29er

Class symbol
Development
Boat
Crew	2 (single trapeze)
Hull
Hull weight	74 kg (163 lb)
LOA	4.40 m (14.4 ft)
Beam	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Rig
Mast length	6.25 m (20.5 ft)
Sails
Spinnaker area	16.83 m2 (181.2 sq ft)
Upwind sail area	13.19 m2 (142.0 sq ft)
Racing
D-PN	84.5[1]
RYA PN	902[2]

The 29er is a two-person high performance sailing skiff designed by Julian Bethwaite and first produced in 1998. Derived from the Olympic class 49er class, it is raced in the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.^[3] The 29er is able to reach high speeds fairly quickly by having a sleek and hydrodynamic hull and will often exceed the wind speed when planing both up and downwind.

Background

29er

The 29er class is targeted at youth, especially those training to sail the larger Olympic 49er. The Youth Sailing World Championships has adopted it to replace the Laser 2 - which was designed by Julian Bethwaite's father Frank.

The 29er has two sailors, one on trapeze. The rig features a fractional asymmetrical spinnaker; a self-tacking jib decreases the work load of the crew, making maneuvers more efficient and freeing the crew to take the mainsheet upwind and on two-sail reaches. The spinnaker rigging set-up challenges crews to be fit and coordinated, and maneuvers in the boat require athleticism due to its lack of inherent stability and the high speed with which the fully battened mainsail and jib power up.

The hull construction is of fibreglass-reinforced polyester in a foam sandwich layout. The fully battened mainsail and jib are made from a transparent Mylar laminate with orange or red Dacron trimming, while the spinnaker is manufactured from ripstop Nylon. The mast is in three parts - an aluminium bottom and middle section, with a polyester-fiberglass composite tip to increase mast bend and decrease both overall weight, and the capsizing moment a heavy mast tip can generate. Foils are aluminium or fibreglass.

The class has shown large popularity in Oceania with over 700 registered boats out of the 7000 registered worldwide^[4]

