Classic Boats – The great excellences of the 1990s

We told you about
Classic Boat
and presented you with the most significant ones, brilliant projects that deserve to be celebrated and considered for their value(HERE). To explore the topic as it deserves, Contextualizing each project and each boat to its time, here is now a series of in-depth articles, brief analyses of design canons, their evolutions and the Classic Boats themselves, period by period. On the heels of the previous episode (HERE), devoted to the late 1980s and very early 1990s, we now come to the conclusion of this journey, looking at the major projects that characterized the mid-1990s.

Classic Boats – The great excellences of the 1990s

As we enter the 1990s, little remains of the design canon related to the great Classic Boats of the early days of fiberglass. The narrow, starry sterns, maximum midships beams, and wide swells have indeed come to an end, and, as perhaps only 30 years earlier, the boats now change dramatically. From ’93 to ’97-with the Mid ’90s in short-everything changes. IMS is now the new dogma for racers, and cruising homogenizes to the new lines and trends. The maximum beams are now wider, set back from the center of the boat and much less tapered in coming toward the increasingly wide and “flattened” aft mirrors.

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Racing materials change, and off-the-shelf technologies reduce thicknesses in laminations immensely, providing extremely low weight, deeper appendages and less turbulence. In short, boats are tending toward “planing,” bulbs are beginning to depopulate, and arms are being fractionalized even where “masthead rigging” was not previously questioned. But more importantly, the era of digital technologies is being confirmed, with software entering the mainstream, leading to design canons that have never been so close to today’s standards.

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1993-1997 – A new design era

Cruising and racing are now a near-complete package that can rarely be broken down. There is no shortage of “purist” yards, which have always been dedicated to a precise design philosophy, but with the 1990s the trend changes decisively, showing how the “cruiser-racer” is the genre to focus on, opting instead for configurations that, depending on need, favor more toward one or the other use.

In 1993, in addition to the very large

Grand Soleil 50

, a small 10.7-meter was also born, capable of becoming one of the great X-Yachts successes of the decade, the

X-362

. A hull designed for the family, it is, however, deeply inclined to racing, and it only takes a few big placings for the yard not to immediately decline it in a racer version as well. Two tweaks to keel and rigging and the
X-362 Sport
, a perfect example of the spirit of its time, replicated in ’94 by the

X-332

, also signed by Jeppesen.

However, 1994 also saw the birth of another star on the performance cruising front, the U.S.

J-120

, progenitor of J-Boats’ “cruising and racing together” philosophy. The lines fully define the trend: reduced freeboard, low deckhouse and simple volumes. An essentiality that attempts to permeate the whole, also leading to a further innovation, the constant quest for ease of maneuvering so that only two people on board can handle it without leaving the cockpit.

However, X-Yachts and J-Boats do not represent isolated cases. Even the all-time “big boys” play on these canons, as Beneteau well demonstrates, who again in ’94 signed French superstar Philippe Briand to a performance-cruiser. The

Sun Fast 36

, a very modern design for the time, where fin with torpedo bulb and fractional sail rigging are confirmed. A trend that will define so many design trends from now on, as can be seen by looking at the

First 40.7

, a full three years later.

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Classic Boats 1993-1997 – Between Two Extremes

By the mid-1990s, the design trend is well established. Yet among the various fast-cruisers and performance-cruisers populating the market, a few “classics” still stand out. Among them, unforgettable, theHallberg Rassy 46 by Frers, a 130-unit success story to which the Scandinavian shipyard gives extra-large volumes for cruising in safety and comfort. In short, the H.R. / Frers pairing signs another round-the-world boat, rightly awarded Yacht of the Year in 1995.

Instead, in ’96 it was J-Boats that signed a successful cruiser, although still with a hybrid trend. It is the

J/160

, the yard’s first attempt in winking more at cruising than racing. The stern is wide, the volumes equally so, and everything points to comfort, but the appendages remain in the J-Boats tradition. Either way, a great performer.

Vintage monotypes and gearboxes

While more “classic” designs set with cruising in mind also manage to stand out in the panorama of hybrids, it is equally true that the 1990s did not disappoint on the pure racing front either. In 1993, in fact, a revolutionary and well-known monotype was born, the very fast

Melges 24

(pictured above), signed by Reichel & Pugh. Two other great classics among the monos followed in ’95: the

J/105

and the

Mumm 30

.

Respectively, spartan but very complete the former, and true gliding missile the latter, as extreme as a track car and as fascinating as a great contemporary classic, these two officially usher in a season of design decidedly different from any previous canon. A season that will bring iconic boats, famous to this day and more than modern in concept and design. In fact, two boats destined to turn everything upside down follow.

Felci Yacht Design, indeed, in 1996 decided to challenge the French giants and designed a Mini Transat. Its small six-footer is fast, innovative and full of original solutions that led it to unexpected success, which was immediately followed by a production version, the

Tea Salt CR

, launched in as many as 35 examples adapted for cruising, a perhaps somewhat “hardcore” cruising.

However, towering above all and sundry is master Bruce Farr, who, in 1997, churned out a masterpiece, the

Farr 40

, the one-design class of excellence for the decade. A unique one-off object, it already possesses much of what is present in our millennium and, together with another contemporary masterpiece of his, the

Baltic 50

(opening image) by Tripp, best emblematizes an era now over and already projected into the 2000s, designed light years from those first Classic Boats of 1967.

Three “tidbits” about Classic Boats

• Want to learn more about the world of Classic Boats (1967-1998), the iconic boats of the period, the legendary designers, the stories and races of the “golden age” of sailing? Check out our section dedicated to Classic Boats!
• Want to find out what Classic Boats of Historical Value by Journal of Sailing are? Find them all HERE!
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