The launch of the Thorpe Class trainee 12ft Dinghy
A small crowd gathered to mark the occasion of the launch of the Thorpe dinghy
that has been lovingly restored by Club Patron Barry Austen
A little bit of information for the reader ...
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
( Michael Storer - Blog Sailing Dinghy Thorpe Class Trainee 12ft)
and while it may take a village to raise a child,
it clearly takes a few members to rig a Thorpe...
finally it was a 'goer'
we took a few photos for the history books
,,, keeping a low profile?
down at the waters edge , Colleen and Martin nervously climbed aboard
😰 ... big responsibility ...
Just lovely Barry !
Our Dad Bob Rigby sailed them as a kid in Qld, then had some built in Victoria. We drove to Paramatta for the 67-68 Nationals, and then to Noosa in 70-71 (?). They were a challenge to sail in our lumpy seas in Westernport (Vic). A handful of keen Queenslanders drove to Vic one year and raced with us at Somers. I think they were from Maroochydore. I could dig out some pics of our Vic boats (which had built-in Mirror-type flotation) but wonder why there are no other images on the web for those good-ol' sailing days? Cheers,Andy.
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