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The Little Guys We love the underdogs. The no-names. The little guy. Oh, we're as starstruck by the guys who generate the flash as well, but we're more kindred to the other ones. We don't know much about designer Kevin Dibley, but we do know he was thoughtful enough to send us a JPEG and info on his latest boat. It looks kind of nice and he's got some interesting work with both racers and cruisers. It's always interesting to see what other designers are turning out. Check out his site www.dibleymarine.com
Press release 16th March 2002
Karl Holmes, from Melbourne, has been dreaming of the Melbourne/Osaka two-handed Yacht Race since the event started in 1987. He finally set his dream to reality by commissioning Kevin Dibley to design a new boat "Babe" (Dibley 9900) and getting Hart Marine in Melbourne to build her. Dibley, a yacht designer from Auckland, New Zealand, will step in as co-skipper for this 5,500 nm (10,200 km) marathon. 'Babe' will race in the Racer Group of Class C. Due to restrictions in that class, she will not race with water-ballast though she has been designed for that option when other races allow it. The brief was for an exciting high performance racing yacht that combined dinghy like performance with Offshore Racing capabilities. With the homeport being on the edge of the infamous Bass Straight, the Dibley 10m needed to be tough and strong with emphasis put on structural integrity and safety. Performance, however, would not be compromised. For qualifying races, Holmes and Dibley will be doing the Sydney/Lord Howe race starting on October5th as well as the Melbourne/Hobart on Boxing Day. Both will be done in the two handed division. If time allows, Babe' will be up at Hamilton Island in August but will be a late entrant as she is committed on other events before hand and it may not be possible to get her up there in time. To further their time on board and to fine-tune the Polars for the design, Holmes will be doing as many short handed races as he can out of Melbourne, with Dibley flying over at various times for key races. In the meantime, Dibley will work with Roger "Clouds" Badham on pre-race strategy and weather routing for the Melbourne/Osaka so as to hopefully minimize the time spent sailing on the smallest entrant in the fleet, which starts out on March 15th 2003 A few comments on why the yacht was named after a pig have surfaced from time to time and probably needs explaining. Karl Holmes supports a charity organization called "VSK" (Very Special Kids") that helps both children with life threatening illness and their families by hosting an annual piggy bank appeal with a pig as their logo. Hence they named the boat "Babe" (after the film) and will carry the pig logo on the hull to help gain awareness for the organization.
Kevin
Dibley
DIBLEY MARINE ARCHITECTS LTD. P.O.Box
34-769 Birkenhead |
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