Fifies Obsession!
James “Mac” McAusland writes:
This is a story of my obsession with Fifies, I now have three.
While visiting the wife’s family in Peterhead I visited the local club, Buchanness Radio Yacht Club, (buchannessryc.wordpress.com they also have a Facebook page), who were racing ‘ Fifies ‘ that day. While there I joined the club and one of the members gave a rough drawing and some written instructions and I went on my way.
Since then, although the club still race their boats, they have changed away from traditional lug and gaff rigs to modern Bermuda yacht sails, in an effort for more speed. They usually race free-sail across a local loch with members each side to turn the boats around. At Setley it’s not possible to have someone on each side of the pond so I fitted R/C to mine ( a no-no on Buchanness Fifies!).
So to my Fifie build. The construction is plank on frames with approx 12kg (27 Ib ) of ballast; 3 feet long. The first one I built was back in 1995. The photos are of the second build in 2022.
