One-design
Encyclopedia
One-Design is a racing
method where all vehicles or boats have identical or very similar designs or models. It is also known as Spec series
. It is heavily used in sailboat
racing. All competitors in a race are then judged based on a single start time. One-Design can be compared with the Development Class, the classic example being the Americas Cup 12-meter class, or to the Box Rule used for example in the TP52 class.
However over the last 15 years a third setup has quickly risen through the ranks and has become at least as large as the above two setups. This is the formula based class setup. The mini 650s, also known as mini transats, the open 70's monohulls, the large ORMA trimarans and the Formula 18 racing beach catamarans are the exponents of this new approach. The two setups are often confused with each other as in both setups class legal boats race each other without any handicap calculations. However under One-design the boats are virtually identical except in details while the Formula setup allows the boats to differ much more in design while keeping a few important specifications the same. As a result the identifier "One-Design" has been used more and more exclusively to denote a class that races only identical boats.
One-Design is utilized in a variety of racing sports. Primarily it refers to sailing, where the One-Design Class Council creates, monitors, and enforces the rules that define what classes of sailboats are One-Design boats. It can additionally refer to airplanes or motor vehicles, such as IndyCars, where teams are required to meet certain specifications such as vehicle weight, engine displacement, weight, fuel capacity, and a variety of other factors are measured and regulated, or classes limited to a single make, such as the Yamaha RD Cup.
In motorsport, this term is commonly known as one-make racing and this term is predominantly given to series for production based cars such as the Porsche Supercup
.
, PHRF
and LYS (Leading Yard Stick)
). One design refers to a racing
class that consists of just one model or design of sailboat
. In one-design racing, the first boat to finish wins the race. This is contrasted with handicap racing, where time is added or subtracted from the finishing times based on design factors and mathematical formulas to determine the winner. Having a rigid one-design specification keeps design experiment
ation to a minimum and reduces cost of ownership. The popularity of one-design increased in the 1970s with the introduction of laminate construction using fibre-reinforced plastic
(FRP) and mold building technology. This process allowed the mass production of identical hulls of virtually any size at a lower price.
The one-design design idea was created by Thomas Middleton of the Shankill Corinthian Club located 10 miles (16.1 km) south of Dublin, Ireland in the year 1887. He proposed a class of double ended open dinghy of simple clincher construction in pine with a lifting boiler plate capable of being lifted. The boat was called The Water Wag. The idea was quickly adopted by sailors in Ireland, England, India and South America. The Water Wag Club still thrives in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
The Solent One Design Class was one of the earliest O.D. classes formed after discussions took place in 1893 and subsequent years It quickly became popular, and was patronised by some of the most energetic and best known yacht owners in the Solent, Portsmouth and Southampton waters including Sir Philip Hunloke, the Kings yachtmaster. Formed under the auspices of the Solent Sailing Club the class was adopted by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Island Sailing Club in 1895. The dimensions of the boats were length overall, 33 ft 3 in; Waterline length, 25 ft; Beam, 7 ft 9 in; Draft, 5 ft; Sail area, 750 sq ft.; Displacement, 5 tons with 2 tons 13 cwt. of lead in the keel. Cutter rig with 6 ft bowsprit. Designed by H.W. White, ten were built in 1895/6 by Messrs. White Brothers of Itchen Ferry, Southampton and another twelve were built in the following year. The class enjoyed ten years of keen racing but the Metre Rule, which was introduced in 1907 effectively killed the class. The only boat still afloat is Rosenn, formally Eilun, sail number 6. Now, fully restored, she has been identified as meriting inclusion in the National Register of Historic Vessels of the United Kingdom. She is kept in Lymington where she is still racing and winning on the Solent.
As a general rule, the tolerances are strictest in smaller boats like dinghy classes and small keelboats. All one-design classes will have a class association that will determine the measurement rules for the class. Olympic one-design classes have some of the strictest tolerances, for example Laser
, Finn
, Star
, and the former Olympic class Soling
.
For classes where the boats are physically smaller, this might mean that everything is designed and produced at the same factory, or by only licensed manufacturer in any country or region, so that all racing vehicles have identical parts. Examples of this include the Laser
, Melges 24, Jet 14
, 49er
, or Town Class
boats. This is also true of the larger International One Design
.
In medium- to large-sized boat classes, One-Design would refer to conformance to a standard specification, with the possibility of alterations being allowed as long as they remained within certain tolerances. Examples of this are the J/24
, Sunfish, Santana 20
, Tartan 10
, Etchells
, J105, Schock 35, and the Farr 40
. After the hull length overall (LOA) exceeds 27 feet (8.2 m), people generally refer to the boat as an offshore one-design boat or yacht.
