A couple of years ago it occurred to me that, if you reworked the massive rig downwards, the Aussie Historical 6-Footer skiff, would make a crazy, traditional singlehander. To that end I sketched out a cut-down sail plan which I present here.
As always, use the pop-out icon on the top-right hand to open the drawing in another tab.
Dave Raison, in his latest scow Mini Transat 6.5, won the Mini Fastnet this past June. There are now other scow Mini 6.5s appearing. Swiss Simon Koster put one together he has named eight Cubed after the number he sails under. Included below are some photos of his new creation.
Make no bones about, these sailboats are Uglee.....High freeboard on a scow shape is not pretty. Simon Koster waved the ugly stick even more by making his cabin top very blocky.
From the The Simpsons, a quote by bartender Moe before he underwent plastic surgery. Moe
"Ive been called ugly, pug-ugly, fugly, pug-fugly, but never ugly-ugly."
Ill go with pug ugly. I like scows. I like different. I like that, with these shapes, form follows function. Some would call these Mini 6.5 scows cute. (Can you call a sailboat cute?).
From this bottom-up, bow-on angle, combined with the paint scheme, eight Cubed appears to have the bottom of a rubber ducky bathroom toy.
Ah! Thats more like it. The familiar wide arse of a Mini-Transat 6.5.
You can see the odd split, blocky looking, almost comical cabin house with forward facing window in this photo of eight Cubed hanging in the shop before the initial launch.
A video of the start of the Mini-Fastnet. Winner David Raison in #865 with the distinctive blue jib can be seen starting about 56 seconds into the video and then at 2:20. 8-Cubed shows up at the 1:43 mark.
