Thursday 1 November 2012

Dasher - OOD 34 design

Dasher - is a OOD 34 design ( Offshore One Design 34 ) Note the rudder persition looks as though its been moved aft away from the skeg is this a design feature or for improved handling.Or simply more space for the prop ?
Do you know anything about this class of racing yacht.

1 comment:

  1. The OOD 34 was designed by Doug Peterson & built by Jeremy Rogers (Contessa).

    In the late 1970's with the rising cost of competing in IOR level rating classes the RORC introduced 3 classes of Offshore One Design yachts, the OOD 34 being the largest. (The others were the David Thomas designed Hunter Impala 28, and the Aphrodite 101, a slender non IOR scandinavian type yacht which never caught on in the UK)

    Initial take up for the OOD34 was quite good I think with the RORC adopting it as their club boat & the services sailing associations buying them as training boats, however the combination of the 79 Fastnet when the RORC boat 'Griffin' was lost together with the introduction of the David Thomas designed Sigma 33 one design killed the class.

    There were also questions about the build quality, I think they used the resin infusion process that Rogers had developed however I recall reports of some areas of laminate not being fully wetted with resin; there's an interesting chapter in Pete Goss's book when he raced the Royal Marines' boat on the Transatlantic race - it only just made it there!

    The OOD 34 had a masthead rig with big headsails when all other race boats of that size had gone to fractional rigs and it looked and sailed like a '70s IOR boat rather than a boat for the '80s which is what it needed to be.

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