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Half Ton Class Europe asbl

rue Waugenée 19C - 7190 Ecaussines, Belgium

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Half Ton Class

Half Ton Cup (IOR) held between 1967 and 1992. New ‘Classic’ event beginning in 2003.

90 Sailboats

Albin ballad 30.

Elan 31 (J&J)

First 30 (Beneteau - Mauric)

Jeanneau Rush 31

First 30 E (Beneteau - Berret)

San Juan 30

Feeling 850

Westerly GK 29

Columbia 9.6

Gib'sea 30

Brise DE Mer 31

Hallberg-Rassy Mistress 32

Gib'sea 90 Plus

Eliminator (1/2 Ton)

Hawkfarm 28

Contention 30 (Peterson)

Nicholson 1/2 Ton

C&C 1/2 Ton

Golden shamrock 30.

Jeanneau Sun Fast 1/2 Ton

Competition 1000

Starlight 30.

Ziggurat 916

Thompson 31.

Blue Dane 32

Seafarer 29

Newbridge spinner 28.

North Star 1000

Allied Chance 30-30

Pj-30 1/2 ton.

Dufour Safari 27

Waarschip 870 (1/2 ton).

Scampi 30-2

Finn Flyer 31

Irwin 30 Competition

Irwin 1/2 Ton

Farr 1/2 ton (#65).

S&S 6.6

Evelyn 32 1/2 ton.

Bes 1/2 Ton

Elvstrom 32.

Balanzone (1/2 Ton)

East coast 31.

Super Challenger

Farr 914 (1/2 Ton)

Javelin 30 (Parker)

Elizabethan 30

Northern 29

Trapper 950.

Jeanneau Sun Light 30

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Design № 54

1/2 Ton IOR Racing Sloop

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Designed in 1975, Design No. 54 was detailed for fiberglass construction in New Zealand and Japan, in wood volume production for Bermester of Germany (who also built Design Nos. 51 and 53), and in wood as a stock plan for one off construction.

Closely related to Design Nos. 51 and 53 (1 Ton and 1/4 Ton designs) Design No. 54 was developed to be competitive in 1/2 Ton IOR events. This boat is Farr's most popular 1/2 Ton design, with over 50 boats built, and racing/cruising production versions - the Farr 920 - are still being produced.

Upstaged in light airs at Grand Prix events by the centerboarders of 1976/77 (Design No. 65), Design 54 is still a fast all around boat accumulating a long string of good performances at club racing level. If it had not been for the centerboard boats taking advantage of the Rule loophole, Design 54 would have been destined for bigger successes at a more international level.

Although originally designed as a full blown racer, many have been fitted out with cruising or cruising/racing interiors and form the basis of some good One Design club racing.

PHOTOS Click to enlarge.

Description

9.140 m/30'30"

7.150 m/23'6"

3.053 m/10'0"

1.588 m/5'3"

866 Kg/1,909 Lbs

2220 Kg/4,894 Lbs

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Farr Yacht Design

100 Severn Avenue, Suite 101

Annapolis, MD 21403

©  2018

Half Ton class

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• Last update: 3rd April 2020

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Half Ton Classics Cup 2023 at Royal Norwegian Sailing Union and Hankø Yacht Club

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Early mini and Half Tonners

Design number: 14 year: 1977.

Despite enjoying his work at YACHTS AND YACHTING magazine what Humphreys really wanted to do was design. After three years on the full-time payroll he left to set up his design business, but with no imminent commercial viability as such he kept his column with Y&Y and furthermore freelanced for other overseas yachting magazines. He also carried out a huge amount of rating consultancy work, advising owners on the International Offshore Rule IOR and drawing up modifications for their boats. This still did not seem to leave very much time for his own design work, but by the mid-Seventies he was beginning to see some opportunities.

In this period he designed a couple of Mini Tonners and a pair of Half Tonners, all of them essentially owner-build projects (it used to happen a great deal in those days). The Mini Tonner SHH-AM, for example, was built in London mews garage by owner Paul Howard (she was placed best British boat in the Mini Ton worlds in La Rochelle in 1977), while the Conquest 23 Mini Tonner was built as a production boat by Peter Lloyd and his son-in-law Clive Phippard under the banner of CK Marine of Weymouth.

Wally and Pat Naismith built the Half Tonner Solan Goose themselves of cold moulded cedar under the inspiration of the Gougeon’s excellent book on their WEST system, while Nick Palmer built Humbug of foam sandwich construction. There was an explosion of Half Ton interest at the time with over 50 boats competing in the British trials in 1977 just to qualify for the Half Ton worlds. Unfortunately, neither Solan Goose nor Humbug made the grade.