Events

World Championship

Main article: 29er World Championship

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2000  Italy Lake Garda 58 Boats	New Zealand Mike Bassett Mark Kennedy	Australia Evan McNicol John Winning	New Zealand Scott Kennedy Lindsay Kennedy	[5]
2001  Canada Kingston 64 Boats	Great Britain John Pink Tom Weeks	Great Britain John Gimson Simon Marks	Australia Joseph Turner Charles Dorron	[6]
2002  Australia Sydney 103 Boats	Australia John Winning Evan McNicol	Australia Nathan Outteridge Grant Rose	Australia Jonathan Bonnitcha Paul Bonnitcha	[7]
2003  Spain Laredo ?? Boats	Great Britain David Evans Rick Peacock	Argentina Pepe Bettini Federico Villambrosa	Great Britain Thomas Smedley Stevie Wilson	[8]
2004   Switzerland Lake Silvaplana 84 Boats	Great Britain Tristan Jaques Alain Sign	Finland Lauri Lehtinen Miikka Pennanen	Australia David O'Connor Scott Babbage	[9]
2005  United States San Francisco 78 Boats	Australia Jacqui Bonnitcha Euan McNicol	Australia David O'Connor Scott Babbage	United States John Heineken Matt Noble	[10]
2006  Great Britain Weymouth 105 Boats	Finland Silja Lehtinen Scott Babbage	Great Britain Dylan Fletcher Rob Partridge	United States Cameron Biehl Matt Noble	[11]
2007  Argentina Buenos Aires ?? Boats	Argentina Matías Gainza Federico Villambrosa	Argentina Pepe Bettini Matías Keller	Argentina Ignacio Fernández Besada Tigris Martirosjan	[12]
2008  Australia Melbourne 102 Boats	Australia Steve Thomas Jasper Warren	Australia Byron White William Ryan	Great Britain Max Richardson Alex Groves	[13]
2009  Italy Lake Garda 185 Boats	Australia Steve Thomas Blair Tuke	Australia Lauren Jeffies Nathan Outteridge	Australia Haylee Outteridge Iain Jensen
2010  Bahamas Freeport 35 Boats	France Kevin Fisher Glen Gouron	Argentina Pepe Bettini Fernando Gwozdz	Italy Lorenzo Franceschini Ricardo Camin	[14]
2011  Argentina Mar del Plata 60 Boats	Argentina María Belén Tavella Franco Greggi	Argentina Pepe Bettini Fernando Gwozdz	Argentina Francisco Cosentino Tomás Wagmáister	[15]
2012  Germany Travemünde 216 Boats	Spain Carlos Robles Florián Trittel	France Lucas Rual Kevin Fischer	Argentina Klaus Lange Mateo Majdalani	[16]
2013  Denmark Kalø Vig 213 Boats	France Lucas Rual Émile Amoros	New Zealand Markus Somerville Jack Simpson	Spain Martí Llena Oriol Mahiques	[17]
2014  Canada Kingston 101 Boats	Australia Kurt Hansen Harry Morton	France Brice Yrieix Loic Ficher-Guillou	Germany Jasper Steffens Tom Lennart Brauckmann	[18]
2015  Great Britain Pwllheli 193 Boats	Australia Kyle O'Connell Tom Siganto	Argentina Ignacio Varisco Federico García	United States Christopher Williford Wade Waddell	[19]
2016  Netherlands Medemblik 228 Boats	Australia Tom Crockett Harry Morton	France Gwendal Nael Lilian Mercier	Great Britain Crispin Beaumont Tom Darling	[20]
2017  United States Long Beach 129 Boats	South Africa Benji Daniel Alex Burger	France Benjamin Jaffrezic Léo Chauvel	France Théo Revil Gautier Guevel	[21]
2018  Hong Kong Hong Kong 58 Boats	New Zealand Francesco Kayrouz Jackson Keon	Australia Lachie Brewer Max Paul	France Benjamin Jaffrezic Léo Chauvel	[22]
2019  Poland Gdynia 175 Boats	France Aristide Girou Noah Chauvin	United States Stephan Baker Ripley Shelley	Sweden Alice Moss Carl Hörfelt	[23][24]
2020  Great Britain Weymouth[25]	Cancelled due to COVID-19
2021  Spain Valencia 190 Boats	Spain Mateo Codoñer Simón Codoñer	Spain Quicorras Urios Filippo Binetti	Denmark Jens-Christian Dehn-Toftehøj Jens-Philip Dehn-Toftehøj	[26]
2022  Spain El Balís 242 Boats	Argentina Máximo Videla Tadeo Funes	Italy Alex Demurtas Giovanni Santi	France Hugo Revil Karl Devaux	[27]
2023  Great Britain Weymouth 205 Boats	Ireland Clementine Van Steenberge Nathan Van Steenberge	Argentina Máximo Videla Juan Cruz Albamonte	Italy Alex Demurtas Giovanni Santi	[28]

Youth Sailing World Championships

Main article: Youth Sailing World Championships

The 29er has been used as equipment in the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships.

Open

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2010	France Gael Jaffrezix Julien Bloyet	New Zealand Alex Maloney Sam Bullock	United States Antoine Screve James Moody
2011	Spain Carlos Robles Florián Trittel	United States Antoine Screve Max Agnese	Netherlands Max Deckers Annette Duetz
2012	Spain Carlos Robles Florián Trittel	France Lucas Rual Thomas Biton	Argentina Klaus Lange Mateo Majdalani
2013	France Lucas Rual Émile Amoros	Sweden Ida Svensson Rasmus Rosengren	New Zealand Markus Somerville Jack Simpson
2014	France Brice Yrieix Loïc Fischer Guillou	United States Quinn Wilson Riley Gibbs	New Zealand Markus Somerville Isaac McHardie

