49er sailboat specs

49er High Performance Skiff

49ER AT A GLANCE 

A TRUE HIGH-PERFORMANCE SKIFF

The 49er one-design skiff has transformed dinghy racing offering performance, excitement and spectacle together with the unmatched ferocity of competition only generated in Olympic fleets.

The hull designed by Julian Bethwaite is lightweight and offers minimal resistance with no noticeable speed hump, unlike other boats at the time. The most noticeable feature of the 49er skiff is the solid wings which make the boat easier to sail and generate massive righting moment. The 49er adopted a new sail plan and full carbon mast in 2008 which has enabled the boat to stay in line with modern developments in rig design.

Association Link 49er.org

49er Complete Ready to Sail

•  49er Hull package (G40021)
• Complete CST mast (Inc wires, halyards & trapeze system)
• North Main and Jib
• Pryde Spinnaker
• Launching trolley

Price: £30,250.00

            £25,208.33 (ex VAT)

49er Hull package – Ex Spars & Sails

• Fully fitted hull
• Spinnaker pole
• Spinnaker sock
• Boom with vang arms
• Rudder Stock
• Twin Carbon Kevlar Tiller Extensions
• Rig Bag inc Turnbuckles for both lowers and main shrouds and adjusters
• Control line blocks
• Boat Breaker

Price:  £20,450

             £17,041.67 (ex VAT)

49er Hull inc Wings

• Spinnaker Pole
• Spinnaker Sock

Excluding :

• Rudder stock

Price:  £17,995

             £14,995.83 (ex VAT)

49er Hull and deck only 

Price: £13,500

            £11,250.00 (ex VAT)

49er Top cover – Wings stowed

Ovington Rig Bag

49er Top cover – Wings out – Canvas – Banks

49er Top cover – Wings out – Lycra UV

Looking for something else, we sell parts & spares.

From sails to rigging, mast fittings and covers.

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49er 2 Pages

Catalog excerpts

The 49er is the two person one-design skiff which has transformed competitive dinghy sailing offering performance, excitement and spectacle, previously only found in 18 footers, together with the unmatched ferocity of competition only generated in Olympic fleets. Designed by skiff supremo Julian Bethwaite, the ultra light, slender hull offers minimal resistance with no noticeable speed hump. This means the 49er smoothly accelerates onto the plane and the speed just goes on rising. The most remarkable feature of the 49er at first sight is its solid wings which make the boat safe and a joy to sail. Running from wing to wing is easy helping newcomers quickly climb the "skiff learning curve". Trapezing from these wide wings, the crew members generate a massive righting moment to control the power from the huge sail area, and continue accelerating the boat. The enormous sail area means that the 49er is fully powered up in about 8 knots of breeze. The composite mast gives effective gust response above this wind speed, making control of such a large rig possible. The high boom means there is plenty of room to move around the boat, whilst a self tacking jib frees the crew is to concentrate on playing the mainsail upwind and the asymmetric spinnaker downwind. The short foot on the spinnaker and radical new style of cut means the sheet loads are kept to a minimum, allowing many shapes and sizes of crews to sail the boat effectively. For more information: Contact Dave Hall on 07719 59 49 49 or [email protected]

Overall Length Hull Weight Main & Foresail Asymmetric Spinnaker Julian Bethwaite Epoxy GRP with foam sandwich laminate for stiffness and light weight. Carbon fibre in high load areas. GRP laminate with foam core, making exceptionally light and strong dagger board and rudder blade. GRP rudder stock with vertically lifting "dagger" style rudder blade. From 2009 an all carbon mast will replace the alloy/ carbon- glass spar. Aluminium alloy boom. Composite Fully battened mainsail and jib for shape stability and long competitive life. Mylar film with Kevlar and aramid fibre weave for light...

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• Sailboat Guide

49ER is a 16 ′ 0 ″ / 4.9 m monohull sailboat designed by Bethwaite Design and built by Ovington Boats Ltd., MacKay Boats Ltd., LaserPerformance, and Nautivela starting in 1999.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Beam with wings removed: 5.58’. Olympic class since 2002.

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International 49er & 49erFX Class Association

Class contact information.

