Firebug (dinghy)
The Firebug is a class of Dinghy sailing, sailing dinghy that was designed by John Spencer (boat designer), John Spencer and Peter Tait of Auckland, New Zealand in 1995. It is a 2.4 m (8 foot) long sailing dinghy designed to be built quickly and easily by builders with no previous experience of boatbuilding. A detailed report was published in Watercraft Magazine. Construction The Firebug is constructed on a rigid jig with 6 timber stringers and a centerline web. The flat bottom is 600 mm wide and is made from 9 mm marine plywood. The sides, bilge panels bulkheads and deck are cut from 2.5 panels of 4 mm marine plywood. The minimum weight of the completed hull is 40 kg (sometimes cited as 27 kg). To highlight the straightforward construction, a Firebug was built live at the 2008 Sydney International Boat Show. Rig The deck stepped mast is supported by shrouds and a forestay and rotates on a pin at the step. To allow adults to sail Firebugs comfort ...
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Dinghy Sailing
Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls: * the sails * the foils (i.e. the daggerboard or centreboard and rudder and sometimes lifting foils as found on the Moth) * the trim (forward/rear angle of the boat in the water) * side-to-side balance of the dinghy by hiking or movement of the crew, particularly in windy weather ("move fast or swim") * the choice of route (in terms of existing and anticipated wind shifts, possible obstacles, other water traffic, currents, tides etc.) When racing, the above skills need to be refined and additional skills and techniques learned, such as the application of the "racing rules of sailing", boat handling skills when starting and when rounding marks, and knowledge of tactics and strategy. Racing tactics include positioning the boat at different angles. To improve speed when racing, sailors should position themselves at the windward direction (closest to the direction of the wind) in order to get " ...
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John Spencer (boat Designer)
John Alfred Spencer (6 July 1931 – 4 March 1996) was a New Zealand boat designer. Biography Spencer was born in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ... and moved to Eketahuna in 1933. He spent most of his life in New Zealand. He was a well-known designer of sailing boats of all sizes, including the Cherub, Javelin (NZ), Firebug and Flying Ant classes of sailing dinghies. His designs used thin plywood, hard chines, a vertical stem and stern and light displacement. The minimum weight for a Cherub hull was and a Firebug is . Spencer's most famous design was arguably the 62-foot hard-chined ''Infidel'', later known as ''Ragtime'', which he designed and built for Tom Clark, a New Zealand industrialist. ''Ragtime'' was launched in late 1964 and went on to w ...
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Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by population, fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, and which has a total population of . While European New Zealanders, Europeans continue to make up the plurality of Auckland's population, the city became multicultural and Cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan in the late-20th century, with Asian New Zealanders, Asians accounting for 31% of the city's population in 2018. Auckland has the fourth largest Foreign born, foreign-born population in the world, with 39% of its residents born overseas. With its large population of Pasifika New Zealanders, the city is ...
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WoodenBoat
''WoodenBoat'' is an American magazine written for owners, admirers, builders, and designers of wooden boats. The company's headquarters is located in Brooklin, Maine. It was founded in September 1974 by Jon Wilson, a former boatbuilder. Wilson sold his Alden ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ..., using $11,000 of the proceeds along with $3,500 from a loan to start the magazine. On January 1, 2022, ''WoodenBoat'' was acquired by Matt Murphy and Andrew Breece, the editor and publisher, respectively, of the magazine. References External links * Boating magazines Transport magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1974 Magazines published in Maine Bimonthly magazines published in the United States 1974 establishments in Maine ...
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Firebug Dinghy Close To Completion
Firebug may refer to: Science and technology * ''Pyrrhocoris apterus'', commonly referred as the firebug, an insect of the family Pyrrhocoridae * Firebug (software), a web development tool Entertainment * Firebug (comics), the name of three DC Comics supervillains * ''Firebug'' (video game), a 1982 computer game for the Apple II computer * ''Firebugs'' (video game), a 2002 game for the PlayStation * ''The Fire Raisers'' (play), 1953 German play by Max Frisch also known in English as ''The Firebugs'' Other uses * Arsonist, a fire-based vandal * Pyromaniac, an impulse-control disorder related to fascination with fire * Firebug (dinghy) The Firebug is a class of Dinghy sailing, sailing dinghy that was designed by John Spencer (boat designer), John Spencer and Peter Tait of Auckland, New Zealand in 1995. It is a 2.4 m (8 foot) long sailing dinghy designed to be built quickly a ...