Solan Goose was later sailed across the Atlantic by Bob Salmon and she is believed to be in Antigua now.

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• Practical Boat Owner's Reader to Reader

1/4 ton 1/2 ton etc please explain

• Thread starter pcatterall
• Start date 14 Sep 2010
• 14 Sep 2010

Well-known member

I keep reading articles related to the tonnages above ( and 1 ton etc). What dom these figures refer to please. They look far off displacement values for the sizes of yachts concerned.  

I've asked the question of seriously knowledgable people and have never got an answer that explains what 'ton' has to do with it. There is a definition for each under the IOR rule. Multiple (or add?) up a load of parameters and if it is under a certain value it is a quarter-tonner, half-tonner etc.  

In the early days there were a number of rough and ready schemes for measuring the size of boats for commercial and racing needs. Perhaps the most popular was Thames Measurement and this persisted almost to the present day, some old timers will still refer to a wooden boat as a 2 1/2 (very small) or 8 Tonner. Thames Measurement was a rum system which used length, bredth, cargo space and the skippers inside leg measurement to arrive at the given number - as you say no relation to displacement. If we accept that the various rating rules grew out of earlier practice then it is perhaps understandable that the notion of tonnage persisted. Many will still find it easy to picture an older style 1/2 or 1/4 tonner.  

AFAIR from racing in the IOR days, the rules were aimed at calculating a 'nominal length' or some such term, from the actual measurements of each boat. The Ton, Half, Quarter, etc 'classes' were each given a 'length' and the designers had almost free reign to work the hull shapes and measurements to achieve the best speed for that nominal length. The Ton Rules produced boats which were cranky and tender, and without real downwind speed. Measurement points produced funny almost square hull shapes with longish overhangs. They were pretty difficult to sail optimally, and lost value very quickly as any new wrinkle (e.g. 'bustles') to take advantage of the rule made older boats very quickly uncompetitive.  

I believe that it comes from the time when the IOR rating system was coming up with a level rating. The royal thames club had had a one ton cup prize for a class of thames racing yacht which was no longer being raced for and hence this was chosen as the cup to race for, the first level rating IOR boats were around 38' Then owners of smaller yachts wanted to have a level rating class and hence the 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 ton classes evolved being roughly 34', 30', 24' and then the mini tonners at 18' But this could have been bar talk, the important thing is that the racing was close and the boats were fun to sail. What happend to Smokey bear, Panda, Nausicca, Heart of Gold (named after the hitch hikers guide space ship) Juno, Local Hero...that was back in 1985 in Porto Ercole  

The irony of this thread is that it has been explained in the Magazine PBO in the past couple of months.  

Tonnage in old boats refers to the Thames Measurement of a yacht. Nothing whatsoever to do with the weight of the boat but an arcane system of calculating the size of a boat allowing for its beam as well as length (but not I think its draft). The term derives from the medieval method of defining the size of a vessel by how many tuns (barrels) of ale it could carry. Different again is the Registered Tonnage and Gross Tonnage. A suprising number of owners think the tonnage carved on their main beam is the weight of their yacht but they are wrong. Tim w  

• 15 Sep 2010

IOR Rule: Internationa Offshore Rule Intention: a measurement system that gave an assessment of the speed of a yacht and alowed a handicap number to be calculated IOR handicaps were expressed in feet Level rating bands were set to group boats of a similar size together and create level rating competions. The rating bands were set at: IOR rating of 16.5 = minitonner (&minimum size of boat quaifying for an IOR rating) IOR Rating of 18.5 = quarter tonner IOR rating of 21.5 = haf tonner IOR rating of 24.5(?) = 3/4 tonner IOR rating of 27.5 = 1 tonner, modified in 1982 to be 30.5 for 1 tonner to synchronise with the minimum rating for the admirals cup IOR rating of 50 = maxi class (maximum rating issued) simples.....  

unikely unless measured under the IOR rule the rating number aso comes out at 18.5. Overall length is just one measurement that goes into the rating calculation. IOR "feet" are not measurements of length. Two almost identical boats could have different ratings depending on the size of spinnakers/mainsail (or a host of other things) and so rate e.g. 21.3 and 21.5 feet ....... but be exactly the same length. If you think IOR was confusing, then don't even start exploring IMS (which followed)  

Even more confused. I've just read an early review of my boat and it has a "portsmouth yardstick number" of 127  

Even Chance

My E-Boat is an IOR Mini-Ton class racing yacht. Its just under 1 Ton displacement, and 22 foot long. Figure that then!! Thats how the ruling goes. Its wierd, thats a fact!  

