Can someone help explain the old “Suicide” class rules to me?

Years ago, I stumbled on an article about the class and thought it looked like it might be fun to build one in the future. I wasn’t able to find a formal set of rules for the class, just was written in the article.

I gathered the found the following info:
Sail area is limited to 125sq ft, including the boom.
Beam is 5’6” (is that maximum allowed or a set requirement?)
LOA is 18’-23’

Does anybody have more info or can point me in the right direction?

 

A simple web search yielded the following from an Atkins boat plan.

During the late twenties the Huntington Yacht Club sponsored the Development Class of fast centerboard sailing boats. This class was popularly known as the Suicide Class, not because the boats were dangerous to sail, but because the insignia indicating the class was the old piratical device, a skull and cross-bones. Many of these boats were astonishingly fast. The boats were in the neighborhood of 18 feet over all and from 4 to 6 feet in breadth and all were of centerboard type. The principal restrictions of the Development Class are: no keels, not less than 3 feet 6 inches beam, nor more than 125 square feet sail area, a limitation of 50 pounds weight for a centerboard and a crew of two. Reaching in a strong breeze, despite the modest sail area, these boats really travelled very fast and in strong puffs, if you could keep them right side up without reefing, showed all the characteristics of planing. With more sail,a ballasted keel and a long hiking board to gain stability I have no doubt that speeds up to 12 miles an hour would be easily possible with hulls similar to those of the Development Class boats.

 

Thank you! What Atkins plan is this from? I found his “Speculation” plan but it didn’t have all this information.

It says centerboard, does that mean a daggerboard is NOT allowed? I know the class is defunct now, all this is irrelevant, but did they allow solo or did you have to have a crew of two?

 

It was from the Atkins plan Flying Saucer, his version of a keel boat along those lines.
The Huntington Yacht Club still exists, you can contact them to see if they might have any records or photos. I saw a couple of New York Times news paper articles written in the 30's detailing the results of races in that class, if you do a web search.

 

Thank you! I’m going to reach out to them and the Miami Yacht Club to see if they have any archived documents about it.

 

Here is a video from Florida.

 

Thank you for finding this! I was tempted to search for it on YouTube but didn’t want to screw up my algorithm and have to watch ads for the suicide hotline for the next 6 months.

 

Miami had a fleet of 12/15 boats during the late 50’s and early 60’s. Majority were approximately 20’ - 21’ if memory serves always required 2 aboard. Boats were built either hard chime or round bottom w/ round ones being able to plan quicker and
appeared faster. They had more than one method for the board, aluminum thin that would swing down on a pin used the most.
Most rudders were stearn mounted, do remember a couple one boats with removable rudders through the aft deck. Several
special sailors and business personnel sailed the boats, I crew for a period then sailed one before stepping up to larger rig. They
Were fun, fleet was great and all a big family in Miami

 

Thank you! Was a swing keel required or could you use a weighted daggerboard? Were the rules written down? Did the fleet sail out of the Miami Yacht Club?

 

Yes, basic written requirements for the boat were available, believe bulbs or added weight added to board wasn’t allowed. Do not have the exact requirements but boats appeared fairly close in width, narrow compared to their length and other classes. Length may have had play in width by rationing, wish the class requirements were available, but they didn’t carry a spinnaker nor a solid boom. Learning to adjust the main was a little different. Building the gaff wing styled boom was special, size plus location of controls on mast seem tight. The boat I sailed on had the ability to slide bottom of her mast aft on a track enabling the mast to be almost perpendicular if not.

As for the boards , all boats there had totally movable boards to clear the bottom as they were trailer launched on a sandy beach at the club and yes the fleet location was the Miami Yacht Club. Made several regatta trips to Mt Dora that always is a good time to remember.