How does the Dart 15 compare to the Moz? Has anyone run against a D-15? Or a D15DX?

Sorry most Mosquito's are in Australia and South Africa, not many in USA. In Australia I don't recall having seen any Darts so can't comment.

didn't a Sth African owner take his mozzie to USA or Canada when he moved there ????
I recall reading about it a year or so ago.....


How do the yard-sticks compare internationally ????

that may give some indication on a performance comparision.

Mosquito Cat (Mk1) 83 1 up

Mosquito Cat + Spin 77 1 up - spin of 17.5m2 (F16 max)

Mosquito Sloop (Mk11) 82 2 up

Mosquito Sloop + Spin 76 2 up - SCHRS for spin of 17.5 m2 (F16 max)


explanation of the yardstick calculations and listing for Australian sailed boats...... (the mozzie is on page 10)

Yardstick PDF

hope that sheds some light on it for you ....

Hi azcat,

Nice looking boat. I dunno about Dart sailors but Mossie sailors are a very competitive bunch so my money would be on the Mossies.

Why don't you come on over and have some races with us, we are welcoming of all contenders.

Yes, I am a little partial to that Cat! Runs as good as it looks!

I bought this cat (Dart/Spark/sprint) literally , from a little old lady from Yuma, and was excited to pick it up. I really enjoy single handing, and the prospect of a 220 lb cat that I can easily launch off the beach is a real plus. I have a N5.0 that I use as my single hander now, but when I have to move it around on land, it's a bitch. Especially uphill on soft sand.

I took the Spark15 out once to try it out and found that, single handed, it performed very well. I weigh 183lb. If I added 2 small children, it was a dog.
Beam reaching, single handed,I could almost keep up with N5.0s as long as the wind was up. When the wind was below 10mph, the boat wouldn't do well. Very wet ride, which I miss, having moved on to bigger and more modern boats.
I love spinnaker, and would love to try one on the Spark15, but past experience with skeg hulls and spinnakers, they don't mesh, so I won't attempt it.
I believe it rates 916 , I am used to Portsmouth, and i haven't figured out how that converts.
I have been on the fence as to weather I should keep the boat or sell it. The biggest problem being that there is no one in these parts sailing ultra high Portsmouth boats, ie, I would be looking at a lot of transoms. I know, that's irrelevant, but not where I like to be.

I am always keeping an eye out for a good deal on an F16 or equivalent. Mosquito looks like a great boat and a great class! Sadly, there are none here to be had.

Maybe I'll keep the little Cat around for a while and add it to the stable.

http://www.schrs.com/ratings.php

The fastest dart 15 being the sprint (sloop with trapeze) at 1.274 which equals a hobie 14 turbo and a nacra 4.5. Putting it about 7% slower than a mozzy.

You could be the first... they might catch on there. They certainly did in South Africa.

Greg and Debra, I would love to go down under and hit a couple regattas. Maybe I can work that in sometime in the future. I would love to check out AU and NZ. Weirder things have happened. I'll stay at your house.

Also, yes, I think that it may catch on here. One of the big problems for everyone is getting good reliable crew for the bigger boats. Mozzies , Dart 15s, etc, eliminate that problem. As does the F16.
On these boats, being so small, low overall volume, don't you find that the boat with the least weight wins? I know, when the wind comes up, that is not necessarily true. You may have better winds where you sail than we generally have here.

Then there is the Sprint 15DX at 1.206 which equates to 81.5 by my reckoning.

not all the time..... like most other classes its a combination of a skilled skipper and a light boat that's hard to beat.


The thing most people miss-understand about "fast boat" design is the one critical fact we for some unknown reason seem to overlook.

Like any other class, the Mosquito hull design / shape has a limit as to how fast it can be physically pushed through the water. Terminal velocity exists on every hull shape and like every object we push through the air or water there's a limit as to the speed and we simply cant push past that limit.

the key tho is the acceleration rate of a light boat over a heavier boat.
Example:
every tack will see the lighter boat move ahead lets say 2 boat lengths, on a course with several tacks and varying pointing requirements that acceleration gap comes into play in a big way...... a couple of boat lengths soon becomes half a leg if not more.

I've sailed against boats that should out-run my old tub easily, but for some reason she seems to stay with them reasonably well right up until that first tack..... I'd loose a couple of lengths and yet I was still there.... a few tacks later and the distance had grown out to a point where getting it back is beyond the boats capability.
Staying right up at the front and running against A class's during one race had me stuffed as to why.... but as soon as the tacking started I slowly drifted back through the field and watched that gap grow each lap of the course.

The Mosquito has a minimal weight, a boat built to that weight wont be any faster than a boat that's 10kilos heavier, it just out accelerates it at every turn.