Hi Dave, You sure? The E-Boat is 1050. Have a look at this list:- http://www.benfleetyachtclub.org/files/Portsmouth_HC/2004_PY_Cruiser_Handicaps.pdf  

Even Chance said: Hi Dave, You sure? The E-Boat is 1050. Have a look at this list:- http://www.benfleetyachtclub.org/files/Portsmouth_HC/2004_PY_Cruiser_Handicaps.pdf Click to expand...

Handicap Rules all come down to one of two things: 1. a correction of your actual time so that boats of different sizes and shapes can race against each other 2. using a set of measurements with a final rating (number) all boats race against each other and the first across the line wins If you do any racing, you will quickly go from confusion (what do the handicaps really mean) to frustration (why do I always seem to lose even when I think I am saiing well) to exasperation (they aways win 'cos the've got a great handicap) eventually to understanding. Plymouth Yardstick is mainly aimed at dinghies but from the PY number, a TCF (time correction factor) is generated that is then used to adjust your elapsed time and should mean that equally well sailed different boat designs/types can fairly race against each other. Most yacht clubs run a similar local system or make local adjustments to the national/international systems. Handicap committee members are often well rewarded at the bar or get dogs abuse for their misunderstanding of the performance potential of someone's pride and joy. google CYCA for the Scottish handicap system The RORC office administer the IRC system and their website is worth a look Going back to the original thread topic, the rating rule that was used for the "ton" classes had an annual revision (November Offshore Racing Council meeting) and eventually it was abandoned because the boats were viewed as becoming too extreme, too expensive, not as much fun as they could be for the size/money, not creating good cruiser/racer compromises and a better, newer whizz bang rule was proposed that would cure all the evils of IOR by measuring the hull shape, weighing boats and using a velocity prediction programme so that internationally handicaps any boat could be measured and fairly handicapped. The IMS rule ..... IMS made race boats even more expensive, extreme and complicated and so it was binned. The ton-cup revivals have come about from those that want to race these "obselete" boats again as despite all the shortfalls, IOR racing in the late 70's and 80's was great fun. check out the 1/4 and 1/2 ton websites but don't for one minute confuse "feet" with length and "ton" with weight!  

ProDave said: My boat's not on that list. The magazine review said 127, so perhaps it was a missprint and they meant 1270 ??? Click to expand...

Even Chance said: Maybe it is 1270. The higher the number, the slower the boat. What is it you have? Google "your boat Portsmouth yardstick" That list wasnt the definative list, just one from a particular club. I also see yer a local lad too!! Click to expand...

This rule produced boats that were so bad that Olin Stephens actually apologised publicly for his part in it's development.That said I used to own a Douglas Peterson designed 1/2tonner that sailed like a wich to windward and was very god on a reach but obviously preformed not so well on a run.An she wasn't in the least tender.  

cliffordpope

The Thames Measurement formula was (Waterline length-Beam) X Beam X Beam X2, all divided by 94. Long ago the convention was to leave the result expressed as 94ths rather than simplifying to 1/4, 1/2 etc. So my 21 foot cutter built in 1882 with a WL length of 18 feet and a beam of 6 feet 6 inches has a TM of 2 55/94. It does in fact weigh about 2 1/2 tons. As recently as 1964 my father registered a 30 foot motor cruiser, and was given detailed instructions for having the calculated TM carved on the main beam, together with the "certified chart space". The full meaningless inscription, complete with the 94ths, then had to be traced on paper and sent to Lloyds to confirm that it had been done. If anybody still owns the motor yacht Lucy Carmichael, ex lifeboat from the P&O liner "Maloja", then the inscription will still be there.  

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Hankø Half Ton Classic Cup 2023

Half a ton, twice the fun.

Main event of the Half Ton Class Europe, organized jointly with Royal Norwegian Yacht Club .

Main trophies & prizes:

• IRC Overall

• IRC Vintage halftonners

• Half Ton True Spirit Trophy

And a lot of special prizes...

Hankø August 12.– 18.

Bli medlem i klasseklubben

Som medlem støtter du opp om vårt arbeid med å tilrettelegge for aktiv seiling med 1/2 ton båter i Norge og du kan påvirke veien vi tar ved å være et aktivt medlem og spille inn gode forslag til styret...

All crew members must have a valid SailorID and Categorization code at World Sailing when participation at  the Hankø Half Ton Classic Cup.

IRC Endorsed

For sesongen 2023, under nm og half ton classic cup reunion vm, vil det seiles på irc (endorsed) ihht half ton class europe class rules.