Club 420 Date of Mfg.

an area to discuss dinghy developments
LASERTOURIST
Posts: 368
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:54 pm
Location: France

Re: Club 420 Date of Mfg.

Post by LASERTOURIST »

420 was initially a popuboat , a "poor mans yacht" so expensive gadgets were barred or limited in the early years.*
The mainsheet system was a crude transom vaurien style main , the vang had its's block sheaves included in the mast to save costs , no traveller (it came back later as a retrofittable kit) no spinnaker , no trapeze (they came later as a junior sailors kit)....

The currrent 420 is a tweaked beast but in the 60's and 70's it was a fauirly simple boat.
jules22
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:32 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: Club 420 Date of Mfg.

Post by jules22 »

Our club has recently bought 6 old 420's as club boats, I would put them as 70's boats.
No transom flap, just a standard bailer in the floor. Pull on the forestay and use ply packers at base of mast ,to tension the rig.

I was testing one out on the lake and the wind picked up to about 20k , it was good fun but a bit of a handful as the guy who was crewing for me stayed firmly planted in the middle of the C/B case. :shock:
LASERTOURIST
Posts: 368
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:54 pm
Location: France

Re: Club 420 Date of Mfg.

Post by LASERTOURIST »

The 420 is at it's best in 15 Kts+ or with a very light crew in lighter weather...

This has been in the 420 DNA since the beginning

The initial designers team (Maury Latxague Lehoerff) had wanted a trainer for sailing schools, with the initial prototypes being rather crude but with a bigger spread of canvas than the final version (tested and given the pre production polish by Francis Mouvet -and Mrs Mouvet- who were a crack caneton racing crew....of the very lightweight sort) which had its wings clipped to it's present size (just a bit bigger than the Vaurien's the emblematic plywood trainer of the 50's ...which the 420 tried to best with the bonus of GRP maintenance free hull).

Trapeze , traveler and spinnaker were not in the blueprints of the 420 at first designed....these features came in when the 420 started to be used as a racing boat for youths championhips...

Pity the 420 class did not freeze the class rules (Laser style ) sometime in the mid 60's
after the advent of the Aly masts....This could have avoided the boat prices going sky high with the old boats becoming uncompetitive (as they couldn't cope with modern time rig tensions)....This applies to many popular classes that cease to be affordable as soon as they start to be used as a racing boat
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