Corsair (dinghy)

Corsair
Current specifications
Crew	3
Type	Monohull
Construction	Fiberglass
LOH	16 feet (4.9 m)
Hull weight	136 kilograms (300 lb)
Development
Designer	Alan Payne

The Corsair is a class of sixteen foot three handed sailing dinghy. The boat was designed by Australian designer Alan Payne who is famous for designing Sir Frank Packer's America's Cup challenge yachts Gretel and Gretel II.

The Boat

The boat is built in fiberglass and is a rather heavy boat with minimum race weight being 136 kg and many boats frequently exceeding that. The sail area for the weight is small leading to the boat acting similarly to a small keelboat in feel. The overhanded crew and no leaning-out devices add to this effect. This also makes the boat ideal for sail training as its strength and stability allow inexperienced sailors to jump in with more knowledgeable instructors; the boat is capable of taking up to 6 people and sometimes more in training situations. The class is also preferred by elder yachties as less physical strength or balance is required to race these boats with a "mind over matter" approach to sailing; there are still regular competitors with ages past 70.

National Title

The Corsair Class Association of Australia has since 1970 held an annual National Championship regatta over the Christmas-New Year period. This event currently encompasses three separate National Championship crowns; the most significant is the Open National Championship which determines the best Corsair Sailor in the country. Concurrently there is a National Cadet Championship for the Australian Navy Cadets who currently use the Corsair as their official training class. This championship has been run since the 1981 regatta. Since 1988 there has also been a National Youth Championship for competitors under the age of 21.

The championship is fairly laid-back for most sailors, with a schedule that includes many social and family events. This is reflected in the giving out of the "Family Trophy" for the highest placed family crew and the "Bottoms up" award for the crew with the most capsizes.

National Champion	Boat	Skipper	State	2nd place boat	3rd place boat
2004/5	Succession	Dave Thomas	NSW	Watt Fun - George Watt	Sunset - Kevin Cook
2005/6	Ferocious	Aaron Hunt	QLD	Watt Fun - George Watt	Odin - Lee Randall
2006/7	Ferocious	Aaron Hunt	QLD	Succession - Dave Thomas	Power of Three - Brady Lowe
2007/8	Watt Fun	George Watt	NSW	Ferocious - Aaron Hunt	Decidious - Kathy Burke

External links

Corsair Class Association Australia

Sailing dinghy, Sharpie and Skiff classes

Dinghies under 10 ft	Frog Cape Cod Frosty El Toro Fatty Knees Fly Holdfast Trainer Manly Junior Minto Naples Sabot O'pen BIC Optimist P Class Pelican Puddle Duck Racer Sabot Starling Tadpole Topper Topaz Taz Turnabout Zoom 8

Dinghies under 15 ft	10ft Skiff 12 foot dinghy 125 ("One-twenty-five") 12ft Skiff 13ft skiff 29er 29erXX skiff 2000 3000 405 ("Four-oh-five") 420 Access Liberty Adventuress ASC Astus 14.1 Australian Sharpie B14 Banshee Beetle Cat Beneteau Wizz Bermuda Fitted Dinghy Blaze Blue Jay Bonito Bosun British Moth Butterfly Buzz Byte Cadet Cherokee Cherub C-Lark CL 14 Comet Coypu Dabchick Daring Dart Enterprise Escape Europe Envy Extra Farr 3.7 Finn Firefly Flying Ant Flying Eleven Flying Junior Force 5 GP14 Graduate Gull Heron Idle-along IDRA14 International Twelve International 14 Javelin (NZ) Javelin (US) Jet 14 Jollyboat (NZ) Lark Laser Standard Laser 2 Laser 3000 Laser 4.7 Laser 5000 Laser Funboat Laser Pico Laser Radial Laser Vago Laser Vortex Lido 14 Marlin Merlin Rocket MG14 Miracle Mirror Moth Musto Performance Skiff National 12 NS14 OK Dinghy O'pen BIC Otter Pacer Pegasus Penguin Phantom RS Feva RS Q'Ba RS Tera RS Vareo RS100 RS200 RS300 RS400 RS500 RS600 RS700 RS800 Sabre Scorpion Snark Snowbird (sailboat) Solo Spiral Splash Streaker Sunburst Sunfish Tinker Star Traveller Tinker Traveller Tasar Topper Topper Topaz Topper Topaz Magno Topper Topaz Vibe Topper Topaz Xenon Twinkles 10 & 12 Vagabond Vaurien Wanderer Weta Woodpussy Zeddie Zephyr

Dinghies under 20 ft	16ft Skiff 18 foot dinghy 18ft Skiff 470 49er 505 Albacore Beaufort Invitation Buccaneer CL 16 Comet Contender Corsair Day Sailer Fireball Flying Dutchman Flying Scot French National Monotype 1924 Hornet Interlake International Canoe Jacksnipe Javelin (Europe) Jersey Skiff Jollyboat (UK) Jolly Boat JY15 Laser 4000 Laser Bahia Laser Stratos Lelievlet Lightning M 16 Mirror 16 Mutineer 15 O-Jolle Osprey Payne-Mortlock sailing canoe Pirate Precision 15 RS K6 RS Vision RS700 RS800 Salcombe Yawl Sea Bright Sea Scout Standard Boat (BP18) Snipe Spanker Texas Tornado 12m² Sharpie Thistle Topper Topaz Omega Vanguard 15 Wayfarer Windmill Windy Winkle Brig X boat Y flyer

Dinghies 20 ft or over	Highlander M 20 Norfolk Punt

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, December 27, 2013. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.