The Flicka 20 is an American trailerable

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 by Bruce Bingham as a cruiser and first built in 1974.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 120.

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, 2010. The design has a length overall of and a waterline length of . Including the

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

the total length is .Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 156-157. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. The Flicka 20 was developed into the larger Allegra 24.

Production

The design was originally sold in the form of plans for amateur construction, with more than 200 sets of plans sold. Bingham, the designer, commenced the construction of a plug for a hull of his own, but was compelled to sell it before it was completed to Nor'Star Fiberglass Yachts in

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, who put the boat into production. Nor'Star produced kits for owner completion and also ready-to-sail boats, built under contract by Westerly Marine of Santa Ana, California. In 1977, Nor'Star ended production and the molds and tooling were purchased by

Pacific Seacraft Pacific Seacraft Corporation is a Washington, North Carolina based sailboat manufacturer specializing in fiberglass monohull cruising boats. Pacific Seacraft is best known for producing the Crealock line of sailboats. These are heavy, overbuilt of ...

Washington, North Carolina Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. It is commonly known as "Original W ...

, which produced the design until 1998. During the period the boat was produced a wide range of materials were used and the boats can vary widely.

Design

The Flicka 20 is based upon the general design of early

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

lobster boats that were sailed upon

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a strait in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as Plum Is ...

in the mid-19th century. Bingham saw some of these on a river near

Wickford, Rhode Island Wickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20-minute drive across two bridges f ...

in the 1950s and made sketches of them. The boat design was featured in a six-part article in ''Rudder'' magazine starting in September 1972. The boat was proposed for building in ferro-cement construction at that time, but later changed to

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 ...

, although wooden examples with

caravel The caravel (Portuguese: , ) is a small maneuverable sailing ship used in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave it speed and the capacity for sailing win ...

planking were also built. The design is a recreational

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 ...

, built predominantly of fiberglass, with wood trim. It has a

cutter rig A cutter is a type of watercraft. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan) of a sailing vessel (but with regional differences in definition), to a governmental enforcement agency vessel (such as a coast guard or bor ...

with a bowsprit, a slightly spooned

plumb stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up t ...

, an over-vertical transom, a keel-mounted

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

and a fixed long

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

. It was sold as 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 ...

or a Bermuda rig. It displaces and carries of ballast. The design has a draft of with the standard

fitted. The boat has been fitted with a number of engines, including the Japanese

Yanmar is a Japanese diesel engine, heavy machinery and agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in Osaka, Japan in 1912. Yanmar manufactures and sells engines used in a wide range of applications, including seagoing vessels, pleasure boats, cons ...

1GM10

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

of , while some use

outboard engine An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

s. The fuel tank holds and the fresh water tank has a capacity of . Accommodation includes a forward

"V"-berth A berth is a bed or sleeping accommodation on vehicles. Space accommodations have contributed to certain common design elements of berths. Beds in boats or ships While beds on large ships are little different from those on shore, the lack ...

a galley situated amidships, with a hinged table and an

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrige ...

. There is an enclosed head. The cabin has

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

trim and a

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

sole, plus standing headroom. There are two

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

sheet winches in the cockpit, bronze deck hardware and an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

roller mounted on the bow. Many different sail combinations were sold, including

s, genoas, drifters, yankees and a spinnaker. The design has a

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 ...

racing average handicap of 288 with a high of 270 and low of 303. It has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of .

Operational history

In a review in ''Good Old Boat'' magazine, John Vigor wrote, " The Flicka is high quality in a small package with a large price tag. But you have to remember that she offers the accommodations (if not the performance) of a boat 6 or 8 feet longer. For a cruising couple, that's snug, but ample ... Because she is a cult boat, and because she is strongly and sensibly constructed, the Flicka retains her value very well on the second-hand market. She ages well, and there is very little to go wrong. The price of a used Flicka will be substantially lower than that of a new boat, of course, but there are very few basement bargains unless you happen to come across one of the pre-1978 originals, built by an amateur from a finished hull or a kit. Flickas built by Pacific Seacraft are rugged, solid craft, with top-quality cabinetry, finish, and detailing. There isn't another production boat of her size in the U.S. that rivals her interior space and ocean-going capabilities. She's small enough to handle easily, but big enough to live in comfortably. For the price of a new Flicka, you could buy a used larger boat of another make, just as seaworthy and a whole lot faster and more comfortable. Hundreds of Flicka owners know that full well, but they're not tempted. This little spellbinder is all they've ever sought and all they'll ever need." In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "the Flicka ('happy little girl' in Swedish) is a stiff and stable midget cruise-maker, originally built in wood. Nor'star on the United States west coast began fiberglass production in 1975, selling both kits and completed boats. Home-built versions have included cutters, yawls, sloops, schooners, and even junk-rigged. In 1978 Pacific Seacraft bought the tooling and built over 400 Flicka sloops and cutters, ceasing production in 1998. Flickas are considered a very high-quality product, and generally command a premium price in the used market. Best features: Small size but heavy construction make Flicka a very seaworthy and comfortable singlehander, with adequate space for a couple. (Layouts over the years have included two, three, and four berths.) Headroom is excellent for a 20-footer. The design is pretty, and attracts admiring attention wherever she goes. Worst features: Being very heavy for her length, she won't reach hull speed under sail until the wind pipes up." A 2011 staff report in ''Sailing Magazine'' described the boat, "The Flicka is like Elvis or Prince, one word and you immediately draw a mental picture. Love it or dismiss it as a cutesy paean to tradition, it's impossible not to like the Flicka. A pocket cruiser with a big heart and impressive resume, it's a plodding beagle of a boat, small but adorable." A 2016 review in ''Blue Water Boats'' described the design, "If you can get over the lack of deck space and finding place to stow your tender, you’ll find a boat that’s essentially solid, seaworthy and with the interior space of a boat 6 feet longer. She’s large enough to live in, and being so small she’s incredibly easy to handle. She sails well despite her short length and heavy displacement. These are some of the reasons people rationalize buying the Flicka 20, but perhaps the real reason is her charm and character; this little boat has quite the cult following."

References

{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1970s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Bruce Bingham Sailboat types built by Pacific Seacraft

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References