The Flying Tiger 10 M (FT10) is a new 10 meters One Design Club Racer designed by
Bob Perry, built by Bill Stevens at
Hansheng Yachts
in Xiamen, China and commercialized by
Hiptrader LLC. This site is devoted to the promotion
of the International Class Association.
FT10s Delivered Worldwide: 91
Class Members: 61 Full + 14 Associate
USA 41 "Tin man" is the
2008 Eastern us Champion
after 3 days of racing in Pensacola, Florida (Photo credit: Marc
Crutcher)
Tiger Fleet Ready To Attack Tampa Bay
February 15th, 2008 - St. Petersburg, Florida. by Alan
Block/BlockSail.com
Barely a year has passed since the first Flying Tiger 10M
sportboat first sailed on United States waters, and already, this
scorching hot sportboat class can claim its fourth one-design start at a
major regatta. Eight Tigers will race each other this coming weekend on
the often-breezy waters of Tampa Bay, and amazingly, only five of the
sixteen competing classes have more entries than the FT-10M Class.
ON-LINE TO ON-WATER
The genesis of the Flying Tiger is an exciting example of the power of
on-line communication. Born through a collaborative process in the
community forums of the Sailing Anarchy website, the FT-10M was designed
as a lightweight, affordable one-design racing boat. The narrow,
high-powered craft fits into a standard 40-foot shipping container,
allowing award-winning builder Bill Stevens to economically produce the
boats in Xiamen, China and ship them anywhere in the world, quickly and
efficiently.
The first FT-10M arrived in the US in its “gift box” in September, 2006,
and 16 months later, the company is preparing to ship numbers 80 and
higher – making the Tiger an unprecedented success in the world of
one-design keelboats. Almost as impressive as the overall numbers are
the destinations of the finished sports racers: Tigers have been shipped
to South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, and multi-boat
fleets already exist in China, Australia, the Pacific Northwest,
Southern California, and now, the Southeastern US.
“There is just nothing else that comes close to the performance of the
FT-10 at anything near the price,” said Brian Stevens, marketing
director for HipTrader, the builder's US-based subsidiary. “Owners love
the fact that they can buy and campaign this 33-foot racing yacht for a
fraction of what the alternatives cost – and they can go just as fast,
if not faster.”
AROUND THE BUOYS AND AROUND THE WORLD
With just over a year of racing behind them, Flying Tiger owners have
put together some incredible results. In distance racing, the FT-10M has
shown its transom to the competition all over the world, with overall
victories in Perth, Ensenada, San Diego, and British Columbia against
sailors like Dennis Connor and Bill Buchan. Division, class, and series
victories have been commonplace for Tiger skippers, although nearly all
of them say that they specifically purchased their boats for the
one-design racing that is now kicking off in earnest.
“The anniversary of the first real one-design start is next month, at
the San Diego NOOD, and we expect 12 to 14 boats racing,” said Bill
Stevens, builder of the FT-10M. “But what has us really excited is the
Class racing that we will see in 2008 in places like Florida,
Charleston, Seattle, Long Beach, and Chicago.. It's an exciting time for
an exciting boat.”
The U.S. isn't the only place with the numbers for one-design racing,
either. There are now an amazing eleven Tigers now in Australia, with
one new boat continuing to arrive each month. Europe is not far behind,
especially with the FT-10M's European CE certification process reaching
completion in early spring, 2008. A flood of deliveries will reach the
continent shortly thereafter.
We were working on a 53’ cruising
boat project with Bill Stevens when a little over a year ago he
suggested we try a new project. The idea was to produce in China a one
design, affordable, club racer that would help promote sailboat racing
in China. There was already some racing going on there but the boats in
use were at best worn out and very mismatched for one design racing.
Bill knew we already had a good yard and all we needed was a design.
Bill is a bit of a visionary.
The idea was to design a boat
that would fit into a container for shipping. For me that meant
manipulating the beam of the boat so that when the boat was tilted 30
degrees it fit tightly into the container. Bill chose 10 meters as the
LOA we would work with. I drew a light and fast hull with a lifting bulb
keel and outboard rudder. Bill wanted to have the preliminary design
finished in time for him to take it to the Shanghai boat show. I
finished the preliminary drawings and off flew Bill to China. That was
the last I heard of the project until about 6 weeks later when I logged
onto the SAILING ANARCHY
website and saw our 10 meter boat on the home page. There was no caption
other than something to the effect of “Look at this new design”. Bill
called me immediately and said “Don’t tell them anything until I give
the word.”
Speculation on SA raged and the
guesses as to what the new design was, who designed it and who the
builder was were all over the map. The guessing went on for four days
then Bill called me and said “Now you can tell them”. I went onto SA and
explained the project and casually mentioned that we had the hope of
bringing this boat in for “under the magic price”. To me this meant
$50,000. By now the SA board was humming with interest and Bill flew off
to China to negotiate a contract with the Han Sheng yard in Xiamen. At
this stage the SAILING ANARCHY part of the equation was still an
unknown. Bill returned and announced on SA that the price of the boat ex
the factory would be $39,500 with sails. This price would be held for
the first 50 boats. Bill also announced that a $1,000 deposit would hold
a hull number for buyers but we had no idea of what the delivery times
would be. Regardless deposits starting coming in very quickly as
interest in the design grew.
