Streakers at the RYA Dinghy Show
by Veronica Falat 25 Feb 2013 20:10 GMT
Stand C16, 2-3 March 2013
Action from the 2012 Noble Marine Streaker nationals at Grafham © Ben Falat
The Streaker Class will be displaying two new boats on their stand (C16) at the RYA Dinghy Show this weekend. The question is, will most people notice that these will be slightly different to those shown in previous years?!
During last autumn the class Committee approved the idea of building FRP boats with a shorter stern deck so that the cockpit is long enough to allow the sail and boom to fit down inside when trailing or before rigging up. The first boat like this was built by Rooster Boats in late October and since then the class membership has had a chance to vote as to whether wooden and composite boats should also be allowed this deck option. The result was an overwhelming majority in favour and so Butler Boats have pushed ahead with a new composite boat and this will be on the Dinghy Show stand, alongside a new Rooster FRP, and both will have the new longer cockpit.
Both professional builders (Rooster Sailing and Butler Boats) will be on hand at the show, making it the ideal time to discuss new boats for the coming season. Rooster Sailing will have a Streaker on their stand (B48) as well as on the class stand making it easy to chat about new Rooster Streakers with Steve Cockerill and his team, while Dave Butler of Butler Boats will be on the class stand keen to talk about wooden and composite boats as well as FRP ones.
Of the 40 Streakers that have been built since early 2012, there's a fairly even split (22 to 18) between those that are FRP and those that are at least partly built in wood. Most of the all-FRP ones are from Rooster Sailing but Dave Butler has a strong fan club for his composite and all-wood boats, as well as offering all FRP too, and the class also provides the chance for home finishing or complete home building in wood. Perhaps it's this range of options that is helping the class continue to attract new members. Certainly, numbers of boats and members are growing; in fact membership has reached 250, the highest ever recorded by the class.
If you want to learn more about the Streaker, do come along to the Show and have a chat.