After many years perhaps the most obvious, no brainer of a boat for the Clyde estuary never gaining enough critical mass to be a fleet, the humble Hunter 707 is finally taking off.
Back in the 1990s sports boats were the new black, but unfortunetly in many yacthy areas the plethora of new designs coupled to our new individual consumerist opinions, lead to a lack of one design fleet building. The back drop of this is also that several one design keel boats became emminently affordable on the used market. From the Etchells to the venerable other boats of the David Thomas Stable, the Sonata, Impala and Sigma 33. Sub 30 feet, all of these could be had for less than the price of a new sports boat with sails and trailer.
Despite this the Clyde enjoyed a renaissance in one design sailing for which you probably have to go back to the late 50s or early 60s to compare to. ( Someone will probably say the 1970s but the sonata and smeg fleets were quite embryonic then amidst the declining day -sailer fleets - please leave a comment if you have lived with OD down the years on the clyde). After the appearance of several hunter 707s, a humphrey's 22, a platu and even perhaps a melges 24, and the infamous rise and fall of the Euro 8 m, heads got together and the sports boat weapon of choice became the Cork 1720 - a kind of anti melges 24 and successor to Irish J 24 sailing in outset.
The 1990s were indeed heady days for one design on the Clyde and really good sailing, although at the time the CHS and tonne cheque book sailors and their rail bitches had sharp tongues about the lack of big proper boats over 35 foot. We very nearly had a sigma 38 fleet though, and the BH 36s were pretty much alike out of the box. The clyde had the piper and Loch Long ODs, some etchell sailing, the Sonatas, the Sigma 33s and as mentioned the new comer , fast bath tubs, the 1720s.
It was a time I loved sailing on the Clyde and based myself out of the East Patch and Largs on various boats, mainly these one desings. We had about five years of really excellent fleet racing and events dominated by the prescence of One Design. I also sailed on the Forth in relation to my job, and it was a different case there with no keel boat one design racing what so ever before the sudden critical mass of 707s evolved in 1999.
Around the same time for various reasons unknown to me, piles of folk exited one design on the clyde. The 1720s were highly reduced and resale values plummeted. The anti melges showed its achilles heels - firstly there was no international market to speak of outside UK-Ireland, so no fleets springing up elsewhere to soak up a glut of boats for sale, while of course the boat was not that cheap to actually run to a competitive level if you were trying to pay for your crew to stay somewhere. Everything to do with the shore side of sailing got a lot more expensive especially accomodation at events as greed raised its ugly capitalist head towards the percieved pots of money visiting towns like Tarbert, The Cork was basically two crew too many and having to find and feed em was a hard ask for the lower ranks. An affordable sports boat became suddenly an expensive to run bath tub.
Tarbert will quite likely never recover from its own greed, which I have heard is by in large responsible for the demise of the 1720 in Scotland, when visiting Irish boats refused to put up iwht the high pirces for bedrooms. Also indeed 'bavariaism' has had its share of the blame ie caravan cruiser racing who choose Port Avadie for a quiet night apres sail. Sailors more interested in competitioin would like to see the big Scottish Week being based out of Troon where the outer harbour could provide ample space for all and sundry, flying fifteen to TP52 with open waters, true wind, layable mark depths and the spectacular backdrop of Arran and Ailsa Craig.
I suppose the rail bitch element and the wadded-up owners of the current batch of 40 - 45 foot sportier IRC boats see the clyde as being in its glory days now, but that is very much a matter of opinion and attendances at regattas would contradict such assertions. The rich in the UK, have got a heck of a lot richer while the hoi palloi dont have a pot to piss in....until now, at least they have a transom to toss off!
Two 707s did turn up at Kip Marina in the mid 90s, only to disappear and be followed by the lonely 'Blue Funk' at the Royal Northern and Clyde. It has now literally decafor the idea to permeate into clyde sailors heads that you dont really use your sonata for cruising and that a 707 outright is cheaper than a single complete set of sails and winter hard berthing for a 45 foot IRC piece of slow shit. Not that I think people should sell up their beloved sonatas on spec that the fleet will collapse. Rather I think 5k to go planing with three or four mates is probablyt what a middle class bloke and his yachty second or third wife can afford without worrying about running costs.
The thing is that compared to any other David Thomas design, the 707 is just so much fun off wind. It is a stable platform like sitting on the back of some great big IRC sledge with those almost full width, water line chines. Also it has large bouytancy to bounce out of broaches and nice surfaces to jump off once it is at the wrong part of 90' to the vericle. They are trailerable to events with a cheap crane hire for your local fleet and can be slip launched.
Solent 707 owners I met still reminissed on their glory days in the 90s and naughties before the mini-bath tub trumped the rising berthing fees / the laser SB3. Compared to the number built and the large fleet there was on the solent, there are not that many sailing now in the North of Britain, so there must be a fair few in boat sheds and back gardens in Kent and Berks to this day, waiting for the wife to say 'get rid of it and buy me a new ktichen'.
The East Patch is set to be graced by five of these wee planing platforms this year, and perhaps that will also encourage any other owners who live in Terra Twixt Salt ' n' Sauce who have been stabled at Granton or Port Edgar, to move coasts for wednesday sailing. I don't know if there are other boats on the Clyde now, but it bodes well for one design events and perhaps Tarbert if B&B prices are less astronomical than they were.
Compared to many other sports boats it is one platform I feel comfortable in 30 knots of wind. It will plane on white sails and you can decide to use the small kite once you have equalised the boat speed a bit off wind. Upwind they may seem a bit piggish, but because they are all one design everyone is battling the same issues erm, in the same boat literally. They are of course very, very one design too with one sail maker retained last time I looked it up anyway. The jibs would delaminate like filo pastry in the late 1990s but I dare say they are better made now and last (competitively) a darn sight longer than many a genoa on a cheque book racing IRC 1 boat these days.
The fact is also that they are very, very easy to sail and the focus is on tactics and strategy about tweaking and digging out the cheque book. I sailed on a god aweful prepared boat, with no attention to rig tension and pretty mediocre sail setting when I wasnt on mainsail,. yet we were beating those boats which had coaching and tweak kits from David Thomas's son over on the Forth. Today the fleet there looks pretty darn good, if not quite to the standard you can see on youtube from the glory days of the solents with starts tight as an Aberdonian Money Lender.
In terms of learning to sail a boat which actually planes, short of taking a wayfarer out in force 8 the hunter 707 is an ideal platform, as long of course as you can do your spinnaker work. For a Sonata or sigma 33 owner, it will be a revelation that a Thomas design will sit its arse into the wave form as if it were concreted to the spot. The big kite is pretty huge and the pole is pretty long, so it takes some skill in getting it up and gybing it in a blow, but also in marginal planing conditions the boat can be worked up and surfed down to gain the advanyage over those who hold a more sedentary course.
I remember well planing at about 14 knots boat speed in about 23 knts wind under the forth bridges, with the pick-n-mix fleet of handicap quarter, half tonners and so on looking like they were physically going backwards. The days we got planing, which were pretty often back then, I remember it being just as enjopyable as my Melges sailing of the last 5 years.
Affordable, trailerable, back/gardenable and now available in a fleet on your Glesga / Helensbra / Gourock doorstep there is really no excuse for not buying one ;-)
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