CLASS
HISTORY

HISTORY OF THE MUSTO SKIFF

"Radical! – Powerful! – Impressive!"

The class was designed by German sailor, Dr Joachim Happrecht in the late 1990’s, and to this day, he owns the intellectual property of the design.

One of the worlds most successful small boat building businesses, British based Ovington Boats Ltd, was granted the rights to build and distribute Joachim’s design worldwide. 

The title sponsor of the class is the iconic British apparel and footwear brand, Musto Limited. Musto has been a continuous long-term sponsor of the class since 2000 and remains an integral part of the class history.

Here’s how a fantastic plywood prototype was designed and discovered before evolving to become one of the fastest high performance singlehander dinghies every made.

The brief that started it all……

Back in 1999 ISAF (World Sailing) issued a brief to designers to create a fast singlehander boat.

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

Back in the 1980’s, many years before this brief, a 470 sailor called Nigel Musto met a sailor from another class called Tim Tavinor. Tim was sailing a Finn, but a friendship grew and by the mid-1990’s they ended up sailing Etchells together.

The prototype boat (left) and Joachim stepping aboard for the maiden sail (right) 

Discovering the first skiff prototype…..

In 1999 Nigel attended the Hamburg Boat Show. He was wandering around the show and came across a stand exhibiting a fascinating skiff prototype. The designer of this skiff prototype was, of course, Dr Joachim Happrecht.

Intrigued by the design, Nigel stopped to chat about the skiff and find out more about it. The first boat was built in plywood. Here, you can see the prototype boat and Joachim stepping aboard for the maiden sail.

You can read the report on the test event from Voiles & Voilers here. (links to a PDF download)

Find out what happened to the prototype here

The boat that became the Musto Skiff…. 

On returning to the UK, Nigel rang his good friend 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.

After making arrangements to meet with Joachim, Tim and his then business partner, Luca Devoti, set off for Lake Garda to check out this so called ‘amazing boat’.

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

These pictures show the first carbon fibre boat coming out of the mould and Joachim working on the boat design.

Needing an identity for this new revelation, Nigel Musto stepped up to sponsor the class and the boat became the Musto Performance Skiff (later evolving to be simply, Musto Skiff).

The rest, as they say, is history!

The first carbon fibre boat coming out of the mould (top left), Joachim working on the boat design (bottom right) and a test sail in the prototype boat (bottom left and top right).

TIMELINE OF THE MUSTO SKIFF

'Olympic Singlehander Project' to 'High Performance Skiff'

  • 1999 World Sailing Brief on “Olympic Singlehander Project” 
  • 1999 Design by Joachim Harprecht in Kiel, Germany
  • 1999 Prototype in plywood
  • 1999 Nigel MUSTO found the prototype at Hanseboot Show. 
  • 1999 Devoti Sailing invite Joachim and Gabriel to UK to build the first prototypes
  • 1999 Design officially named MUSTO Skiff
  • 2000 World Sailing Evaluation Event 
  • 2000 Prototype taken to the London Dinghy Show
  • 2000 Ovington Boats become project partners
  • 2000 Class passes CE certification
  • 2000 International dealer network set up, using existing Devoti and Ovington dealers, plus some new sailors who became dealers
  • 2001 Great Britain class association founded
  • 2001 MSCA formed
  • 2001 First Europeans at Fraglia Vela Malcesine
  • 2001 First woman sailor
  • 2002 International class website launched. Producing a more professional site, plus e-newsletter etc
  • 2003 Yahoo group started, which became International forum as technology allowed
  • 2003 First stages of the ‘Pimp My Skiff’ section on website launched
  • 2003 Worlds first use of a class sailor survey
  • 2004 First official class training
  • 2005 First North American Championship
  • 2005 First boats in Australia
  • 2005 Class Forum replaces the Yahoo Group
  • 2006 World Sailing Recognised Class status attained
  • 2007 First World Championship
  • 2007 Ovington Boats take over distribution from Devoti Sailing (UK)
  • 2007 World Sailing International Class status attained
  • 2007 Light Skiff Prototype
  • 2007 Australian Class Association founded
  • 2007 Swiss Class Association founded
  • 2008 Austrian Class Association founded
  • 2008 German Class Association founded
  • 2008 K16 Stenhouse coaching DVD launched
  • 2010 First non-UK class chairman
  • 2010 EuroCup Series starts
  • 2011 First non-European World Championships
  • 2011 Class promotion video created
  • 2011 International sailor and fleet locator launched (Google maps)
  • 2011 First Kieler Woche participation
  • 2012 First 100+ Boat World Championship held at WPNSA.
  • 2013 Dedicate website for South Africa launched
  • 2013 Sail Number 500 sold

Got something to add? Make your additions to the Musto Skiff timeline on the class forum page here.