LENGTH: 14 FT. WEIGHT: 225 LBS. MEASURED SAIL AREA: 125 SQ. FT.

It is difficult to beat the International 14-Foot Dinghy for spirited sailing and racing in either sheltered waters or those exposed to the open sea. A planing boat carrying a variety of sail, it moves fast in the lightest of air and really takes off in a blow. Because the crew of two generally weighs the same as or more than the fully rigged boat, and because the sail plan towers (about 25 feet) in proportion to its length, the "14" is very lively indeed.

Easy to transport and to rig, it may be found in widely scattered locations from week to week. It furnishes keen international sailing competition, drawing from top-notch skippers in several countries who are or have been champions in one or more other racing classes. It furnishes design and construction competition as well, because the class is not one-design, although it has some essentially one-design fleets within it.

Most of the International "14s" that have been built thus far are so-called open-class boats. The word "open" in this instance refers to their design requirements, as compared to a one-design class. An open-class International "14" must meet certain relatively simple restrictions in regard to its design and construction. If there were insufficient restrictions, it might take a newly constructed boat as well as a good skipper to win regularly, because there continue to be so many advances in the numerous technical fields related to making a boat fast.

The fundamental requirements—a hull not over 14 feet over all, not under 235 lbs. weight, carrying no more than 125 sq. ft. of measured sail area, and having no decking or self-bailing arrangements that decrease the degree of seamanship required to handle one of these lively craft— have resulted in a keen class in which 20-year-old boats can still win hot races against the newest ones built. By allowing so much freedom to the boat owner, designer, and builder, ideas can be tried out and individual requirements such as crew weight or cost favored to a degree totally ruled out of one-design classes. For instance, some International "14" hulls are quite beamy and have bottoms that do not have much V or round to their cross sections. These boats require heavy crews to keep them on their feet when sailing to windward in a breeze, but have excellent weight-carrying ability for planning conditions. Another boat, with less beam and more V to the bottom, will sail quite well to windward with a somewhat lighter crew than the beamy boat and will be able to get up and plane well off the wind because of its lighter load. By taking advantage of this characteristic, which generally seems to hold true for "14s" of the lightest permissible weight, one can pick a boat that suits his individual skipper-crew weight combination best.

Photo by Behen & Sons, Cowes
 
The great pleasure of these open "14" .•ules is the large number of things to which you can apply your own theories and experience, and which you- can develop to suit your own physical capabilities, methods of sailing, and pocketbook. This freedom in open International 14-Foot Dinghy design and construction is a bit similar to that in sports cars. You can have a custom sports car built at considerable expense, buy a production job at a moderate figure, or work up your own hot rod either from scratch or by taking on an existing car and changing it around. In the latter case, the price varies tremendously depending on how much you are capable of doing yourself and the cost of the components you use. Custom "14s" have been built for prices ranging all the way up to $4,000. Standard production types can be bought for between $900 and $1,300. Kits or just basic hull components, can be obtained for a few hundred dollars. Used boats, suitable for racing as is, or for major alteration, can be acquired for anything from $800 down.

On the economy side, a particular example of a relatively successful new $600 International "14" might be of interest. To begin with, the owner purchased a laminated plywood skin that was intended for one of the one-design "14" classes. These skins are strong and light, but are expen-sive unless a number are produced at one time. After looking over the available skin forms, this owner chose the one that came closest to the design he preferred. However, he did not have to reproduce the exact hull lines of that particular one-design class because he could change the shape of the transom, the gunwales, and the sheer line to modify the shape considerably along the lines that he desired. He designed the interior layout himself, but had a professional boat builder do the actual joiner work. Among other things, the centerboard trunk was lengthened to allow for a deeper centerboard than had previously been used with this skin. Outside of the expenditure for the skin and the joiner work, the only other cost to this particular owner involved something slightly under $50 for the rig, which he himself made up of aluminum extrusions and scrap pieces of rigging, and about $150 for a good suit of sails.1 In spite of a mast that weighs 28 lbs. instead of the normal 18 or 19 lbs. and in spite of having but one suit of sails, this boat has campaigned relatively successfully for the last three years. When the owner has the opportunity to devote a little more time to the mast and rigging and can obtain another suit of sails or two, he will find she is a top-notch racing boat for even this active class.

To insure a type of safety sadly lacking in many other classes, the "14" is required to have considerable positive buoyancy, properly located to provide adequate support for the crew in case of a mishap. Furthermore, it is required that this notation gear be tested annually. The fully equipped boat, less sails, is immersed and left to support a prescribed weight of pig iron for half an hour before its certificate is given its annual endorsement.

In no other racing class is there found more need for equal racing knowledge on the part of both skipper and crew. International "14s" are limited to two people for racing. Although these craft perform tremendous feats in the most adverse sailing conditions, the line between success and complete failure is rather slim by most standards because of the extreme sensitivity of these jet-like craft. It is imperative that the crew anticipate his skipper's every move and thought thoroughly and coordinate with him precisely. The degree of refinement required is due to the extremely light weight of the craft in respect to the weight of its crew, to the amount of sail area in respect to both, and to the fact that the boat is undecked. This close tie between skipper and crew makes for a very strong spirit, competition-wise, and can result in an almost equally divided command in a top-flight craft. It is not at all unusual for a crew, with his toes tucked under the hiking strap and the rail catching him just above the underside of his knee as he hikes 'way out over the water, to urge his skipper on out there farther too.

One of the' most critical things to coordinate on an International "14" is the skipper-crew activity when attempting to start the boat planing in a breeze that is ,just barely enough to do so in an occasional wind puff. Likening it to the critical period in hooking a game fish, "14-ers" generally refer to this as trying to "hook a strike." One slight flaw in the motion or timing involved in shifting one's weight; trimming the mainsail, Genoa, or spinnaker; adjusting the centerboard; or handling the helm can mean missing a "strike" and the loss of several boat lengths. Even a crew composed of two top-notch skippers, if they have not worked out together sufficiently to be fully coordinated, can botch a "strike" badly enough to fall behind a number of competitors on an off-wind leg of a race. True enough, this type of coordination is required in racing any type of sailboat. However, it is the ultimate degree of precision that makes the teamwork in a "14," particularly under windy conditions, so very keen. Given a well-coordinated pair to sail it, a "14" can accomplish amazing things by way of seagoing ability. An astounding example of this, not recommended for general practice, was the sail made 15 years or so ago from the southern part of England 100 miles across to Cherbourg, France, and return. In this particular case, Uffa Fox, the British designer of the dinghy, had two keen crew members with him. They crossed in a southerly direction, off the wind, but had to beat against head winds, hiked out over the side, all the way back to England. Although foolhardy in many ways, it certainly brought across the point that an International "14" could really take considerable weather in the open sea if sailed properly.

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