Dart 18

The Dart 18 is a two-hand boat class, which belongs to the one-design catamaran classes.

History

The Dart 18 was established in 1975 and was developed by Rodney March, who penned the Tornado also comes as a strict one-design class. To date, however further development steps have been made ​​, however, remained the uncommitted by the strict building concept. By 2013, more than 8,300 units were built, which are traveling on four continents in 16 countries. Since 2012 Windsport International has the worldwide license to manufacture. The boats have been built since 2005 Collins Fibreglass Plastics in South Africa, and since 2012 in Europe again.

Hull

The hulls of the darts are very similar to the design of the tornado, only the dagger boards were not included. Instead, the hulls were typical of beach catamarans fins at the bottom. The material is plastic (GRP ) with a thickness of a few millimeters in the upper and lateral regions. An individual more stressed areas, such as the fin material thickness can also be up to centimeters.

Both bodies are filled with a buoyancy to maintain the buoyancy at a damage. Accessible is the interior of a body depending on an inspection cover, which are located in the area of ​​the rear beam shots.

Rig, rigging, sails

The rig mast is composed of a rotatably mounted, which is supported by a shroud, and a pair of the forestay. The shrouds are selected simply by moving the lower retaining bolts on the tie rods. Spreaders has not the Dart 18.

The mainsail is driven without a tree and is fully battened with nine sail battens. The jib has in the sheet a simple translation.

Equipment

Often the Dart 18 is upgraded with a gennaker, as it is for example officially moved the Tornado since its revision in 2000. This allows a considerable increase of speed on downwind and Raumschotkursen. However, in races of the Dart 18 this is not allowed. In addition, usually a furler is installed to carry the jib when you set the gennaker can.

In addition, the foredeck, as in many sports regatta boats is common to rely on a trapeze gear. A keystone for the helmsman is not often seen, but the mounting brackets are available.