HISTORY

Australian Lightweight Sharpies are a national one design class with a long history of evolution. The class is quite unusual in comparison to the majority of other dinghies, due to its distinctive shape, size and complement of crew (three: including skipper, main hand and forward hand on trapeze).

The class originally evolved from the 12 square metre class used in the 1956 Olympics, to form the basis of the Australian Heavyweight Sharpie; a solid wooden clinker style boat. With the increasing use of marine ply and the 'need for speed', the design was updated by the Addison brothers in Western Australia to take advantage of advances in sailing technology.

Heavyweight Sharpies still compete in regattas in Europe, with over 60 boats competing at the recent European Sharpie Championship 2008. Visit the British Sharpie Owners Association website at sharpies.org.uk for more information.

Modern fibreglass boats of today still retain this distinctive hard chine design, which makes sailing Sharpies competively so fiendishly difficult. Recent developments have included the use of larger spinnakers, digital compasses and there has been interest in roachier mains, which are still currently under development. However, it must be noted that these incremental developments have been controlled and sympathetic to the existing fleet, so as to not devalue the owner's current investment. In fact some fairly old Sharpies have managed to win the coveted National titles in recent years.

Image sourced from the British Sharpie Owners Association website