In other classes, the one-design class may have organized around an existing fleet of similar boats that traditionally existed together often for commercial purposes such as sailing canoes, dhow
s, and skipjacks, or boats that developed a common hull form over the years (such as A-Scow
s).
In contrast to 'one-design', other offshore sailboats race under a variety of handicapping rules and formulas developed to allow different type boats to compete against one another. Handicap rules include Portsmouth Yardstick
, PHRF
, IOR
, IMS, IRC
, Americap and LYS
.
There have been several attempts to bring the advantages of one-design to the sport of competitive glider racing. The most successful of these has been the Schweizer 1-26 class
with 700 aircraft completed and flown between 1954-1981.
Schweizer Aircraft
principal Paul A Schweizer
was a proponent of the One-Design concept. He intended the company's 1-26 to be the aircraft to establish a one-design class in the United States
. He wrote:
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
method where all vehicles or boats have identical or very similar designs or models. It is also known as Spec series
Spec series
One-make racing is a racing category in which all competitors race in identical or very similar vehicles from the same manufacturer, often using the same model. Typically, this means the same chassis, tyres and engine are used by all drivers...
. It is heavily used in sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...
racing. All competitors in a race are then judged based on a single start time. One-Design can be compared with the Development Class, the classic example being the Americas Cup 12-meter class, or to the Box Rule used for example in the TP52 class.
However over the last 15 years a third setup has quickly risen through the ranks and has become at least as large as the above two setups. This is the formula based class setup. The mini 650s, also known as mini transats, the open 70's monohulls, the large ORMA trimarans and the Formula 18 racing beach catamarans are the exponents of this new approach. The two setups are often confused with each other as in both setups class legal boats race each other without any handicap calculations. However under One-design the boats are virtually identical except in details while the Formula setup allows the boats to differ much more in design while keeping a few important specifications the same. As a result the identifier "One-Design" has been used more and more exclusively to denote a class that races only identical boats.
Features of One-Design
As manufacturing technologies became more efficient and effective over the course of the 20th century, racers realized that there was an important need to equalize the design of the vehicles that they were competing in. The important factors being measured in One-Design racing help to equalize the vehicles and put more emphasis on the skill of the competitors.One-Design is utilized in a variety of racing sports. Primarily it refers to sailing, where the One-Design Class Council creates, monitors, and enforces the rules that define what classes of sailboats are One-Design boats. It can additionally refer to airplanes or motor vehicles, such as IndyCars, where teams are required to meet certain specifications such as vehicle weight, engine displacement, weight, fuel capacity, and a variety of other factors are measured and regulated, or classes limited to a single make, such as the Yamaha RD Cup.
In motorsport, this term is commonly known as one-make racing and this term is predominantly given to series for production based cars such as the Porsche Supercup
Porsche Supercup
The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is the international motor racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche AG....
.
Sailing
There are two primary methods of competition in sailboat racing: One-Design and handicap (see: Portsmouth YardstickPortsmouth yardstick
The Portsmouth Yardstick or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a system of handicapping used primarily in small-boat yacht racing.The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the corrected time can be used to compare widely different sailboats on even terms. Portsmouth Numbers are...
, PHRF
PHRF
Performance Handicap Racing Fleet is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other...
and LYS (Leading Yard Stick)
LYS (sailing)
LYS is an akronym for Leading Yard Stick, or formerly Lidingö Yard Stick. LYS is an empirically based handicapping system used in yacht racing in the nordic countries. The handicap system was developed in 1970 by the Swedish yacht designer Lars-Olof Norlin. He based the system on regatta results...
). One design refers to a racing
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
class that consists of just one model or design of sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...
. In one-design racing, the first boat to finish wins the race. This is contrasted with handicap racing, where time is added or subtracted from the finishing times based on design factors and mathematical formulas to determine the winner. Having a rigid one-design specification keeps design experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
ation to a minimum and reduces cost of ownership. The popularity of one-design increased in the 1970s with the introduction of laminate construction using fibre-reinforced plastic
Fibre-reinforced plastic
Fibre-reinforced plastic is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually fibreglass, carbon, or aramid, while the polymer is usually an epoxy, vinylester or polyester thermosetting plastic...
(FRP) and mold building technology. This process allowed the mass production of identical hulls of virtually any size at a lower price.
