Boating New Zealand — January 2018

52 Boating New Zealand

assessment of Korora. Her artfulness attracted

many admiring looks while her sensible design

meant sailing her was a dream.

The upper reaches of French Bay in Akaroa

Harbour greeted us with ideal conditions for the

review: 12 knots of southwest harbour draft. To

add to all that we were surrounded by the fleet

from the Akaroa Classic Yacht regatta so we

had plenty of traditional cruising dinghies for

comparison.

First impressions of Korora are of room and

lots of it. The beamy nature means there is a lot

of boat packed into her 14 feet. Even with three

of us aboard she didn’t feel crowded. The cockpit

layout offered multiple combinations of crew

placement without affecting the trim.

The bottom profile has a flat, dory-like form

bent into a fore and aft curve for strength.

This helps with the load-carrying capacity

and her sea kindly motion. With the addition

of a relatively high freeboard for her length

she a surprisingly dry in the short chop that

developed later in the afternoon.

She drove easily to windward with the

gunter-rigged mainsail opening the leech in the

puffs. Sail controls – including all throat and

peak halyards, jib furling line and sheets – are

all within reach of the helmsman which makes

single-handed sailing much easier.

Having the sail area down low and well-

spread meant the puffs drove her forward rather

than over on her ear. With plenty to tweak on

the yawl rig it was the equivalent of a 16-speed

gearbox with plenty of modes to match the

variations in wind strength.

In a short beat to windward I found two of

the useful gears. A little tweaking of the mizzen

allowed me to put her in a light helm ‘sail all

day’ mode, or with a little over sheeting, a high-

pointing racing mode.

Downwind the low aspect rig came into

its own. On a reach the venetian blind effect

of her yawl rig provided good speed and on

deeper angles the gunter rig provided plenty of

power. With the combined centre of effort kept

low, Korora remained upright, dry and light on

the helm.

This was dinghy cruising at its best; the

crew quietly discussed the problems of the

world, lounging in relaxed fashion around the

commodious cockpit while sliding downwind.

It was just the kind of conditions for pleasant

sailing and was also the kind of conditions in

which religions and cults are often formed. BNZ

DESIGNED BY

 John Welsford

BUILT BY

Mick Fone of

Richard Walker

Boatbuilders

in Nelson

Navigator

loa 4.5m

Beam 1.8m

Weight 140kg

Sails 12.6m^2

SPECIFICATIONS