Sue Pelling and Geoff Carveth took a walk on the wild side to find out what's so special about Devoti's new baby ...

We were so impressed with the outstanding performance of the new Musto Performance Skiff at the recent ISAF Evaluation event at Quiberon in France, we just had to have a go!
But it wasn't just the speed that impressed us (the boat won every race at the trials) but the fact that she was being developed and built by one of the most internationally respected boatbuilders - Devoti Sailing.

Devoti's Tim Tavinor and Luca Devoti won the contract to build all the Finns for the 1996 Olympic Games in Savannah and are doing the same this year for Sydney. As Olympic specialists they are also building successful 470s as well as the internationally popular Snipe class.
But as a forward thinking company, it was only a matter of time before Devoti put their thinking caps on to look for a new design which could be a contender for a possible new Olympic singlehanded high performance dinghy.

Because this new dinghy is still in its development stages, it is not yet in full production. However, within the next three months the first production boats should be on the water and the class rules finalised.
With so many new boats popping up all over the place, it's hard to get too excited about yet another boat. But as a high performance singlehanded trapeze dinghy with a 16sq m gennaker we had a feeling this new racer could be a bit different.
To ensure we carried out an unbiased report of this new high performance racer, we shipped in super-hot helmsman Geoff Carveth straight from the Olympic 49er trials at Weymouth to give us his opinion.
Thankfully we managed to pick a perfect testing day with sun, light winds in the morning and a fresh seabreeze picking up in the afternoon. Like all high performance boats which only seem to have one gear, it was interesting to see how the Skiff performed in the light airs.

Because the boat has been well thought out the layout is simple and everything works well. The mainsheet is fixed on a rope strop which is in exactly the right position, and the spinnaker uphaul and downhaul works like a dream with just five pumps to hoist the gennaker. On the drop it's just a matter of releasing the Ronstan cleat and pulling the downhaul which is positioned perfectly on the port side of the mainsheet strop.

In the Force 1-2 Carveth was impressed by the boat's performance. 'Upwind she is very fast in a straight line, has a good pointing angle and the helm is very well balanced.'

Because of her narrow waterline, you could be forgiven for thinking she was going to be a tad on the twitchy side but this was not the case. 'She was not as tippy as expected on the tack,' added Carveth, 'in fact, she seemed very smooth. I did find myself "in irons" a couple of times during the tacks but that was purely lack of practice in the boat. Although the decks and wings were ideal stepping platforms, I think an extra kick bar in the middle aft of the cockpit could be advantageous particularly when the breeze gets up.'

On the bear-off in the breezier conditions, the boat kept it's bow up and there was never any indication of nose diving. 'I loved the one-line spinnaker hoist/drop system,' said Carveth, 'it's simple and once you've got to grips with bearing off dead downwind and steering with the tiller between your legs, hoisting the kite is child's play.'

But how does one cope with the mainsail, gennaker, helm and going out on the wire all at the same time, and what is it like on the gybes? 'As long as you ensure the mainsail is freed off and cleated during the gybe,' said Carveth, 'all you have to do is concentrate on gennaker trim. I found it was best to pull the sheet through while hooking on in preparation for the acceleration on the new gybe.'

And what about righting the boat after a capsize? As you can see from the video footage righting the boat was not a problem. Although we wouldn't like to say it's always as easy as Carveth made it look - righting the boat with the spinnaker still set!

Hits and misses

Sue
Hits:Having rarely sailed a singlehanded trapeze dinghy, I was itching to have a go to see how easy it was for a singlehanded/trapezing newcomer to take the plunge. I have to say I was amazed at how stable and forgiving she was and how easy it was to get out on the wire while helming. Fortunately, It was fairly light airs, but still very exciting and rewarding and totally addictive. As well as her impressive performance, she looks good which is always a good indication as to how she'll perform on the water.

Misses: Lots of fun and excitement but for lighter weight sailors it could be good to have the option of a slightly smaller sail.

Geoff
Hits: I loved her. She's a light, responsive well balanced, impressive speed machine - a definite big timer.

Misses: The outhaul is fixed. It would be good to see a simple outhaul system fitted. I'd also like to see the control cleats on the wings led further aft, and the mainsheet shortened to prevent it trailing out the back of the boat. A bit more power on the downhaul could also be beneficial.

The Musto Peformance Skiff

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