Click below

Class Email

Class Website

One-Design Class Type: Dinghy

Was this boat built to be sailed by youth or adults? Adult

Approximately how many class members do you have? 70

Photo Credit:Ricardo Pinto

Photo Credit: Ramon Oliden

Photo Credit: Ivan Bulaja

About International 49er & 49erFX Class Association

The 49er and 49erFX are the premiere Olympic skiff. Designed by famous Australian skiff sailor / designed, Julian Bethwaite, the 49er represents the culmination of high performance sailing, remaining the gold standard for athletic competition on water and becoming a proving ground for today’s top International sailors. Using a twin trapeze, self-tacking jib, asymmetric gennaker and solid wings, the 49er and 49erFX can reach speeds of 25 knots. With the addition of the 49erFX variant, the class has opened up to younger, smaller and female sailors while still providing all the same excitement.

Boats Produced: 2200

Class boat builder(s):

Mackay Boats Ltd Ovington Boats Ltd

Approximately how many boats are in the USA/North America? 140

Where is your One-Design class typically sailed in the USA? List regions of the country:

Florida, New York, California

Does this class have a spinnaker or gennaker? Yes

How many people sail as a crew including the helm?  2

Ideal combined weight of range of crew:  350

Portsmouth Yardstick Rating:   740

Boat Designed in  1995

Length (feet/inches): 16’8″

Beam: 9′

Weight of rigged boat without sails: 275

Draft: 3′

Mast Height: 27′

Coaching or Clinic Resources

Tuning guides.

Back to One-Design Central

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The History of the 49ers

In September 1996 a group of top-flight sailors travelled from around the world to Lake Garda for a trial of many different classes, to see which would go forward as the new twin-trapeze skiff for the Olympics in Sydney 2000. There were a number of new designs to consider, including the Laser 5000 and the Nautivela Jet, as well as a few older classes that had been revamped to do battle in the twin-trapeze arena, boats such as a Flying Dutchman modified with bowsprit, asymmetric spinnaker and an extra set of trapezes. However, after an intensive week of trialling these various designs, the 49er proved to be the clear favourite with the sailors, and by November 1996 it had been ratified as the new Olympic skiff.

The task now was to meet the immediate global demand for so many 49ers. As with any Olympic class, the busiest market would be Europe and the job of churning out consistent, reliable 49ers in Europe would go to Ovington Boats, based in Tynemouth in the north-east of England. Dave Ovington ‘ or Ovi to his friends and colleagues – had been building hi-tech boats such as 18-foot skiffs and International 14s for many years already, so he seemed the ideal man for the job.

The first year of production was manic, with an eight-month waiting list developing within a matter of days of the 49er’s Olympic future being confirmed at the ISAF Annual Conference in November 1996. Ovington and the other builders around the world worked at full capacity for the first year, and for the class’s first international regatta – the European Championships held in Weymouth in September 1997 – there were already 80 boats competing.

The 49er had become an overnight success. And 10 years later new 49ers continue to roll out of the Tynemouth factory ‘ but without Dave Ovington at the helm. Ovi’s sudden death last year shocked the sailing community, and left the boatbuilding company without its figurehead. Now Ovington Boats is being run by a trio of experts, each responsible for their own area of the business. Veronica Brown holds the purse strings, and she has been Ovington Boats’ accountant for years; Dave Hall is responsible for sales and marketing, a role he has held since 1998; and Chris Turner was signed up as the boatbuilding expertise, his knowledge of hi-tech construction an invaluable asset to the company in the absence of Ovi’s expertise.

It is hard to overestimate the impact that Dave Ovington had on the business, and Dave Hall admits that the past year has been tough emotionally. ‘It was terrible when Ovi died. He was such a great guy, such a driving force here, how do you deal with someone like that disappearing? But actually the biggest thing we noticed since then is how the sailing public carried on as normal. They’ve kept their faith in Ovington Boats throughout. For the past 18 months we’ve been flat out. We’re still turning out the boats. We’ve got the same skilled people building the boats, their enthusiasm and loyalty is amazing. Very few of our people sail, which is probably a good thing because they’d take too much time off! But they’re very proud of the quality of boats that they produce.’

Ovington Boats consists of 15 people, and aside from a steady production of 49ers, it makes other dinghies and small keelboats such as the International 14, the 505 and the Flying Fifteen. By far the biggest thing for the company right now, however, is the 29er, the smaller cousin of the 49er. Dave Hall estimates that the company’s production of 29ers in 2006 will exceed 170. ‘It really is full-on. We’ve got a waiting list of more than two months for the 29er,’ says Dave, who anticipates production remaining high for the foreseeable future, with the lightweight skiff set to be the doublehanded class for the next two ISAF Youth World Championships in Canada and Denmark, and quite possibly for Brazil in 2009.

