Thread: SAILING DINGHY - THORPE CLASS TRAINEE - 12FT - 1960'S, Restored, Adelaide

I always liked the look of the Thorpe - it had a nice aggressive look with the sail up.

One of the few cat rigged boats to have a flat cut spinnaker.

I first saw it in a magazine of boat plans put out my one of the regular yachting magazines. From memory there were 6 boat plans inside.
Thorpe
Sailfish
Northbridge Junior
NS14
Sabot

But my memory is a bit vague about that. The Thorpe was in there for sure.

MIK

Cool, cool Cool,

I know for a fact that there was nothing up on the net about the Thorpe in the middle of last year. I was looking!!!

But a chap named Peter Brodie put an article up at the end of the year!
QUEENSLAND TRAINEE and THORPE 12 HISTORY

This is a little excerpt

The Trainee Dinghy was a double hander open boat (no deck), of planked construction with no buoyancy tanks. The sail plan of a large mainsail and flat-cut spinnaker provided plenty of excitement for crews in fresh conditions, and no room for error. The class evolved into the Thorpe 12 - a lighter boat of plywood construction with buoyancy tanks and a more efficient rig. Later boats were of foam sandwich or fibreglass construction with high aspect mainsails. Fleets of Trainees and Thorpes spread from Cairns to Sydney, with some boats being based in Victoria. The Class languished in the 1990's as Yachting Associations placed more emphasis upon Olympic and National classes.

I think we will long regret the loss of so many interesting boats that have contributed to the development of the boats we know now. I think it is arguable whether the "monoculture" policy of the yachting bodies has actually been successful as many small clubs have died out as well as the classes of boat. Other factors at play too such as expense (also a feature of monocultures), insurance etc.

And that is a gap the "wooden boat movement" slots into nicely. Not a monoculture with boats ranging from very cheap to very expensive and rather varied!



Best wishes
Michael Storer