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We ran a great couple of shots of a cool looking little sportster under the contest to guess how fast it was going. A lot of you (us included) wanted to know what the boat was, and like any enterprising designer, Rob Shaw provides us just that in his description of the Shaw 6.5. Enjoy!
Back in 2000 I had the idea of developing a sport boat that would be fast, fun and affordable. The concept logically evolvedtoward a smaller boat to meet these three underpinning principals of what to me, a sport boat was all about. It needed to be simple and easy to sail, which excluded extras such as racks and trapezes. So the emphasis was on efficiency to gain performance without a big cheque book. Refining the usual ratios of displacement, length, sail area, wetted surface, ballast etc and being completely objective resulted in a boat that in essence had little resemblance to the existing fleet. The challenge was to develop a boat that was fun and fast without all of the expensive complexity that often comes with high performance. The objective wasn't to go out and beat all of the existing sport boats. But as the smallest boat in the fleet, we are performing above expectations against the bigger boats. But don't take my word for it, look at our results and handicap we are sailing to. The construction by today's standard is quite low tech, but on a bang for your buck scale it rates pretty well. The hull is strip plank cedar and glass with ply bulkheads. This is all built inside female temporary frames, so the bulkheads go in and the decks are on before the boat is rolled over for the outside laminate. This keeps the boat rigid so there is no movement when it is rolled over. The decks are foam and glass. There are no pre-wet fabrics or vacuuming involved so it is quite an achievable build for the skilled amateur. The lift keel and rudder are also timber and glass with some carbon reinforcing.
We regularly race in Auckland and do the sport boat regattas around the North Island. Sailing with a crew of 4 Adrian, Julian, Blair and Myself we are having a total blast! This boat is easy to sail, well balanced and gives instant feedback to the crew and rewards good sailing. Being the shortest boat our best relative performances against the fleet is in a breeze. We hold our own in the light just fine but give us 10 knots true or more and were gone off the wind and at least as quick as the big boats upwind. Upwind target is about 6.7 knots, not bad for a 21 footer. Off the wind a steady 17 and 18 is standard in a breeze with a top so far of 25! But that was pretty wild. Were forever having to tell anyone new on the boat to sit down, as the acceleration is much more like a skiff or multihull. More acceleration than any ballasted boat any of us have experienced before. The boat will launch itself into a building breeze and leave you behind if your not hanging on! Which is a great feeling if you're ready for it! There is another boat to this design on the water called Porn Star, which features a bigger rig and 4 trapezes. This was easily the quickest sport boat in Auckland until it was sold out of town. One of her previous owner is in the process of building a new 7-metre boat, which is a little more performance oriented than the 6.5. Resent Results 1st handicap 2nd on line 2002/3 RNZYS Wednesday night series 1st handicap 2nd on line 2002/3 Richmond YC Wednesday night series 1st handicap 2nd on line 2002/3 National sport boat point series 1st line, 3rd on handicap 2003 RNZYS Winter series
Current RNZYS handicap
Robert
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