Firefly (dinghy) - Design

Design

Most modern hulls are made from GRP/fibreglass and hulls have to be ordered in advance for a batch of them to be made. E.g. universities getting together to procure entire fleets of boats. Being made of GRP with aluminium spars makes the dinghy very light and thus fast in the right hands, thus emphasizing more on crew skill. They are also designed to be very simple, thus all parts are uniform, e.g. shackles and pulleys, helping to cater for a wider range of clients. All boats are the same with the exception of sail colour (some universities have team colour coded sails) and certain accessories such as sheet colour and edge protectors. However some owners have, contrary to class rules, modified certain aspects, such as the U-bolts. This is a particular design fault because the hull is constructed of a lower half created in a mould separate to the top deck. This is then glued/screwed together after manufacture and then the 2 u-bolts that anchor the shrouds are fixed in place by 2 nuts. However when being sailed by heavier crews and strong winds, the u-bolts have a tendency to pull through the bottom section and not the upper, consequently tearing a hole in the bow tank. Therefore many competitive boats have carbon blocks put in between the hull and 2 securing nuts thus spreading the forces over a larger area.

When racing in a mixed fleet of classes, the Firefly uses a Portsmouth Yardstick handicap of 1168 (in the RYA scheme) or a D-PN of 99.6 (US Sailing scheme).