The Fish class sloop, also known informally as the Fish Boat, is a
one-design sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminolo ...
designed in 1919 by
resident
Rathbone DeBuys
Rathbone Emile DeBuys (December 1, 1874 − June 27, 1960) was an American architect and sailing enthusiast based in New Orleans, Louisiana. On December 1, 1874, he was born to James Gaspard De Buys, a cotton magnate, and Elizabeth Maria Stell ...
, member of the
Southern Yacht Club
The Southern Yacht Club is located in New Orleans, Louisiana's West End neighborhood, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Established on July 21, 1849, it is the fifthe oldest yacht club in the United States and a founding member of the Gulf Y ...
. It is reputed to have been the most popular sailboat racing class on the
US Gulf Coast in the early 20th century and was the
Gulf Yachting Association
The Gulf Yachting Association (GYA) formed in 1901, is a non-profit organization consisting of 39 member and affiliate yacht club's from Houston, TX to Sarasota, FL along the Gulf of Mexico in the United States. Organized specifically to further t ...
one-design racer until it was replaced by the
Flying Scot in 1969.
It should not be confused with
Nat Herreshoff's larger sloops, the
Annisquam Annisquam is a waterfront village in the Gloucester, Massachusetts, city of Gloucester, on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore of Massachusetts. It is a few miles across Cape Ann from downtown Gloucester.
History
The name "Annisquam" come ...
Fish Class
Marconi rigged catboats, nor various
motor yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
s and
surfboards of similar names.
Specifications
The Fish class sloop is a
gaff-rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the ''gaff''. Because of the size and sha ...
,
fixed-keel, hard
chine
A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is still in use in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Is ...
,
v-hull
The V-hull is a type of vehicle armor design used on wheeled armored personnel carriers (APCs), infantry mobility vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) and MRAPs. The design originated in the 1970s with vehicles such as the iconic Casspi ...
sloop, originally made of wood, which can carry a crew of from two to five (usually three) depending on the wind. Its specifications are length 20' 6", waterline 16', beam 6', draft 3', weight , ballast , sail area , mainsail area , jibsail area . In early years a club foot jib was used and in later a genoa jib was used. Rules have been modified to allow
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
spar
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...
s and hulls made partially or totally of
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
composite. When the Fish is raced in a cruising class event its (2008)
Portsmouth yardstick
The Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a term used for a number of related systems of empirical handicapping used primarily in small sailboat racing.
The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the han ...
rating is 97.1. It is not listed in the
PHRF
Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...
critical dimension database.
Notes
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See also
*
Catboat
A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat) is a sailboat with a single sail on a single mast set well forward in the bow of a very beamy and (usually) shallow draft hull. Typically they are gaff rigged, though Bermuda rig is also used. Most are fi ...
*
Keelboat
A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...
*
Sharpie
External links
Fish Class Association home pageGulf Yachting Association home page
Keelboats