Boys

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2002 Lunenburg (CAN)	Australia Nathan Outteridge Ayden Menzies	New Zealand Geoffrey Woolley Mark Overington	France Guillaume Vigna Thibaut Gatti	[29][30]
2007 Kingston (CAN)	Denmark Henrik Sogaard Søren Kristensen	New Zealand Paul Snow-Hansen Blair Tuke	Great Britain James Ellis Rob Partridge	[31][32]
2008 Århus (DEN)	Great Britain James Peters Edward FitzGerald	Argentina German Billoch Gaston Cheb Terrab	United States Judge Ryan Hans Henken	[33][34]
2016 Auckland (NZL) 25 Nations	Great Britain Crispin Beaumont Tom Darling	France Gwendal Nael Lilian Mercier	Australia John Cooley Simon Hoffman	[35]
2017 Sanya (CHN) 30 Nations	France Théo Revil Gautier Guevel	Norway Mathias Berthet Alexander Franks-Penty	Argentina Santiago Duncan Elias Dalli	[36]
2018 Corpus Christi (USA) 25 Nations	Norway Mathias Berthet Alexander Franks-Penty	New Zealand Seb Lardies Scott McKenzie	Australia Henry Larkings Miles Davey	[37]
2019 Gdynia (POL) 28 Nations	Norway Mathias Berthet Alexander Franks-Penty	Finland Ville Korhonen Edvard Bremer	Australia Archie Cropley Max Paul	[38]
2021 Al-Mussanah (OMA) 24 Nations	France Hugo Revil Karl Devaux	Spain Mateo Codoñer Simón Codoñer	United States Ian Nyenhuis Noah Nyenhuis	[39]
2022 The Hague (NED) 24 Nations	Argentina Máximo Videla Tadeo Funes	Great Britain Santiago Sesto-Cosby Leo Wilkinson	New Zealand George Lee Rush Seb Menzies	[40]
2023 Búzios (BRA) 30 Nations	France Hugo Revil Karl Devaux	Italy Alex Demurtas Giovanni Santi	Ireland Ben O'Shaughnessy Ethan Spain	[41]

Girls

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2002	Great Britain Pippa Wilson Jenny Marks	Australia Elise Rechichi Rayshele Martin	New Zealand Rachel O'Brien Kelly Riechelmann
2007	United States Emily Dellenbaugh Briana Provancha	Great Britain Sophie Weguelin Sophie Ainsworth	Australia Hannah Nattrass Michelle Muller
2008	Great Britain Frances Peters Claire Lasko	Netherlands Annemiek Bekkering Jeske Kisters	Australia Hannah Nattrass Michelle Muller
2015	Finland Sirre Kronlöf Veera Hokka	Denmark Lærke Graversen Iben Nielsby Christensen	New Zealand Greta Stewart Kate Stewart
2016	Australia Natasha Bryant Annie Wilmot	Poland Aleksandra Melzacka Maja Micińska	New Zealand Greta Stewart Kate Stewart
2017 Sanya[42]	Italy Margherita Porro Sofia Leoni	Russia Zoya Novikova Diana Sabirova	Australia Jasmin May Galbraith Chloe Fisher
2018 Corpus Christi[43]	Norway Pia Andersen Nora Edland	United States Berta Puig Isabella Casaretto	Russia Zoya Novikova Diana Sabirova
2019 Gdynia[44]	United States Berta Puig Isabella Casaretto	Malta Antonia Schultheis Victoria Schultheis	Sweden Martina Carlsson Amanda Ljunggren
2021 Al-Mussanah[45]	Great Britain Emily Mueller Florence Brellisford	United States Charlie Leigh Sophie Fisher	Slovenia Alja Petrič Katja Filipič
2022 The Hague[46]	Argentina Amparo Stupenengo Julia Pantin	France Lucie Gout Fleur Babin	Japan Manase Ichihashi Rinko Goto
2023 Búzios[47]	Poland Ewa Lewandowska Julia Żmudzińska	France Sarah Jannin Fleur Babin	Hungary Boróka Fehér Szonja Fehér

29er XX and XS

Bethwaite and Jen Glass have also designed the 29erXX, a twin trapeze derivative of the 29er. It uses the same hull with some minor changes such as an extended gunwale and a rudder gantry, with a larger rig that includes a square-top main and masthead asymmetric spinnaker. The class became an International Sailing Federation recognised class in its own right in 2010.

In late 2012 Bethwaite announced another new version, the 29erXS, aimed at younger and/or lighter sailors. The XS features a similar rig to the XX, but of smaller size fitted to a standard 29er hull and employing a single trapeze. The main being 4.29sqm and the jib 2.13sqm, the spinnaker is similarly downsized.^[48] The intention is that sailors can upgrade the rig when they are ready to move to full sized sails, and keep the hull, which will remain standard across all 29er variants.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 29er.

International Links

• 29er.org
• ISAF 29er Microsite

Builders

• Ovington Boats
• Bethwaite Design Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine

National Class Associations

• 29er Class Association of New Zealand
• German 29er Association
• British 29er Association
• North American Class Page
• Danish 29er Association
• Swiss 29er Association
• (in Dutch) 29er Class Organisation Archived 2009-05-20 at the Wayback Machine
• Swedish 9er Association
• Polish 9er Association Archived 2013-01-31 at the Wayback Machine