The triumph of the 29er
Facts and figures
First of all you have to clarify what the 29 stands for in the name 29er. It's not about the hull length like the big brother, the olympic 49er which is actually 4,99m long. From the 49er only the "9er" was taken over and the internal ranking 2 was set as a youth boat before it. The constructor also developed a model very similar to the 29er for older gentlemen with the name 59er. The 29er is 4.45m long, almost as long as the big 49er, but with a width of 1.77m much narrower, which makes the hull much more agile. Ready to sail, the 29er weighs just 90kg for a two-man boat and with its comparatively large sail area of 12.5m² on the wind and the 17m² gennaker, it glides very quickly. For this reason, the One Design 29er is also equipped with a very small number of yardstick 94 for youth boats.
History of the
The Australian Julian Bethwaite constructed the boat only in the 90's, so that the 29's could be bought for the first time in 1998. He was meant as a little brother and learning class for the 49er. The 29er celebrated its first success in 2001, when the hull was selected by ISAF as a two-hand boat for the youth world championship. The triumphal march was unstoppable and meanwhile - in Germany since 2008 - official championships are held worldwide, in Germany alone there are more than 60 teams in the ranking. In 2008 the ISAF finally exchanged the old 420 for the modern Skiff 29 as the boat class for the ISAF Youth Worlds.