Eygthene, Revisited.

A crash course in IOR rules from the early 70's through whenever. Shucks, maybe through whenever Duran Duran became popular?

I want you to absorb this concept: masthead sloop. It's old, it's outdated evidently, but it's cheap.

I guess.

And, there seems to be a revival in the oldies but goodies.

So here is the deal. I've been sailing around with Joan and Howard on their veritable San Juan 28, which is a masthead rigged sloop. What that means is that all the foreward sails, such as the jib, the genoa, and the dreaded spinnaker, go all the way to the top of the mast. A fractional rig, such as the much more in style and ever more expensive J24 (meaning, I can't afford one) employs the more modern technique of controlling the boat more from a bigger main, and the foreward sails do not go all the way to the top of the mast.

Basic problems with masthead rig: you have to have a lot of sails for your different wind situations. And yes, they call it a wardrobe of sails. Basic problem number two: Those big sails hold a lot of air when they are out there. It is not implausible for a woman weighing 130 pounds to find herself at one end of a spinnaker sheet about to take a hot air balloon ride.

Well, this only happens when things are not sorted out and going right. But, let us imagine the good things about this Generation X rigging technique:

Perhaps if the wind is light, you have a lot more sail out there, maybe you still sail.

According to Guy: It was not uncommon to be peeling sails often during a race. The forestay would have two slots in it, so you could run up a small jib and peel down the genoa, for example.

Also according to Guy, "the guys" used to grab a hold of the big gigantic genoa clew, and throw themselves and the sail over to the other side of the boat to tack. You see that sail being so big really does get caught up on whatever, shrouds, the spinnaker pole, the lifelines, it can be a real mess.

So maybe this is like big earrings and platform shoes. The excesses of the 70s and 80s. I really don't know.

But this is how it is on the masthead sloop that is based on all these things I race on: You are dealing with all this headsail, the spinnaker is unsafe at any speed, and if I were on a J24 it wouldn't be much of an issue.

So: we have to pause and ask ourselves this question:
Why do I want to go to the innards of America to trailer home a classic example of a quarter tonner IOR masthead sloop?

Insert Picture Here:

Okay, this is something called an Eygthene, designed in the early seventies by one of the folks who really defined this sort of thing, Ron Holland. The deal is, if you happen to be Australian and you say the word "eighteen", it sounds like the above heiroglyph. In the land of plenty for some, the boat got re-christened the "Kiwi 24." The boat is 18 feet on the waterline, and 24 feet overall. So you can see how this little thing might have happened.

The other item of note is that this blue Kiwi is called Valkyrie. A very grand name, I think? It might be a little bit of overkill, ha ha ha no pun intended.

Mike, if for some reason you stumble upon my insane blog and see yourself sailing your Kiwi 24 that I am about to have a little internet think on, I hope you are okay with making a cameo appearance with Lizzie and Flying Circus.

Now- we have to mention that this Kiwi 24 has a little coach roof of sorts, to accomodate tall people who want headroom and ostensibly a head as well. The original boat, which Mr. Holland designed and with which he won the Quarter Ton Cup in 1973 (photo by Stephan Lautram, if you stop by my site Mr. Holland, I'm hoping you can see I have about two people who regularly read my blog and you don't mind my admiration of your lovely original boat to the point that I want my two readers to see how it is very much more beautiful than the production models that followed)



And there we have it, the flush deck, such as you might encounter on a J24, suitable for racing. And of course a few 70's guys on board, exhibiting decidedly more yachting style than men you might encounter on today's high or low seas. Please, God, can men learn from this example. I really hope my readers can somehow supersize the photo so that you can see the disco shirt the fellow on the rail is wearing. If you must see it in full glory, please go toThis page of the Eygthene 24 dedicated site.

The truth is, I want to go hundreds of miles from home in an old pickup truck and trailer home (on what trailer?) a boat that is a blast from the past because it is just that: it is odd, unique, and it strikes my fancy. No one else wants it here in America, and yet on the other side of the pond, there has been a recent revival in the old IOR boats, and there are now quarter ton class races. This is a case of recognizing something that other people are shrugging their shoulders over.

Perhaps. OR it might be a moment of insanity.