“Talking Sailing” From My Archives. The Andy Dinghy

by Richard Crockett

Today I feature the Andy Dinghy, one few modern sailors will remember, although sailors of yore may have good memories of.

I have chosen this dinghy today as for some time now I have had the Andy Handbook hanging around my office – too big to file in a modern-day filing system as it is printed on “foolscap” paper (remember that?), and also because I came across the Andy file in my archives. So the moons aligned to create this.

The Andy was designed by Frank Spears, a legendary Cape Town sailor and the designer of the Spearhead, who said that the Andy design was born as a result of a letter which he received from Mr. Aris Blacquiere, Commodore of St. Andrew’s College Sailing Club in Grahamstown.
He first wrote to Spears stating the following:

“We have been sailing a fleet of 13 Billy-Ohs and a few Sprogs, a Winger, a Finn and a Sharpie for the past year, and we are in the doldrums; we have the Billy-Oh as our one-design class, but have come to realize that she is a tremendously good junior trainer, but very little fun for the more advanced members. Now we are naturally looking farther afield for a more suitable senior class. Our waters are rather limited.

“The Sprogs perform well, but do not quite seem to be our ideal design. We had hoped to find a suitable 12-footer which would serve as both a trainer and a good racing craft – but so far we have had little success.

“The way I see it, we want something along these lines: A light hull with fairly spacious cockpit, but with ample buoyancy fore and aft; standard type rigging, with a good bit of sail (main and fore), fair stability, though not too much at the cost of performance, and something that will keep both skipper and crew nippy. In other words, an ideal 12- footer”.

A glance at the lines will show that she is very easily driven and quite stable when the crew is aboard. She is designed to be built of moulded plywood as Spears was informed by Mr. Blacquiere that they would build a mould in their own school workshop and thus be able to turn out a number of identical hulls very cheaply. She has been designed for a crew weight approximately 300 to 320 lb. and although she has quite firm bilges, the water lines are sweet and she should leave a very clean wake. She should plane in a very light breeze.

So there she is in a nutshell.

To avoid regurgitating too many words, besides the photos I have included several articles about the boat. Enjoy.

READ ABOUT THE ANDY HERE:  Andy – about the Andy – 003303 – OCR

READ THE ANDY CLASS PROMO BROCHURE HERE:  Andy Class Promotion – 1978 11 02 – 003293 – OCR

READ THE ANDY HANDBOOK HERE:  Andy Handbook – 003304 – OCR

READ NEWSLETTER 01 HERE:  Andy – newsletter 01 – 003297

READ NEWSLETTER 02 HERE:  Andy – newsletter 02 – 003298

READ NEWSLETTER 03 HERE:  Andy – newsletter 03 – 003299

After the rains….
The first official regatta in Windhoek on the Goreangab dam, 12 miles from Windhoek This is also Windhoek’s main water supply.
Helmut & Carman Stauch both sailed borrowed Andy’s.
92 -Andy Schenk & Dr Hartmann
105 – Helmut Stauch & Adv. Jochen Berker (Commodore of the Kalahari Yacht Club).
106 – Peter Quarmby & his son Jonathan
104 – Carmen Stauch & Jurgen Frundt
103 – Walter Schneider & Jochen Sturm
101 – “Butch” Schenk & Monica Schenk – son and daughter.
The Club has 8 boats, 3 more building and about 50 members. SAYRA affiliation soon. Another able club sailing Andies has started life at Ontjiwaronga Sailing on the Omatjenne Dam, a lovely stretch of water about 3 miles by 1.5.
Erna van Tonder with Andy Champion’s smile before going out to win a fourth first place.
Chris Koper’s Andy ‘Wisp’ beats across the bay in perfect weather.
‘Wisp’, a trim looking Andy sailed by Chris Koper with Tommy Meek as crew.
On waters near Kimberley.
Pretoria & Emmarentia Andies manoeuvre for position at Emmarentia Sailing Club at the close of the season regatta.  31 May 1970

Typical weather conditions on the final day when races were cancelled. John Spilhouse is helped to bring ‘Nike’ up the slip.

This looks like Hans Berker? Probably at a regatta in Windhoek.
Probably at an event in Windhoek?
Judging by the sign this was in South West Africa?

The Andy ‘Kite’ planing to the finish line at Zeekoe Vlei.

Andies at Evander – Unicor Yacht Club.

Andies were out in full strength and excellent trim.

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