all make a viable replacement for the Skip. The Bucc is my favorite choice for a number of reasons:

  • Used boats are reasonably priced.
  • They are comfortable family sailing boat.
  • The are known to be good light-wind performers.
  • The class is experiencing a renaissance and is growing very rapidly.
  • They are easy to sail for beginners and offer growth potential for experienced sailors.

The Scot is a very close second choice. They are great boats, but relative to the Bucc they are more expensive and a little bit less exciting to sail. Of course their extreme stability is a plus from a teaching standpoint.

The Rebel would make a very practical choice as well. Unlike most 16 foot dinghies they can comfortably accommodate more than two people. I think the lack of a spinnaker would be a disappointment from a racing and performance sailing standpoint, but not so much so that it should take them out of the running.

The fact that all of these boats can comfortable accommodate up to four people should help us get more out of our club boats — it means that a that we can get a more sailors on the water with the same number of boats. This is a big advantage over the Skipjack.

The Conclusion:

I’m hoping that the board will take two actions in light of these recommendations:

First, it should bless a successor boat to the Skip. This would allow those of us interested in purchasing boats for one-design racing to do so with assurance that we’ll have competition in the future.

Second, the board should consider a plan for bringing in boats to replace the Skips. This means that we’ll need to think about a schedule of replacement and how to support this from a budget standpoint.

I’m available for questions at any point regarding these recommendations, and thank you very much for your time and consideration.

–Geoffrey L. Wright, September 2007