The shaw is another interesting boat. Alex Wadson imported Maniac for last season at JYC for Tuesday night racing. The boat is insanely fast downwind. It was racing in the class with us and it’s only 21′ long. They’d be a bit slow upwind, but once the kites went up they’d SCREAM downwind. Close to skiff speeds. They’d pass almost the entire fleet downwind which was interesting to see (painful when you’re on another boat).
Unfortunately I don’t think it’s for us. It’s a bit too powered up upwind. It’s got a keel that’s lighter than the vipers with more sail area. The guys on the boat all seamed to be working very hard upwind and it also looked to be a very wet ride. Certainly something fun to go sail on, and I’d be glad to go anytime Alex needs crew, I just don’t think it’s the right boat for us considering I want to be able to sail alone for fun on the weekends.
- LOA 21′ 4″
- Beam 8 feet
- Draft 5′ 9″
- Displacement 700 Lbs
- Ballast 220 Lbs
- SA (upwind) 283 sq. ft.
- SA (downwind) 740 sq. ft.
- Shaw Designs.
this thing is an insane boat, we’ve seen one sailing up here in Samui, and it absolutely flies, the red one in one of the pictures above.