12 foot dinghy
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| Designer | George Cockshott |
|---|---|
| Location | United Kingdom |
| Year | 1912 |
| Design | One-Design |
| Crew | 1 or 2 |
| Draft | 0.92 m (3 ft 0 in) |
| Type | Monohull |
| Construction |
Clinker (Original) GRP (modern) |
| Hull weight | 104 kg (229 lb) |
| LOA | 3.66 m (12.0 ft) |
| Beam | 1.43 m (4 ft 8 in) |
| Keel/Board Type | Centerplate |
| Rig Type | Standing lug |
| Mainsail area | 9.3 m2 (100 sq ft) |
| D-PN | SW 103 |
| Former Olympic class (Vintage Yachting class) | |
The International Twelve Foot Dinghy was designed by George Cockshott, an amateur boat designer from Southport, England in response to a 1912 design contest. It became the first one-design racing dinghy to achieve international recognition.
Cockshott was born 7 May 1875, and educated at Uppingham and King’s College Cambridge. He resided at Southport, and was Vice-Commodore of Southport Corinthian Yacht Club. As a boy he took a keen delight in building and sailing model yachts, and while at school built for himself a rowing and sailing boat. He joined the Cambridge University Sailing Club shortly after its formation in 1893. On coming down from Cambridge, he spent several seasons as ‘forward hand’ racing in the Southport ¾-rating class and the Menai Straits 1-rating class. He owned the Unona, a half decked centre board boat, and designed and sailed for two seasons a boat in a ‘restricted class’ of 12-foot dinghies with a fair measure of success. In 1901 he became owner of the 12 ton cutter Eurynome, a boat long famous as a cruiser-racer in Irish, Clyde and Welsh waters, and though Cockshott preferred cruising to racing, considerably reduced her spars and canvas, she was successfully raced under his flag for several seasons in a strong handicap class. In 1904, he again entered the ¾-rating class as part owner of Imp. His present yacht is the Sthoreen, an able and comfortable cruising yawl of 16 tons, built from his own designs, and launched in the spring of 1906. Cockshott has also turned his attention to yacht architecture, and, in addition to his own yacht, one 20 tonner, several smaller yachts, and motor launches, and tender to the Southport lifeboat, have been built from his designs. He designed a new racing class for the West Lancashire Yacht Club from which six boats are now being built.
Clubs: Royal Mersey Yacht Club, Southport Corinthian Yacht Club, West Lancashire Yacht Club, and Cambridge University Cruising Club. Address: 3, Tulketh Street, Southport.
In 1913 there was published in England a new rating rule for yachts of all sizes. The rule was prepared by the self -styled 'Boat Racing Association' under the chairmanship of Lt. Col. J. T. Bucknill at a meeting in November 1912. B.R.A. felt that ordinary racing sailors were not catered for by the YRA (Yacht Racing Association) rating rules. Initially there was to be a class of 18 footer rating, which was to be smaller than a 6m. Other sizes of yachts were intended to follow, including a 12-foot and a 20 foot.
The B.R.A. rating formula was:
Rating in feet= (Length + Square root of sail area)divided by 4 + (length x square root of sail area) divided by 3 x cube root of weight.
I leave it to another contributor to do the mathematics.
The class is known in some quarters as '(Section 5) The International One-Design 12 Foot Dinghy Class' as it is the smallest and 5th design approved by the International Conference of Nations held in 1919.
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Wikipedia