The one-design design idea was created by Thomas Middleton of the Shankill Corinthian Club located 10 miles (16.1 km) south of Dublin, Ireland in the year 1887. He proposed a class of double ended open dinghy of simple clincher construction in pine with a lifting boiler plate capable of being lifted. The boat was called The Water Wag. The idea was quickly adopted by sailors in Ireland, England, India and South America. The Water Wag Club still thrives in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
The Solent One Design Class was one of the earliest O.D. classes formed after discussions took place in 1893 and subsequent years It quickly became popular, and was patronised by some of the most energetic and best known yacht owners in the Solent, Portsmouth and Southampton waters including Sir Philip Hunloke, the Kings yachtmaster. Formed under the auspices of the Solent Sailing Club the class was adopted by the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Island Sailing Club in 1895. The dimensions of the boats were length overall, 33 ft 3 in; Waterline length, 25 ft; Beam, 7 ft 9 in; Draft, 5 ft; Sail area, 750 sq ft.; Displacement, 5 tons with 2 tons 13 cwt. of lead in the keel. Cutter rig with 6 ft bowsprit. Designed by H.W. White, ten were built in 1895/6 by Messrs. White Brothers of Itchen Ferry, Southampton and another twelve were built in the following year. The class enjoyed ten years of keen racing but the Metre Rule, which was introduced in 1907 effectively killed the class. The only boat still afloat is Rosenn, formally Eilun, sail number 6. Now, fully restored, she has been identified as meriting inclusion in the National Register of Historic Vessels of the United Kingdom. She is kept in Lymington where she is still racing and winning on the Solent.
As a general rule, the tolerances are strictest in smaller boats like dinghy classes and small keelboats. All one-design classes will have a class association that will determine the measurement rules for the class. Olympic one-design classes have some of the strictest tolerances, for example Laser
Laser (dinghy)
The International Laser Class sailboat, also called Laser Standard and the Laser One is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy. According the Laser Class Rules the boat may be sailed by either one or two people, though it is rarely sailed by two. The design, by Bruce Kirby, emphasizes...
, Finn
Finn (dinghy)
The Finn dinghy is the men's single-handed, cat-rigged Olympic class for sailing. It was designed by Swedish canoe designer, Rickard Sarby, in 1949 for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki...
, Star
Star (sailboat)
The International Star is a 6.9 m one-design racing keelboat for two people.The boat must weigh at least 671 kg with a maximum total sail area of 26.5 m . It is sloop-rigged, with a mainsail larger in proportional size than any other boat of its length...
, and the former Olympic class Soling
Soling
A Soling is a class of open keelboat designed by Jan Linge of Norway in 1965. In 1968, it was chosen from among many other boats to be the men's triple-handed boat for the 1972 Olympics...
.
For classes where the boats are physically smaller, this might mean that everything is designed and produced at the same factory, or by only licensed manufacturer in any country or region, so that all racing vehicles have identical parts. Examples of this include the Laser
Laser (dinghy)
The International Laser Class sailboat, also called Laser Standard and the Laser One is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy. According the Laser Class Rules the boat may be sailed by either one or two people, though it is rarely sailed by two. The design, by Bruce Kirby, emphasizes...
, Melges 24, Jet 14
Jet 14
The Jet 14 sailboat is a One-Design racing dinghy. The fleets are organized by the Jet 14 Class Association, which is broken into four divisions based upon geographical locations of the fleets. District I is in New Jersey, District II is in Ohio, District III is in Maryland, and District IV is in...
, 49er
49er (dinghy)
The 49er is a double handed twin trapeze skiff type sailing dinghy. The two crew work on different roles with the helm making many tactical decisions, as well as steering, and the crew doing most of the sail control. The design, by Julian Bethwaite, the son of Frank Bethwaite , is revolutionary...
, or Town Class
Town Class (sailboat)
Town Class sailboats are lap strake one-design dories, constructed in either wood or fiberglass. The Town Class was designed as an affordable boat for the townspeople, hence its name.- History :...
boats. This is also true of the larger International One Design
International One Design
The International One Design is a class of sail boat developed for yacht racing. It is a 33-foot open cockpit day sailer used for day racing, rather than for overnight, or ocean races, such as the Newport–Bermuda Yacht Race...
.
In medium- to large-sized boat classes, One-Design would refer to conformance to a standard specification, with the possibility of alterations being allowed as long as they remained within certain tolerances. Examples of this are the J/24
J/24
The J/24 is an International One-Design keelboat class as defined by the International Sailing Federation. The J/24 is a one design class created to fulfill the diverse needs of recreational sailors such as cruising, one design racing, day sailing and handicap racing.The J/24 is the world's most...