I was soon peppered with
questions as to the specifics of the design. Unfortunately all that
existed of the design at that point was preliminary drawings and I made
this very clear to the readers of SA. “There are no specs. There is no
real design as of yet.” Then without thinking much about it I suggested
that the SA readers contribute ideas that would help me solidify the
design. This opened the flood gate and started a process that I think is
unique in the history of American yacht building.
Of course the design ideas I was
given through SA were often contradictory and often at odds with Bill’s
vision of the boat. There were some good, heated arguments, plenty of
name calling and the type of rough and tumble discourse you can
typically find on SA. But the bottom line is that it worked pretty well
and soon we had a design coming together that seemed to satisfy the
collected needs of the SA crew. Deposits were rolling in daily from all
over the world and before long the first 50 boats were all spoken for.
But that did not stop would be buyers from ordering hulls beyond number
50 despite the fat that we could no guarantee a price. Today we have
deposits for 107 boats.
There was a lot of China bashing
in the early days of the project. Here was plenty of Bob Perry bashing
too. Bill took a few direct hits on the nose as did his son Brian. There
was rampant doubt that we could bring this project to reality and if we
did we would be putting out a poorly built, “cheap” boat. They were all
wrong. We now have four boats rigged and sailing and two sets of tooling
pumping out boats as fast as we can. The first five boats will stay in
China for Chinese regattas and be used as prototypes. I think we have
proven to a lot of people that we can do it and do it well. The finished
boats are of very high quality. We have a full time man at the yard
supervising all elements of construction including the finishing of our
own carbon spars from raw tubes shipped in from Australia. Bill, I and
my engineer Ben Souquet have spent much time at the yard to see thing
were kept on track. Bill has one full time man at the yard overseeing
the project on a daily basis..
The depositors were polled to see
if they wanted to pay extra for the carbon rig. They did and this
brought the price of the first 50 boats up to $44,500. All you have to
do is have the boat shipped, add instruments and an outboard and off you
go.
There has been a lot of chatter
about our “revolutionary business model” and how we enlisted the SA
board members for help in the design process. In fact, we had no
business model. Once the momentum was initiated at SA the project took
on a life of its own. We were totally out of control initially but soon
a process gelled. I would go on line to SA in the morning and ask if
anyone had details for a lifting keel mechanism and by the afternoon I
would have half a dozen responses often with drawings and photos.
Wherever I needed design help there was plenty of expertise to be mined
on SA. Sailors volunteered to do research projects for the project. For
everyone telling us you can’t do it there were several people there
telling us how to do it. From time to time this plethora of design
“help” has been irritating. There was the long and drawn out debate over
the shape of the windows. We have had enough input on interior layouts
to serve a dozen designs. One group wanted headroom while another wanted
a low profile. From time to time we would conduct a formal survey to
establish a design direction on a specific detail. It was not always
easy but in the end it worked well enough to the point that to date we
have only lost one depositor and he left due to a job transfer.
I can now say with certainty that
this project has been a most rewarding challenge for my office. I can’t
give enough credit to my engineer Ben Souquet for his contributions.
Tiger
Migration
November 13th, 2008 -
pensacola,Florida
What do you
do when you own an FT10 and the weather starts to get cold? Frostbiting?
Hell no, you go South! After all, you bought a boat you can haul around
easily and put together in a few hours. Pensacola Yacht Club provided just
the climate to see the nomadic Tigers congregate; warm weather, sun, wind,
and a drink called the Bushwacker...
Read on.
Little Ensenada Race: FT10 1st, 2nd Overall
October
4th, 2008 -
Ensenada, Mexico
Tigger (again), Prowler and Lilly 1-2-3 at
Whidbey Island
July 25h, 2008 -
Whidbey Island, Washington State
Three Tigers on top of Fleet P1 at
Whidbey
Island Race Weeek: USA 22 "Tigger, Dangerous when Striped", CAN 37
"Prowler", and USA 29 "Tiger Lilly". Congratulation to Chris Winnard that
brings the top prize home for the second year in a row. Stripes or not,
Tigers are dangerous!
Read on...
Just one year after introducing the FT10
sport boat to the world of high performance sailing, the class may very well
be the largest one design fleet at this week’s prestigious Acura Ullman Long
Beach Race Week. FT10 racers will be vying for the coveted Pacific Coast
Championship title during this three day regatta beginning Friday, June 27,
2008 in the scenic waters off of Southern California.
Read on...
Tom Hirsh, President of the Southern
California Fleet, has made available the
2008 Calendar
for Southern California and San Diego Series. Good Wind!
Anarchy and Elusive Trading Hot Rums
November 18th, 2007 -
San Diego, California
USA 11 "Anarchy" and USA 24 "Elusive" are
trading victories in PHRF DIvision 2 of the popular Hot Rum Series hosted by
SDYC
in San Diego, California.
Read on...
