Mills 24' One Design Trainer

Dublin, Ireland's Mark Mills Design has a new 24 foot training boat on the drawing boards.

This modern simple One Design Trainer proposal is designed for yacht clubs with active youth training or club fleet programs. The need for a higher performance youth trainer also suitable for weekend racing with a mix of adults and children, as well as the possibility of racing under IRC as well as one design led to a very capable design with a sportsboat type deck layout, but slightly more displacement in order to accommodate the higher construction weight and the larger range of crew weights.

The design needed to be capable of easy hoisting and trailering by the club, but they had a list of features such as an underhung rudder which they felt were important. We suggested the keel lifting through the companionway also being the boat lift point, simplifying that process, and the rudder either manually removed or in a removable cassette depending on the budget requirements. They requested a small cabin cuddy space below for sail and outboard storage, as well as some contact protection to alleviate wear and tear in the heavy usage profile the boats would have. The wide rubber profile 'cove stripe' should provide this, and in conjuction with the robust laminates give them a long and productive career.

The simple sail plan combines healthy sail area in an easy to use format with non-overlapping jibs. The club wanted medium size symmetrical spinnakers for training, but masthead kites would be an option for One Design performance offwind. With a mainsheet bridle and pinstop jib tracks the amount and cost of deck gear is kept low without hindering the enjoyment or performance. A number of deck layout options were drawn, comparing a small coachroof, a cuddy, and a completely flush deck, with the coachroof felt to provide the best all-around utility.

Interest in this designs is sought in order to build the numbers to acommercially attractive level for builder involvement.

Preliminary Specifications