, Sunfish, Santana 20
Santana 20
The Santana 20 is a one-design class of sailboat commonly used for racing. The boat is popular on the west coast of the United States with large fleets in Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Los Angeles, & San Diego. There are also fleets in the Midwest including Denver, Kansas City, Tulsa, Oklahoma City...
, Tartan 10
Tartan Ten
The Tartan Ten, nicknamed T-10, is a 10 meter keelboat designed by Sparkman & Stephens in 1978. Since then over 400 hulls have been built.The T-10 is a sloop design with 7/8th fractional rig, symmetrical spinnaker, lead keel, aluminum mast and boom, and balsawood-cored fiberglass hull...
, Etchells
Etchells
The International Etchells Class is a racing class of one-design sailing boats.-History:In 1965, Yachting Magazine launched a competition to select a new three man Olympic keelboat. E. W. "Skip" Etchells, a boat designer, builder and sailor, was interested in the competition, but refrained from...
, J105, Schock 35, and the Farr 40
Farr 40
The Farr 40 is a 40 foot one-design sailboat designed by Farr Yacht Design in 1996 following after the Mumm 30. It is currently built by US Watercraft...
. After the hull length overall (LOA) exceeds 27 feet (8.2 m), people generally refer to the boat as an offshore one-design boat or yacht.
In other classes, the one-design class may have organized around an existing fleet of similar boats that traditionally existed together often for commercial purposes such as sailing canoes, dhow
Dhow
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...
s, and skipjacks, or boats that developed a common hull form over the years (such as A-Scow
A-Scow
In sailing, the A-Scow is a large sailing scow. It is 38 feet long and with reported top speeds of over 25 knots. With its rules of design, also known as scantlings, first beaten by its father in 1901, the A-Scow has a significant history...
s).
In contrast to 'one-design', other offshore sailboats race under a variety of handicapping rules and formulas developed to allow different type boats to compete against one another. Handicap rules include Portsmouth Yardstick
Portsmouth yardstick
The Portsmouth Yardstick or Portsmouth handicap scheme is a system of handicapping used primarily in small-boat yacht racing.The handicap is applied to the time taken to sail any course, and the corrected time can be used to compare widely different sailboats on even terms. Portsmouth Numbers are...
, PHRF
PHRF
Performance Handicap Racing Fleet is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other...
, IOR
International Offshore Rule
The International Offshore Rule was a measurement rule for racing sailboats. The IOR evolved from the Cruising Club of America rule for racer/cruisers and the Royal Ocean Racing Club rule.-Rule context - past and present rating systems:...
, IMS, IRC
IRC (Sailing)
IRC is a system of handicapping sailboats and yachts for the purpose of racing. It is managed by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in the United Kingdom through their dedicated Rating Office....
, Americap and LYS
LYS (sailing)
LYS is an akronym for Leading Yard Stick, or formerly Lidingö Yard Stick. LYS is an empirically based handicapping system used in yacht racing in the nordic countries. The handicap system was developed in 1970 by the Swedish yacht designer Lars-Olof Norlin. He based the system on regatta results...
.
Car racing
Soaring
Schweizer SGS 1-26
The Schweizer SGS 1-26 is a United States One-Design, single-seat, mid-wing glider built by Schweizer Aircraft of Elmira, New York.The SGS 1-26 enjoyed a very long production run from its first flight in 1954 until 1979, when production was ended. The 1-26 was replaced in production by the...
with 700 aircraft completed and flown between 1954-1981.
Schweizer Aircraft
Schweizer Aircraft
The Schweizer Aircraft Corporation is a manufacturer of sailplanes, agricultural aircraft and helicopters located in Horseheads, New York. It was incorporated in 1939 by three Schweizer brothers , who built their first glider in 1930...
principal Paul A Schweizer
Schweizer brothers
Paul, William , and Ernest Schweizer were three brothers who started building gliders in 1930. In 1937, they formed the Schweizer Metal Aircraft Company. Their first commercial glider sale was an SGU 1-7 glider to Harvard University's Altosaurus Glider Club. At that time, Eliot Noyes was a...
was a proponent of the One-Design concept. He intended the company's 1-26 to be the aircraft to establish a one-design class in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He wrote:
"The true measure of pilot ability and experience is usually shown by his final standing in a contest. What could be more indicative of this when pilots are flying identical sailplanes with identical performance. One design competition is the sure test of soaring skill."