International One Meter

In 1985 my father had a heated dispute with some other sailors over the design and manufacture of a model racing yacht.  They weren’t too kind in explaining their side of the story to my father which is typical of the Long Island style of communication, and it rubbed my father the wrong way.  The result was that model yacht racing would be off the menu for about ten years.  He was slowly becoming re-interested in flying model airplanes so that became his full-time hobby again until the early 1990’s.

 

At this time he had retired from IBM and moved to Florida.  The new house for me was a resort I called Club Dad.  He had a workshop in an area of the house that kept the noise of his table saw from bothering my mother.  It was on the waterfront and it had a dock from which he sailed a 20-foot sailboat.  My mother spent every afternoon on the back patio watching dolphins, manatees and any other wildlife that chose to entertain her.  My father had re-established contact with a high school buddy and they flew airplanes almost every day.  This was life in a nutshell from retirement in 1987 until about 1993 when my father found out that a model yacht club was forming and was looking for participants.

 

The new club, the Space Coast Model Sailing Club, raced International One Meter (IOM) yachts and Soling 1 Meter yachts.  I don’t remember much about his IOM other than it wasn’t white. It was yucky yellow (my term) and when I saw it, I couldn’t believe it was his.  He did quite well with it and there are quite a few trophies to back that up.  I only have this one picture.

 

For those that are interested in the technicalities of the International One Meter class, it’s a restricted development class.  The hull has to be one meter long (about 39 inches) and the building materials are restricted to wood or fiberglass.  Other limits regard maximum and minimum weight and depth.  The sail and rigging are tightly controlled like in a one-design class.

IOM_01.jpg

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