History never repeats ... or does it?

[MikeDay]

I think we’re on the cusp of an interesting time for Twelves, with a sense for me of déjà vu.  I started sailing Twelves in 1968.  That year, Hugh Welbourn completely cleaned up at Burton Week in Mr Jones â€" the most radical Twelve ever seen.  Here was the future … it was wide, tippy, devilishly attractive and in Hugh’s hands, faster than anything ever seen before.  At the same Burton, an impressive though much more modest performance was put in by Phil Morrison in his new China Doll.  Hard chines at the back, an odd knuckle at the front and it didn’t look nearly as quick or as nice as Mr Jones.  As things turned out, literally hundreds of Phil’s design was built in its 7 and 4 plank versions, along with its derivatives Whisper and Paper Dart.  Only 8 Mr Jones were ever constructed and none went as well as the original in Hugh’s hands   The conclusion â€" Mr Jones worked brilliantly in a limited range of conditions and won in 68 because Hugh put in masterful performance.  Remember, it’s usually more down to the guys in the boat than what they’re in, even in Twelves.

We’ve seen this pattern - of design stability overturned by the broadly simultaneous arrival of two new designs - on several occasions since then.  It wasn’t the case with Cheshire Cat and its Tiger/Tigress derivatives â€" which reigned fairly unchallenged from the mid 1970s, though Rob Peebles’ light weather flyer Pipedream did give it a run.

But the next main pair of rivals did show a similar pattern to the Mr Jones/China Doll  era.  Baggy Trousers and Crusader arrived within months of each other.  Baggies were fantastic when driven by lightweights on the sea and had some great championship wins in the hands of super talented sailors like Will Henderson and Chris Atkins, and around 50 were built.  Crusader and its variants including Design 8 was a much more all-round shape, with an equal amount of race success but many more â€" hundreds - were built.

I’d say the pattern repeated in the 90s with the Chapters versus Bim Daser’s Foolish / Numinous shapes.  Once people had seen the potential in Mike Jackson’s odd-looking design, Chapters were amazingly fast on the sea in moderate conditions in the hands of great sailors and over 50 were built.  But Bim’s shapes have been the better all round boat and the numbers have gone past 70.

My hunch is that we’re at another turning point with another pair of new designs, which couldn’t be more contrasting.  Dead Cat Bounce’s Burton Week showing was the most dramatic since Mr Jones over 40 years before and the echoes are striking.  A radical package arriving out of nowhere in the hands of one of the Class’s most talented ever sailors â€" and almost the same end result.  The boat is strikingly attractive â€" and lots of people are said to want one.  Nobody knows of course whether the speed is due to the hull shape, the rig, the T-foil, the plate trim tab or Jo and Sophie’s stellar performance â€" though I think history might give us a clue.  Alongside DCB, Gavin Willis’s weird-looking boat of the last few years has now found some devotees and has been re-packaged in Paradigm 2.  It’s the beauty of the Twelves as a Class that the thinking could have suddenly gone in two such different directions.  Will Paradigm be 2010’s China Doll to DCB’s Mr Jones?  It’ll be really interesting to see how it works out â€" though I’ve already placed my bet! 
 

Mike D
N352?

[broz]

Interasting, but both new boats are ugly and look abit dated. I dont think they will atract many (if any) buyer from outside of the fleet.

[sam293]

well the only dead cat bounce sold to far has gone to someone outside the fleet, and i beleive a couple of the paradigms have too.

[Michael]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!  I never like the look of new BNWs (not that I'm a BMW fan), but after a while the design becomes more familiar, more acceptable and eventualy quite nice.

[paul turner]

Mike, thank you for those deep thoughts - so what are you buying next to replace Flip Side? I suspect that I know which way you are betting but perhaps I could put in a few observations of my own. Having sailed China Dolls extensively both the 1960/70s and currently, plus having sailed two Mr Jones (currently owning the original) I would descibe the former as being fun sailing and the latter as an exciting, if hairy, challenge. The Doll won the pots AND could be sailed all the way back through the fleet by helms of varying ablilities as an all-rounder. I am concerned that the DCB is just too complex (and possibly too expensive) for us average club sailors, whereas the P2 may not be as pretty but does seem to carry weight, and win prizes AND there is a budget version for club sailors AND there seems to be more boom clearance for the more senior yotters with dodgy knees! Only time will tell. P :K)

[ken goddard]

Mike, thanks for starting an interesting debate. Curiously the first time I saw Mr.Jones was this year when Paul Turner brought her to Trent Valley. The thing which particularly astonished me on this first view was the amount of keel rocker, quite unlike the long straight runs of the planing boats of later years. Mr Jones must have been very difficult to trim and this must have caused all the strife in the helm/crew relationship which was widely known at the time. Note also in Mr Jones' success was that Hugh Welbourn and his crew looked to be quite trim, light, lads and this must have helped the weight carrying quite a bit.
I have not had a chance to see DCB but I understand that it is not easy to sail. Perhaps in due course it will be superseded by an all-rounder which can be enjoyed by a wider membership.
Ken Goddard
 

[Martin]

Would it be feasible to have a more aesthetically pleasing (well to me anyway!) version of P2, ie a single decker with less freeboard or would that just compromise the design?