Front Runner
Encyclopedia
The Front Runner is a small day sailing dinghy
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship's boat by a larger vessel. It is a loanword from either Bengali or Urdu. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor,...

. It is a high-performance, responsive, and comfortable one-design class sailboat
Sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails. The term covers a variety of boats, larger than small vessels such as sailboards and smaller than sailing ships, but distinctions in the size are not strictly defined and what constitutes a sailing ship, sailboat, or a...

. It is stable and user-friendly, having an immense cockpit
Cockpit (sailing)
In the Royal Navy, the term cockpit originally referred to the area where the coxswain was stationed. This led to the word being used to refer to the area towards the stern of a small decked vessel that houses the rudder controls...

 with all control lines leading aft
Aft
Aft, in naval terminology, is an adjective or adverb meaning, towards the stern of the ship, when the frame of reference is within the ship. Example: "Able Seaman Smith; lay aft!". Or; "What's happening aft?"...

 (to the cockpit). While designed for racing, it also functions as a small cruising day sailer
Day sailer
A daysailer, day sailer, or dayboat is a small sailboat with or without sleeping accommodations but which is larger than a dinghy. Dayboats can be monohull or multihull, and are typically trailer-able. Many dayboats have a small cabin or "cuddy" for storage and to provide a shelter, or for...

 because of the storage space under the deck in the bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...

.

The Front Runner was developed by Bill Spencer in the early 1990s, culminating in its production starting in 1996. The sailboat was produced in three different places: Gloucester, Virginia, Irvington, Virginia
Irvington, Virginia
Irvington is a town in Lancaster County, Virginia, United States. The population was 673 at the 2000 census and it is located on a peninsula of land known as the Northern Neck. It is the name also of a historic district....

, and Hollywood, Maryland
Hollywood, Maryland
Hollywood is an unincorporated community located within St. Mary's County, Maryland. It was named in 1867, when a storeowner at Thompson's General Store near the Uniontown section of Hollywood required a name for the post office inside the store...

. It has a total of 202 square feet (18.8 m²) of sail area (including only the mainsail
Mainsail
A mainsail is a sail located behind the main mast of a sailing vessel.On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast....

 and jib
Jib
A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast...

; with the spinnaker
Spinnaker
A spinnaker is a special type of sail that is designed specifically for sailing off the wind from a reaching course to a downwind, i.e. with the wind 90°–180° off the bow. The spinnaker fills with wind and balloons out in front of the boat when it is deployed, called flying. It is constructed of...

 it reaches 527 square feet (49 m²) of sail area). For the spinnaker it has a retractable bowsprit
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...

. The main is loose-footed, and its jib is roller furling
Roller furling
Roller furling is a method of furling or reefing wherein a sail is rolled around a stay or rotating spar. Roller furling is most commonly encountered on foresails, such as jibs, with mainsails a distant second.-Furling methods:...

. It has no trapeze
Trapeze (sailing)
In sailing, the trapeze refers to a wire that comes from a point high on the mast, usually where the shrouds are fixed, to a hook on the crew member's harness at approximately waist level...

 due to its exceptional balance and hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...

 construction. Its rig, a low-profile, 3 point fractional Sloop rig
Bermuda rig
The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats...

, kick-up rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...

, and swinging keel
Keel
In boats and ships, keel can refer to either of two parts: a structural element, or a hydrodynamic element. These parts overlap. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in construction of a ship, in British and American shipbuilding traditions the construction is dated from this event...

 make the Front Runner a high-performance sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

 craft.

To this date, between 25 and 30 Front Runners have been manufactured. These craft are sailed primarily in Deltaville, Virginia
Deltaville, Virginia
Deltaville is a small unincorporated community on the eastern tip of Middlesex County in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Virginia. It is known for being a vacation spot for those looking for sailing, fishing, and other activities associated with the water...

, but several reside in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

, Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...

, and the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

.

Sources

http://www.fbyc.net/

http://video.google.com:80/videoplay?docid=-7131099101976149457&pr=goog-sl

http://www.iboats.com/Front_Runner_Sailboats__Front_Runner__2002/bp/64b165620r2

http://www.fbyc.net/Fleets/OneDesign
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK