Back in 1999 ISAF put out a brief to designers for a fast single handed boat; here is the brief.

Here is a report on the test event from Voiles & Voilers

Long-term German Contender sailor Dr Joachim Happrecht took this brief on and developed the OSP or Olympic Singlehander Project.

The shot on the right shows the prototype boat and the shot below that shows Joachim stepping aboard for the maiden sail.

The first boat was built in plywood ...

Many years before that whilst Joachim was blasting around in Contenders in the 1980’s Nigel Musto first got to know Tim Tavinor when Nigel was sailing the 470 and Tim was sailing the Finn. They also sailed Etchells together in the mid 1990’s.

It was at the Hamburg Boat Show in 1999 that Nigel was wandering around the show and came across a stand exhibiting a fascinating skiff prototype. The designer was of course Dr Joachim Happrecht and Nigel, intrigued by the design, stopped to chat about the skiff and find out more about it.

Below is some of the early press coverage.

On returning to the UK, Nigel rang Tim and said, “I’ve found a boat that looks the DB’s, you must go and see it!” As a result Tim arranged to meet Joachim after the show at Lake Garda. So Tim along with Luca Devoti (Tim’s business partner at the time) trundled off to Garda to check out this so called amazing boat.

After a whizz around Lake Garda, Luca and Tim were hooked! They decided that it was a fantastic boat and decided to take on the project of manufacturing and promoting it.

The pictures on the left show the first carbon fibre boat coming out of the mould and below that Joachim wearing out the batteries on his calculator ...

Needing an identity for this new revelation, Nigel stepped up to sponsor the class and hence it became the Musto Performance Skiff.

The rest they say of course is history ...

There is a multi boat magazine test here for interest >>>

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