Flying Ant now available from The WaterShed- Demo sails soon
by Sail-World.com/NZ 8 Dec 02:06 PST
8 December 2018
The Flying Ant is back in NZ - rigged up in The Water Shed .
This boat is for 11-15 year olds who want to learn to sail High Performance boats.
For many years the John Spencer design was a popular class in New Zealand, with many top sailors, like America's Cup sailors Erle Williams and Joe Allen sailing a Flying Ant as their first boat. The class stayed active in Australia with the class staying true to the original design restrictions.
The new Flying Ant is being imported from Australia where it is built by Performance Sailcraft. The plan is to bring three into New Zealand and use them for demonstrations in the New Year at various clubs.
The new class is pitched at junior sailors aged 11-13 years who don't want to sail/keep sailing Optimists or want to move into a class progression that will take them into 29ers and then into skiff and apparent wind sailing.
You need to come and see this little rocket and book in for a demo sail .
The new Flying Ant has a one design hull developed by top skiff sailor Adam Beashel, and has a carbon rig, and bow pole, and the spinnaker has been replaced with an asymmetric sail. The rig is one-design as are the foils. Sails can be purchased from a sailmaker of your choice.
It’s a third of the weight of a RS Feva and will be a similar cost. "At this stage we have demo boat and would love boys and girls or mixed crews to take it sailing and see if it’s a pathway for them, " says The Water Shed's Dan Slater.
An international sailing program is planned, but working around sailing in Interdominions and Nationals in Australia rather than expensive forays to Europe.