Devoti D-One singlehander put through her paces in Garda

by David Henshall Bearfacemedia on 7 Jul 2009
It is now almost 40 years since Bruce Kirby developed his ideas for a lightweight single hander and gave the sailing world the Laser.

In those four decades, the Laser become the global success story of dinghy sailing, recently however the boat has started to show its age. In those four decades, sailing and the sailors have moved on, becoming more sophisticated and with far higher expectations. The dinghy sailors of today may be looking to the future, yet the Laser is stuck firmly in the past, tied there by the strict one design policy of the class, which means that it is unable to evolve into a boat for the 21st century.

This suggests that there is now an opportunity for a new class of dinghy to be developed, that in time could become the ‘new’ Laser. The new boat would need to be a strict one design, built using the latest materials and following the latest trends in rig concepts. Any boat that wishes to become universally popular today would have to allow for the boat to be competitive when sailed by helms from a wider weight range that is possible with boats such as the Laser.

To make such a boat may sound a difficult task, but that is just what Devoti Boats, builder of the medal winning Finns, have done. With their D-One dinghy, Devoti have developed a boat that in time could well become a huge and widespread success, as it is an accessible and exciting new venture for a hiking single hander.

But what is sailing the D-One really like?

At first sight, the styling of the boat is different, for the hull, from top English designer Phil Morrison, can look boxy when viewed from the beam, as the freeboard is quite high, with fairly large, flat panels that form the topsides. Nor are the angled wings particularly attractive, but they are fully adjustable, which will allow the use of a weight equalization system. On closer inspection, it is clear that the design is clean and functional and whilst the D-One may lack the sweeping lines of a boat such as the Flying Dutchman, the boat is far from ugly.

All thoughts of how the boat looks are soon forgotten once the sailor is on board, for it then becomes apparent that a great deal of work has gone into ensuring that the cockpit of the boat is ‘user friendly’. That said, the area available to the helm is not huge, as just in front of the wings the boat is split into two by a full width traveller. For many modern sailors, sailing with a traveller will be a new experience, as so many boats today use either a hoop or a strop for the mainsheet.

However, with the powerful fully battened main, being able to flatten the sail with the kicker and then ‘play’ the traveller will be an essential skill needed to drive the light, carbon fibre hull upwind. The unstayed carbon mast may have sailors thinking that the boat will go upwind like a Finn, but soon people will find experimenting with a combination of the hiking advantage from the wings, the traveller and the light weight of the hull will enable them to sail more freely, allowing the D-One to plane away upwind.

Care will need to be taken though when tacking the boat, as the fully battened main can very easily force the boat into ‘stays’, stuck head to wind between tacks. This is a common failing with single hander dinghies using a fully battened mainsail, such as the RS600, but learning to ease some kicker before tacking, or making the change of direction very ‘positive’, will soon see helms mastering this issue.

Devoti and Morrison have certainly got the balance of the boat right, as freeing off even further and bringing the boat onto a beam reach, results in an immediate surge of speed. Unlike so many other skiff style dinghies, the D-One seemed well balanced when sailing straight across the wind, where it accelerated quickly, with the chine deflecting the spray downwards and outwards, helping to keep the helm in firm control of the boat. The pronounced hard chine aft results in a stable platform for when the helm comes into the boat to hoist the large spinnaker. As soon as this fills, the helm has to be very quick to steer the boat away deeply downwind, for even with a 95kg sailor hiking hard on the wings, the D-One was fully powered up in as little as 12 kts of wind. Sailors will need to practice hard at the more difficult maneuvers, such as gybing under spinnaker and the dreaded moment of getting the spinnaker back down, but across the full range of wind conditions in which the D-One was tested, the boat seemed vice free and manageable for any competent club sailor. In more wind however I would expect the D-One to be a more physical boat to sail, as it will demand hard work and total concentration from the helm – but after all, is that not what dinghy sailors of today are seeking?

So how good is the D-One and what are its prospects?

The simple answer is that the boat is very good indeed, with the development of both hull and rig resulting in a boat that is exciting to sailing, even in marginal conditions. Although the boat will be demanding to sail, it should be well within the capabilities of most sailors who are prepared to work at getting the best from the powerful main and spinnaker.

A bigger question may well be if it is within the budget of the majority of sailors, for the all carbon construction and high specification for the fitting out does not result in a cheap boat. The D-One may look to be a big step up in price when compared to a Laser, but there is a big step up in the value of the boat and the sailing it can offer. The price aside, I believe that the D-One is a winner, a boat that could soon change our expectations of what single handed sailing should all be about.