Optimist (dinghy)
The Optimist is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by young people up to the age of 15. The Optimist is one of the two most popular sailing dinghies in the world, with over 150,000 boats officially registered with the class and many more built but never registered. It is sailed in over 120 countries and it is one of only two sailboats as an International Class by World Sailing exclusively for sailors under 16. Origin The Optimist was designed in 1947 by American Clark Mills at the request of the Clearwater Florida Optimist service club following a proposal by Major Clifford McKay to offer low-cost sailing for young people. The Optimist Club ran a soap box derby, but wanted more than a single-day event. Thus they were looking for a low-cost equivalent for sailing. He designed a simple pram that could be built from two 4' x 8' sheets of plywood, and donated the plan to the Optimists. The design was slightly modified and introduced to Europe by Axel Damg ...
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Planing (boat)
Planing ( ) is the mode of operation for a waterborne craft in which its weight is predominantly supported by hydrodynamic lift, rather than hydrostatic lift (buoyancy). Many forms of marine transport make use of planing, including fast ferries, racing boats, floatplanes, flying boats, seaplanes, and water skis. Most surfboards are planing or semi-planing hulls. Beyond planing, fast vessel designs have seen a transition to hydrofoil designs. History The earliest documented planing sailboat was a proa built in 1898 by Commodore Ralph Munroe. It was capable of speeds of more than twice the hull speed. Planing a sailing dinghy was first popularised by Uffa Fox in Britain. In 1928 Fox introduced planing to the racing world in his International 14 dinghy, ''Avenger''. That year he gained 52 first places, 2 seconds, and 3 third places out of 57 race starts. This performance was noticed by other designers who further developed them. Over the years many dinghies have acquired the ...
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Firebug Dinghies Sailing
Firebug may refer to: Science and technology * ''Pyrrhocoris apterus'', commonly referred as the firebug, an insect of the family Pyrrhocoridae * Firebug (software), a web development tool Entertainment * Firebug (comics), the name of three DC Comics supervillains * ''Firebug'' (video game), a 1982 computer game for the Apple II computer * ''Firebugs'' (video game), a 2002 game for the PlayStation * ''The Fire Raisers'' (play), 1953 German play by Max Frisch also known in English as ''The Firebugs'' Other uses * Arsonist, a fire-based vandal * Pyromaniac, an impulse-control disorder related to fascination with fire * Firebug (dinghy) The Firebug is a class of Dinghy sailing, sailing dinghy that was designed by John Spencer (boat designer), John Spencer and Peter Tait of Auckland, New Zealand in 1995. It is a 2.4 m (8 foot) long sailing dinghy designed to be built quickly a ...

Russell, New Zealand
Russell, known as Kororāreka in the early 19th century, was the first permanent European settlement and seaport in New Zealand. It is situated in the Bay of Islands, in the far north of the North Island. History and culture Māori settlement Before the arrival of the Europeans, Russell was inhabited by Māori because of its salubrious climate and the abundance of food, fish and fertile soil. Russell was then known as Kororareka, and was a small settlement on the coast. The early European explorers like Britain’s James Cook (1769) and France’s Marion du Fresne (1772) have remarked that the area was quite prosperous. European settlement When European and American ships began visiting New Zealand in the early 1800s, the indigenous Māori quickly recognised there were great advantages in trading with these strangers, whom they called . The Bay of Islands offered a safe anchorage and had a large Māori population. To attract ships, Māori began to supply food and ti ...
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Ministry Of Education (New Zealand)
The Ministry of Education (Māori: ''Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga'') is the public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing the New Zealand education system. The Ministry was formed in 1989 when the former, all-encompassing Department of Education was broken up into six separate agencies. History The Ministry was established as a result of the Picot task force set up by the Labour government in July 1987 to review the New Zealand education system. The members were Brian Picot, a businessman, Peter Ramsay, an associate professor of education at the University of Waikato, Margaret Rosemergy, a senior lecturer at the Wellington College of Education, Whetumarama Wereta, a social researcher at the Department of Maori Affairs and Colin Wise, another businessman. The task force was assisted by staff from the Treasury and the State Services Commission (SSC), who may have applied pressure on the task force to move towards eventually privatizing education, as had ...
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Dinghies
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which are designed first and foremost for sailing. A dinghy's main use is for transfers from larger boats, especially when the larger boat cannot dock at a suitably-sized port or marina. The term "dinghy towing" sometimes is used to refer to the practice of towing a car or other smaller vehicle behind a motorhome, by analogy to towing a dinghy behind a yacht. Etymology The term is a loanword from the Bengali ', Urdu ', and Hindi '. Types Dinghies usually range in length from about . Larger auxiliary vessels are generally called tenders, pinnaces or lifeboats. Folding and take-down multi-piece (nesting) dinghies are used where space is limited. Some newer dinghies have much greater buoyancy, giving them more carrying capacity than older b ...
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