Development and Growth of the Thames A-Rater Fleet

The Thames A-Rater is a Victorian era designed 28ft racing dinghy based on the river Thames. Despite a number of new boats being built in the 1980s the fleet is reducing in size slowly but surely, this may be due to the class rules stating that any new hull claiming to be a Thames A-Rater needs to be an exact replica of an existing hull with all measurements within one and a half inches of the original. This means accurate designs and dimensions for an existing boat need to exist to be able to produce a new boat, half the boats are over 100 years old and most of the plans for them have either been lost or destroyed and any that do exist have missing dimensions. This project will focus on the revival of the historic Thames A-Rater class. One of the main objectives for this project is to produce detailed lines plans of existing A-Raters using hand taken measurements and 3D scanners so builders and designers can use them to create new vessels for the fleet and provide an historical archive of yachts that have profoundly influenced modern naval architecture. The second objective is to develop the technology of the fleet by designing a competitive Thames A-Rater that is an abode to the fleet’s history. This will be achieved by running performance analysis on the 3D models produced from lines taken from existing hulls and finding the most suitable and efficient hull shape. This shape will then be refined and played with to attempt to improve it marginally whilst staying within the rule. To keep the new boat within the Rater aesthetic it will be built out of a sustainable wood using cold moulding techniques with a varnished wooden deck.