Soling
Class symbol
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| Designer | Jan H. Linge |
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| Location | Norway |
| Year | 1965 |
| Design | One-Design |
| Role | Designed for the Olympic Games 1972 |
| Crew | 2 or 3 |
| Draft | 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) |
| Trapeze | Droop hiking |
| Type | Monohull |
| Construction | GRP |
| Hull weight | 1,035 kg (2,282 lb) |
| LOA | 8.15 m (26.7 ft) |
| LWL | 6.1 m (20 ft) |
| Beam | 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) |
| Keel/Board Type | Fixed 580 kg (1,280 lb) |
| Rig Type | Bermuda rig |
| Mast Length | 9.3 m (31 ft) |
| Mainsail area | 15.6 m2 (168 sq ft) |
| Jib / Genoa area | 8.1 m2 (87 sq ft) |
| Spinnaker area | Max: 45 m2 (480 sq ft) Min: 35 m2 (380 sq ft) |
| Upwind Sail Area | 23.7 m2 (255 sq ft) |
| D-PN | 82.3 |
| RYA PN | 914 |
| Former Olympic class (Vintage Yachting class) | |
The Soling is an International open keelboat class designed by Jan Linge from Norway in 1965. In 1968, it was selected to be an Olympic class for the Games of the XX Olympiad in Kiel 1972 (GER). The Soling maintained this status until her final appearance at the 2000 Olympics.
The Soling is a strong boat designed for any wind and sea condition and is - above all - fun to sail. Fitness, sailing and team skills are basic requirements for successful racing. The boats are one-design originating from an authorized single plug and mould and made of glass reinforced polyester, making competition as equal as possible.
The lifetime of a Soling is long. Those produced in the early days still sail beautifully and some are still in competition (more than 30 years after being built). The average competition life of a Soling boat is considered 15 years making the Soling a perfect cost / benefit boat for racing purposes.
Characteristic for the Soling is the droop-hiking technique.
Since 2008 the Soling is one of the Vintage Yachting Classes at the Vintage Yachting Games.
The Soling history actually began in the mind of Jan Linge during the late 1950s while he was doing design work and tank testing on a 5.5 metre to be built for a Norwegian friend for sailing in the 1960 Olympics. This friend, Finn Ferner, was a successful businessman and an outstanding helmsman, an Olympic medalist and winner of many international events. Linge had become convinced that a slightly smaller boat with a detached spade rudder and short keel could be a fast seaworthy boat with the likelihood of great popularity – though such features were not allowed under the 5.5 rules. After 1960 Linge completed his design sketches to demonstrate his ideas for promoting a Norwegian national class.
By the time of the 1961 IYRU meetings, the forces for change had organized themselves to seek four new classes – a single hander as companion to the Finn, a two-man keelboat to complement the Star, a three-man keelboat like the 5.5 or Dragon, finally a catamaran. The underlying goals for these new boats were not explicit, but hinted: "high performance" and "popularity" were key words for whatever boat was chosen. The two-man keelboat process started in 1962 under the auspices of the Dutch sailing magazine De Waterkampioen with the announcement of the design competition, to culminate at the 1963 IYRU meetings, and Trials perhaps in 1965. This resulted in the Tempest.
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Wikipedia