Foreword

Photo: Stas Gacek

deAr Fellow 5.5 metre enthusiAst

Ihope you enjoy this second edition of the annual 5.5 metre Class magazine that robert deaves has put together. A special thank you not only to robert, but also to the advertisers without whom this would not be possible. i do have some understanding of what it takes to put together a project like this and am very grateful to robert for taking it on.

It has been a strange year, but we are now looking at some ‘green shoots’ of recovery from the world of COVID-19, and being spring in the northern hemisphere can get excited about warmer days and the return to sailing or even racing.

Here in the UK, Morty is building two new 5.5s. The first is utilising an existing deck, keel, mast etc from SUI 222 and the new hull is being built at David Heritage Racing Yachts in Cowes in cedar. David built a previous Ian Howlett designed 5.5 Silver Fox. This new boat has been designed by Steve Quigley, an Australian Naval Architect who has worked closely with Morty at his shipyard.

The second boat is a David Hollom design being built by Composite Craft in composite, again in Cowes, perfectly situated so he can keep an eye on both projects during the time we have spent in winter lockdown. This design has a full set of tooling so further boats can be produced should the concept prove to be successful (it is quite different – but I can confirm there are no foils). Should we be unable to travel this summer, we have the two new boats which he can race against GBR 40 here in the Solent. We are hopeful that this will generate more interest from potential owners in the UK, which like the America’s Cup is where the 5.5 started.

Sadly, Jürg Menzi lost his boat in a shed fire this winter but I understand that he is having a new one built so that makes it three new boats this year for the Class.

We held a General Meeting at the end of March with the Country Presidents and came up with some good ideas for the future of the Class. Everyone agreed that this form of communication on line was successful and we should continue with it especially when we can’t get together very often. A referendum document will be circulated for you to complete as we have plans to implement new owner and new boat fees, and raise the subscriptions to cover our costs. All necessary I am afraid, to keep the show on the road.

We also have plans to produce a five-year rolling Worlds and Europeans programme to take the Class to some new and exciting venues, which I hope will give you something to get excited about and plan for.

Robert has upgraded and developed a new website for the Class this winter which gives all the countries the ability to use this tool for their own Class updates and news. This will hopefully save some costs for the local fleets.

As I write this, we still have some uncertainty of our summer international programme but I hope that you can all enjoy as much local sailing as possible and be on stand by for when the borders open up allowing more travel. Our thoughts are particularly with the Australians who are not able to travel to Europe this year, but we have happy memories of the Worlds they hosted in January 2020 and wish them well.

In July I am coming to the end of my second year as President and am loving the Class and the potential we have. I am just looking forward to some more events and travel opportunities, as I imagine you are too.

Louise Morton President