12 knots in a Sadler 29

[johnalison]

According to YM this month a Sadler 29 is fast and capable of up to 12 knots. I owned a fin-keeled one for twelve years and as far as I remember things got quite exciting enough at anything over eight knots, and I've only achieved 11.5 in my non-Sadler 34. We used to go out and race in any half-decent weather and race with a spinnaker bt I wonder if anyone has actually achieved 12 kn in a 29?

It would be optimistic to describe the Sadler 29 as a fast boat but unfair to call them slow either. We could give a good account of ourselves and match the 32 in most conditions until it involved going to windward at F4 and over. On the whole, I found YM's list of the most influential boats to be quite plausible, even though there were one or two that were unknown to me.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

According to YM this month a Sadler 29 is fast and capable of up to 12 knots. I owned a fin-keeled one for twelve years and as far as I remember things got quite exciting enough at anything over eight knots, and I've only achieved 11.5 in my non-Sadler 34. We used to go out and race in any half-decent weather and race with a spinnaker bt I wonder if anyone has actually achieved 12 kn in a 29?

It would be optimistic to describe the Sadler 29 as a fast boat but unfair to call them slow either. We could give a good account of ourselves and match the 32 in most conditions until it involved going to windward at F4 and over. On the whole, I found YM's list of the most influential boats to be quite plausible, even though there were one or two that were unknown to me.

Well, I'm sceptical! It isn't a planing hull, and it's a comparable length to my Moody 31. With a gale behind her, I can get up to and perhaps beyond 8 knots, and MOMENTARILY even higher as she surfs down a wave. But a sustained speed over about 8 knots is not believable. At 8 knots it's pretty scary, too! I have seen a SOG of 13 knots sustained but that was with substantial tidal assistance off Fair Head, travelling south from Rathlin Island to Bangor!

 

[johnalison]

Well, I'm sceptical! It isn't a planing hull, and it's a comparable length to my Moody 31. With a gale behind her, I can get up to and perhaps beyond 8 knots, and MOMENTARILY even higher as she surfs down a wave. But a sustained speed over about 8 knots is not believable. At 8 knots it's pretty scary, too! I have seen a SOG of 13 knots sustained but that was with substantial tidal assistance off Fair Head, travelling south from Rathlin Island to Bangor!

The Moody 31 was the boat we aspired to when we bought our Sadler 29 in 1987, in fact the agents at Levington sold both marques. At the time the Sadler cost c £20,000 and the Moody £30,000.

 

[Graham376]

We once saw 10.5kts in a Centaur, just before we broached

 

[Stemar]

Having seen 11 knots on the gps on my Snapdragon 24, I can well believe it, but only under similar circumstances. We were being pushed through Hurst narrows by a Spring flood.

I reckon than if she ever started doing that speed through the water, it'd be time to bail out!

 

[pessimist]

We had a Sadler 29 for some years. Didn't have a working speed log so no real idea of achievable speed. We used to passage plan at 4-5 knots and that wasn't too far out. I think anything even approaching sustained double figures would be "optimistic". Lovely boats though.

 

[dunedin]

Sounds like a failure of the editor to read and correct what is clearly fictional claims before goes to print.
Seen a few like this which should have been caught pre-printing.

 

[RivalRedwing]

Suspect the YM journalist also works for Angling Times

 

[Praxinoscope]

Racing the other day, it felt as if the Sadler 29 ahead of me in my Sadler 25 was easily doing 12knts, whilst I was sailing through treacle.

 

[johnalison]

Racing the other day, it felt as if the Sadler 29 ahead of me in my Sadler 25 was easily doing 12knts, whilst I was sailing through treacle.

I find that I suffer from an optical illusion or delusion that I am catching up any boat ahead, and being caught by any boat astern.

 

[penfold]

We've had 10kts momentarily on the knot-o-meter on the Sigma 33 when gusts and surfs coincide and its veracity is dubious; doubt very much a Sadler 29 has done this.

 

[Scomber]

We've hit 12 knts easy in our sadler 29,,,,, so long as we were going through Ramsey , Bardsey or coming out of Strangford all at full clack!!

 

[Habebty]

I wonder if they meant Sadler 290?

( highest sustained water speed in 20kts is 8.5kts, peak water speed 10.5kts)

Anderson 22s Look out ?

 

[scottie]

30 knots has been claimed on the M74

 

[Tranona]

Sounds like a failure of the editor to read and correct what is clearly fictional claims before goes to print.
Seen a few like this which should have been caught pre-printing.

That is the problem when the title is run on a shoestring with only 4 dedicated journalistic staff and most of the content is provided by freelance contributors - in this case a long standing journalist and sometime editor of other publications. Much of the content like this article is just recycled archive material with which the sub editor is probably not familiar. Everything in it is well pre 1980, probably before the sub editor was born, never mind having an interest in boats!

 

[Frogmogman]

Suspect the YM journalist also works for Angling Times

Great comment. ?

In the spirit of William Boot in Evelyn Waugh’s greatest novel, Scoop, The Sun once appointed their fishing correspondent to cover F1, of which he knew nothing at the outset.

Mind you, I reckon a Sadler 29 could reach 12 knots when falling off a travel hoist.

 

[Kelpie]

We managed 12.2kt for several seconds as we were heading east through the Straits of Gibraltar, with 40kt behind us. I was quite impressed given that our 45yr old Moody has a similar underwater profile to a bath tub.

 

[James_Calvert]

In our Sadler 32.

We have surfed a wave into Fecamp at 12 knots. We also surfed the next wave sideways, no idea of what the log said, it got a bit busy.

That was with engine going full chat, plus some assistance from the main.

Many years later between Beachy Head and Royal Sovereign we had a building wind on a broad white sail reach and building following seas which we began to surf. Once we were surfing pretty much every one, and with 12 knots showing on the log each time, we chickened out by dropping the main (with the wind astern). Thereafter we surfed at a mere 9 knots, and not every time.

It was quite impressive down below, you could feel the keel shimmering like a dinghy centreboard at max chat. It could have been more than 12 knots of course, it just happens to be the max the log can read.

No GPS then.

Generally we try to avoid repeating these experiences.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Once in a lifetime conditions, anything is possible. Our boat is proper fast, but she only does that in suitable conditions too. Most of the time, she tops out, curiously enough, around 12-14kn. Still, we left Newtown last weekend, heading NE up the solent. We hoisted the main beside a modern 50 footer. 20 minutes later, we could no longer pick her out from the other visual clutter behind. At no time did we exceed 12kn, but still left the 50 for dead. The conclusion is that any bost is fast if you drop it out of an aeroplane, but most are not as fast as is often claimed.

 

[Kukri]

Well I have a 47 year old Nicholson 55, and for what seemed like half an hour, but was probably ten minutes, long enough, though, to call it a sustained speed, at around three in the morning, with a clean bottom, flying a medium jib and nothing else, heading north in the flat water of the Downs, in the veer of a gale, the GPS showed ten knots, the log showed ten and a bit knots and the wind speed indicator showed forty knots from very fine on the port quarter, as I tried hard to remember everything I had read or been told about steering fast downwind, because this was outside my experience.

Like a wise horse sensing an inexperienced rider, the boat behaved perfectly. She settled into the trough between the bow and the stern waves. She could do this all day.

Then the wind needle dropped back to thirty something, and the other two needles dropped back into single figures.

I don’t suppose that will happen again, for me. I’m sure she has done that speed in the past, with a kite up, a strong crew and a better helmsman, but that’s my experience.