29er Skiff Sailing
Need To Know
Class Description
- The 29er is the small version of the Olympic class men’s 49er and women’s 49erFX. It is a two-person skiff where the crew trapezes while the skipper hikes from the wing
- There are so many attractive qualities to newer high-performance classes like the 29er over traditional dinghies with white sails. The speed of the boat is thrilling and adds a new dynamic to racing that many youth sailors have yet to experience on the water.
- The 29er is an open class, so pairs of sailors can mix and match so any combo of single or mixed gender works and the class has no age limit
- It is an expensive and technical boat so there are simply not as many of them in the US as there are in other countries that have sponsored sailing programs that can provide the fleets
- The fleets you do find in the US tend to be very high level and on long term sailing pathways which makes up for the smaller fleet sizes
Where To Buy (NEW)
Where To Buy (USED)
Cost
- New boats are around $17.5K for a ready to race setup. Used boats vary wildly in pricing as they take a lot of abuse. Expect to pay $8K for one that needs some love and $14K for one that was purchased and rarely sailed.
Pathways
- Almost everyone involved in the 29er from coaches to organizers seems to have either an active Olympic campaign going or is the veteran of one. These are people who have been there and done that and have an enormous amount of knowledge to share. With that experience comes contacts and opportunities that you simply cannot find through a yacht club or sailing organization. The pathways are not laid out on a website anywhere, but they are there. It would be a reasonable question to ask about connections to college sailing coaches and to evaluate whether the specific pathway opens more doors internationally than domestically and whether that ties with your own child's goals, but I think that in most cases they both will be well covered.
Where It Is Sailed
- SSA, Annapolis
- Newport, RI
- Miami, FL
- Alamitos Bay, CA
- San Diego, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Europe
Typical Schedule
- Heavy presence in Miami over the winter
- Orange Bowl
- Youth Champs
- Rotating Regattas
Key Upcoming Clinic Dates
Key Upcoming Race Dates
Spare Parts
Websites
Ideal Size/Weight
- The ideal crew combined weight range is 250lbs to 300lbs, often sailed by mixed male and female teams, but also sailed by all female and all male crews. Heavier crews will move out in stronger winds and lighter crews will benefit from lighter and shifty days.
What The First Place Sailor Knows That You Do Not
- If you can find someone to help you rig properly, you do not need a coach to get to know the boat. Go out and crash and get comfortable with the boat.
- When you are ready to start racing, get a coach. This is not a boat you can learn efficiently on your own if you are coming out of an Opti.
- If you are going to pursue the 29er Class as your boat it will be all about your team/coach selection. Go and do some clinics and find someone you can connect with that motivates your sailors. It is going to be time consuming and expensive so it should be fun!
- This is a sailor driven boat and you will need to learn from the boat park and make your own adjustments and repairs.
- There is no substitute for time on the water with this boat. Get out there and sail.
- When you get it right it is really, really cool.
Parent Notes
- The most important thing parents should know about this boat in our area is that it is not supported by any Club or Association. We are tremendously lucky to have Caroline Atwood (look her up, she is the real deal) coaching out of SSA with her Skiff+ program but if you choose the 29er you will be selecting a boat that has a disorganized national presence and has struggled to be relevant for the last 20 years in the US (while enjoying enormous success elsewhere). US Sailing apparently just decided to replace the c420 with the 29er at Youth Champs but the general reaction has been muted because they should have done that 20 years ago and now people are starting to foil. The 29er is a blast and if you are fully committed you should buy one and start sailing it, but look at the sailing schedule carefully and make sure you fully understand the travel commitment it will take to campaign this boat before you jump. If you can stomach the cost you will not have any other regrets.
History of the 29er
The 29er gives you exciting, fun sailing wherever you are across the globe! It’s a one-design, double-handed, single-trapeze skiff with a self-tacking jib and asymmetric spinnaker which all adds up to give you one of the most exhilarating sailing experiences you can have.
Technical Specs
Hull weight 74kg (163lb)
LOA 4.45m (14.4ft)
Beam 1.77m (5ft 7in)
Crew 2 (single trapeze)
Mast length 6.25m (20.5ft)
Spinnaker area 15.00 m2 (181.2sq.ft)
Upwind sail area 12.5 m2 (142.0 sq.ft)
The 29er is a two-person high performance sailing skiff designed by Julian Bethwaite and first produced in 1998. Derived from the Olympic class 49er class, it is raced in the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.[3] The 29er is able to reach high speeds fairly quickly by having a sleek and hydrodynamic hull and will often exceed the wind speed when planing both up and downwind.
The 29er class is targeted at youth, especially those training to sail the larger Olympic 49er. The Youth Sailing World Championships[citation needed] has adopted it to replace the Laser 2 - which was designed by Julian Bethwaite's father Frank.
The 29er has two sailors, one on trapeze. The rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the work load of the crew, making maneuvers more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches. The spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and maneuvers in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.
The hull construction is of fiberglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout. The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon. The mast is in three parts - an aluminum bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fiberglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weight, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminum or fiberglass.
Text from Wikipedia and Class website
The 29er offers a simple, established platform for mastering the principles of apparent wind racing. It is tactical, intellectual, physical and fast. 29er alumni can be found on every Americas Cup and SailGP team, on the Olympic podium, and at the top of College Sailing and Pro-Am sailing standings.
Caroline Atwood - Founder & Coach Skiff+
29er EXPERT CORNER
Tej Trevor Parekh - Owner, Pitch Pole Skiff Products Inc.
“The 29er has proven itself to be the premiere global youth double handed class. As the little brother/sister to the 49er/FX, it teaches crews the basics of skiff and high performance sailing. Designer Julian Bethwaite uses carefully considered power to weight ratios to make the 29er a TACTICAL and all round youth trainer for crews and helms of all sizes. Plus the speed doesn’t hurt! With Worlds fleets often topping 200+ boats, it’s where you’ll learn starting, speed and tactics in a relevant youth class.”
