The 6-Metre
Class : Erne's Heritage
The 6-metre class holds that unique
place in yacht racing history; between 1920
and 1939. They were smallest international class, and became the most technologically advanced racing vessels. By
1930 they had evolved into sleek magic, each built closely to these specifications:
38 feet length overall; 23 feet
6 inches to waterline; 6 feet beams, and 5 1/2 foot drafts.
The rated sail area for the sixes
was "within 450 sq ft" an occult measurement which bore a certain relationship to the actual amount of sail carried depending
upon conditions. In later development, a full complement of these sails would have included a parachute spinnaker, containing
more than double that area in fine fragile cloth.
6-Metres were very narrow for their length,
and correspondingly very heavy when one
considers they were pure racing vessels and
had no accomodations.
While they had a displacement tonnage
consistent with a vessel with accomodation and associated interior fittings, but did not have those berths, galleys and fittings, the weight went to the keel. Eventually the keel comprised more than seventy percent of the total weight.
Sixes were open boats with
nothing but the best facilities for sailing. They were were excessively expensive, pure, sailing machines.
This required what became
-- by the 1930s - a most innovative and expansive complement of
sails. The 6-Metres were the first to
carry three historical sail
designs, each one of which was nothing short of revolutionary.
The great straining, brutally sheeted
genoas, (which, without modern
winches and mechanics, could only be pinned in as hard as geared winches and sweating men could manage).
The gossamer spinnakers whose delicate
balloon bubble form belied the immense and punishing loads placed on the mast,
sheet and guy at the three points of attachment.
6-Metres inspired an evolutionary growth in design of vessel, rig and sail. That inspiration transformed sailing.
Erne is an integral, and
living, part of sailing history