As if that weren’t enough to keep Dave Hall occupied, there is the recent arrival of the 29er to keep him on his toes. A suped-up 29er with twin-trapezes and a bigger rig and sailplan, Julian Bethwaite has designed the 29er specifically with the aim of becoming the women’s Olympic doublehanded skiff. Whether or not that happens depends a good deal on politics, but the 49er and 29er have already laid the groundwork for its acceptance.

It’s hard to imagine that a boat that looks so up to date as the 49er has been around for a decade already. Almost a thousand boats later, it has become a modern design classic. Dave Hall comments: ‘The 49er is the boat by which all others are judged, and it has changed the face of sailing. It has brought skiff sailing to everyone. We’ve got boats that match today’s era, they look appropriate for the 21st century, and they bring high-performance thrills for low cost and very little maintenance.’

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49er Deck Layout

Mainsheet System

Our lightweight, high-strength T2™ Loop blocks are perfect for use as mainsheet blocks. In place of a metal shackle, they feature a loop system that slides through the block head and over the anchor post for a secure connection. This is a strong, lightweight, fully-articulating alternative to a shackle.

Lash our T2 Ratchamatic® block to the boom for fast, efficient trimming. With a minimum of moving parts, this soft-attach weighs only a few ounces. Pressure on the line engages the ratchet mechanism, which switches seamlessly from free-running to ratchet mode.

Spinnaker Launcher and Retrieval System

This powerful T2 spinnaker system quickly raises the sail and extends the bowsprit with a single line. The same line pulls the sail both up and down. A second lead retracts the pole and pulls the spinnaker back into the sock.

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Class History

Designed by Australian Julian Bethwaite in 1996, this adrenalin-pumping, double-handed skiff is the fastest and wildest of the Olympic dinghies. Both the 49er and 49erFX Olympic women's skiff come equipped with carbon masts (the FX rig is designed for lighter crew), twin trapezes, and huge asymmetric spinnakers. Distinctive wings provide crew maximum leverage for fast, flat sailing in strong pressure. The boat’s flexible topmast increases control in gusts—essential for a rig that is at full power in eight knots! The 49er and 49erFX attract competitors looking for speed and excitement and require a high degree of technical skill to sail well.

Links International 49er Class McLube™ Harken Canvas

Boat Specifications

LOA: 4876 mm-16 ft 4 in Beam: w.o/w wings-1752 mm/2743 mm (5 ft 9 in/9 ft) Draft: 1447 mm (4 ft 9 in) Weight: 74.25 kg (210 lb) Main/Jib: 19.97 sq. m (215 sq. ft) Spinnaker: 37.16 sq m (400 sq. ft)

Related products

16mm Cheek Block

16mm Hook-In Halyard Block

51mm Aluminum Wire Sheave

29mm T2 Soft-Attach Block

40mm Cheek Block

40mm T2™ Loop Soft-Attach Block

40mm Stand-up Block

Micro Cam-Matic® Cleat

57mm T2™ Soft-Attach Ratchamatic® Block

57mm T2™ Soft-Attach Ratchamatic® Block — 2x Grip

57mm Ratchamatic® HTE Block — Swivel, 1.5x Grip

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49er Tuning Tips

• 49er , Tuning Guides

The 49er Class has an excellent guide to setting up and tuning a 49er rig. See 49er Class Rig Tuning Guide

For starters:

Over time experienced sailors will develop and fine tune the fastest settings for the carbon rig. The following provides a good guide to help you get going.

Rig tuning guide for different airs.

Tips from 49er sailors:

49er Guide to tacking

49er Guide to gybing

>> Return to 49er Boats page

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49er Sailboat Parts & Equipment

Class Description

Designed by Julian Bethwaite, the 49er is an evolution of the International 14's and Aussie 18's. The hump-less drag curve has been refined and works better on the 49er than on the 18's due to its length/weight ratios. The boat has very fine lines forward meaning that the slap and thud that is normally associated with going to windward at speed is removed. The 49er is controllable over 20 knots and benefits from easy handling, even in the most highly competitive races and tough conditions. Design Features The design of the 49er achieves an outstanding harmony of visual appeal, physical parts and dynamic ratios to achieve a miniaturized design of a new level of efficiency.

Class Specs

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