Sailing Anarchy
publishes the first pictures of
Tiger Cub, the Flying Tiger 7.5M. According to Sailing Anarchy Hiptrader
has the same goal in mind: "Keep it Fast, Fun, and Affordable!".
Read on...
104th FT10 Masts Shipped
October 16th, 2007 -
Sidney, Australia
(From the
CST website)
CST has shipped over 100 masts for the FT10
Flying Tiger into China.
Read on...
"Elusive" Victory at San Diego to Ensenada
and SoCal Series
October 6th, 2007 -
Ensenada, Mexico
Official results are not out yet, but it
appears that USA-24 "Elusive" owned by John Paquin took the Overall
Corrected Time victory and the Class 2 Trophy in the
San Diego to Ensenada
International Yacht Race hosted by Southwestern Yacht Club. John
Paquin also laureates 2007 Champion of the FT10 Southern California
Fleet #1.
Read on...
We get frequently asked how the FT10 does
short-handed. John Lymberg, owner of USA-50 "Savage Beauty", reports of his
first double-handed sail in the Bay.
Read on...
CAN 31 "My-Tai" Sweeps Maple Bay
Regatta
September 2nd, 2007 -
Maple Bay, Vancouver Island, BC - Canada
CAN-31 "My-Tay" sweeps the PHRF A division at
Maple Bay Yacht Club Regatta and wins first Overall in the
Lieutenant Governors Trophy combined divisions A & B.Read on...
CAN 31 "My-Tai" for Sale
September 1st, 2007 -
Vancouver, BC - Canada
The first used FT10 came to the market in
Vancouver, Canada. If you're looking for a well prepared, race ready FT10
with a great sail inventory contact Owner Daryl. Read all the info in the
FT10
Classifieds.
Fun in the Wind in San Francisco
August 19th, 2007 - San
Francisco, CA - USA
A few shots, courtesy of
Mariah's
Eyes Photography, of USA 15 "Centomiglia" in the wind of San Francisco,
California. This is what the FT 10 is all about: good friends having fun on
the water. Check it out!
Tigris "Tigru" Europensis
August 15th, 2007 - Undisclosed
Location, Finland
We have received an unconfirmed report of the
sighting of a Tiger in Finland! The scientific community is still debating
how the Tiger made it back to Old Europe, but our guess is that it was
aboard a 40 feet container...
Read on!
A Tiger in the Caribbean!
August 13th, 2007 - English
Harbour, Antigua and Barbuda
After 42 days at sea hull #42 - "Forty Two"
has arrived to his home in English Harbour,
Antigua and
Barbuda. Read on...
"Mile High Klub" Takes Division in Santa
Barbara to King Harbor 2007
August 5th, 2007 - Santa
Barbara,
CA - USA
USA 33 "Mile High Klub" wins
division SPRIT-B, and make 6th overall, in the 2007 Santa Barbara to
King Harbor. Read the full report from skippers
Philip and Payson Infelise.
Read on...
Dangerous When Striped!
July 27th, 2007 - Whidbey
Island,
WA - USA
USA 22 "Tigger, Dangerous When Striped" is
the winner of Fleet P1 at
Whidbey Island Race Week. Well done to owner Chris Winnard and Crew.
Read on...
Stripes are Fast at Whidbey Island
July 24th, 2007 - Whidbey
Island,
WA - USA
After the first day of racing at Whidbey
Island Race Week USA 22 "Tigger, Dangerous When Striped" is on the lead:
stripes are fast indeed!
Read on...
The first FT10 One Design Regatta was
raced during the SDYC Midwinters in San Diego on February 17-18th, 2007.
Four Tigers on the line and "Anarchy" ruled, skippered by Rickard/Tempesta.
Read on...
A Tiger on the Loose in Durban, South Africa
January 24th, 2007 - Durban, South Africa
Hull #17 has already crossed two Oceans,
inside its own container, and made it all the way to Durban, South Africa.
Read on...
2007 Sperry Top-Sider San Diego NOOD - March 16-18, 2007
January 17th, 2007 - San Diego,
CA
The first FT10M 2007 Sperry Top-Sider
National Offshore One-Design Regatta is scheduled for March 16-18th,
2007 in San Diego, California. Check out the NOR and other Info at the
Sailing World website, and
register on-line before march 5th, 2007. The list of
participants (including other classes) is available
here.
AC China Team Match Racing Flying Tigers
November 24th, 2006 - Xiamen,
P.R. China
The America's Cup "China Team" is in Xiamen
Match Racing with Flying Tigers. Read the rest of the story in the 32nd
America's Cup
Website.
USA 012 "Panthera" Down Under!
October 25th, 2006 - Perth, Western
Australia
What an apt name for a Tiger! Hull #12 "Panthera"
arrived today at Royal Perth Yacht Club. It's the first Flying Tiger in
Australia. Read on...
Hiptrader announced today
that "Hulls
51 to 75 will be priced at $49,950 plus $525 for the kevlar jib upgrade".
Read on...
Tiger in America!
September
16th,
2006 - Annapolis, MD
Hull # 6 arrives at Annapolis,
unloaded from the container sits comfortably on her AB Trailer. Boat will be
commissioned and prepared for the US Boat Show.
Read on...
