Getting in and out is a bit awkward the shape of the hull is not very good for mooring against a pontoon and you will need a crane or very expensive ‘crew lift’ to get people with mobility problems into the seats. Even then the ‘crew lift’ is at the very limit of its range and you need to tip the boat a bit and have at least three able-bodied people assisting the disabled person to get them comfortably into a seat.

The standard seating is quite good and supportive for most disabilities and can easily provide strap points to support people – and this is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL because in heavy conditions this is a wild ride! It is very easy to fit your own seats and to place them where you want to balance the boat (not certain class rules allow this).

There is a lot of open space around the seats and this does not give confidence… nowhere to hang on… and unless you move the front seat right foreward its difficult to reach the controls for many disabilities.

In light airs its very nice to sail, tacking easily and responding well to tweaks and controls. The spinnaker pops and retrieves ok.

The real problems arise as the wind speed rises. The boat heels very quickly, quite uncomfortably for a seriously disabled person, and the width of the boat and hull shape means you are accelerated 2 feet in the air very quickly… and this is doubly as bad when you tack in race conditions as you suddenly drop 2 feet, stop dead and are then shot 2 feet the other way, no fun at all if you have week neck muscles or poor balance…. The bad point is that an able-bodied person hardly notices this so cannot understand the problem.

Worst of all when the boat is heeled you are sitting at 45 degrees and you cannot see over the high side. If you are disabled your visibility is probably restricted to about 270 degrees and you have now lost about a further 90 degrees you now have control of a powerful sailing boat and you are restricted to less than 200 degrees view…

Well its gets worse, much worse, you are heeled and have only half of one rudder in the water, you want to give a little left-right to improve your field of view and see who is near you, if you power up any more you can lift your half rudder further out of the water and loose your steering completely… so you dump the main.. BUT the boom is so long it hits the water and the main will not spill… but don’t worry you will not get hot under the collar because this is when the boat fills up with water and stops! The boat sails heeled at such an angle that the bow dips further and further towards water level and at any time it can dig in and flood the boat through the spinnaker chute. In any sort of chop this situation is worsened.

For the sail handler the main is quite a handful and you might want to up the gearing. The spinaker as would be expected needs practice to get it away without problem.

Given all the above if you can avoid all these problems, on flat water and good winds the boat is very exciting to sail and I absolutely loved it… lever steering is the way to go .. if you can keep the boat flat its like down hill skiing and very nearly as exhilarating. In non racing conditions you can get your tacks so precise and the changing angles of the ride from tack to tack become a graceful dance and I found myself trying to see how smooth and flowing I could get the tacks rather than seeing how fast I could go.

So the SKUD fits perfectly with the Hobie Trapseat, absolutely wonderful in light airs, very dodgy in heavy conditions, but for different reasons.

As an International race boat for severely disabled people… No

As a club boat… No

BUT and there are some very big buts, no one seems to be answering any questions about the SKUD.

IS IT UNSAFE FOR USE BY SEATED PEOPLE?

Already there are threats of legal action against Sailing Clubs who allow them to be used by disabled people as you cannot see to windward when heeled.

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

Will Insurance companies issue cover for it?

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

IS THE 2 PERSON RULE ILLEGAL

There are also threats of legal action against Clubs who put on IFDS events for this dinghy in the UK and Europe and surely the USA will follow as the 1 point and male/female rules for crews appear to break the relevant discrimination acts.

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

YOU NEED NEARLY TWO METERS DEEP WATER TO SAIL A SKUD

We cannot find any disabled sailing venues in the UK where it can be safely sailed.
Certainly none of the major UK inland waters can guarantee this depth.
Weymouth Sailing Academy – Admiralty Charts show less than this.
Cowes/UKSA - Admiralty Charts show less than this.

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

This is effectively an Australian dinghy but the Australians do not seem to be buying any!!!!! What do they know that we do not!!!

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

I understand that the brief from the IFDS for the new two person boat included…
Easy to transport to international events, and I hear stories of 4 or 6 in a container.
Now we have the user manual we see what is needed to transport the boats…..
Lift the boat at least 3 meters in the air,
Dig out all the filler on the bulb retaining bolts
Break the seal between bulb and keel
Lower bulb onto sack barrow
Remove keel
Lower boat to transport cradle (extra $800 !!!!! why does it cost this much?)
Remove mast and all rigging
Remove deck
Remove rudders
Pack all above very carefully
Do this for the rest of the boats in your container
Stack your beautiful boat underneath 3 or 4 others.
Lets assume nothing went wrong and this took 2 to 3 hours per boat
That’s your first 12 hour day at very least
Put in container and ship to venue.
Unstack boats with crane
Unless you have your cradle or a trailer only one boat is going to be assembled at a time.
Each one has to have the bulb put back on sealed and faired lets say 4 to five hours
Each one has to have its deck put back on
Allowing for lost and damaged bits and doing the fairing and filling properly … say about 3 days.
You do your racing and then you have to do all the above again to put it back in the container.
Then you have to do it all again when you get home!
I don’t think so Mr IFDS… who is going to pay for all this….

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

If National Organisations have ordered SKUDS and then sold them on to individuals

What is the situation regarding warranty?

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

You have to pay all the taxes on the SKUD (inc VAT in Europe) because it is designed for ‘anyone’ to be able to sail it, which means it is not specifically designed for disabled people.

We are advised by UK Customs and Excise (VAT) that they will consider any specially designed electric servo assist for zero rating provided it is 'permanantly fixed to the dinghy' also if the said device is fitted before purchase the whole boat may be considered for Zero rating.

AND IT GETS WORSE…..

You cannot reach the control post to get the sheets while seated.

We await your comments…… ESPECIALLY FROM THE IFDS!

YOUR COMMENTS........