The Skate is a high performance two-person racing dinghy unique to Australia. Designed as a monohull sailboat it's fourteen feet long (4.27m) with a 7.2m mast, 1.8m bow pole and masthead asymmetrical spinnaker. It is an Australian national class. Because of its small size and lightness it keeps the sailor close to the elements and at the edge of control when navigating water and wind. It makes for wild rides and a relative exhilarating experience of speed at 15 to 25 knots. Most Skates have a 10-foot-long hiking plank for the crew and an 8-foot plank for the skipper. Planks are slid across the hull from one side to the other when tacking and gybing. Other hiking configurations include short wings with two trapezes, longer wings with one trapeze, or trampolines. Many Skates now feature winged rudders to provide increased speed and stability in choppy conditions. One of the top ranked websites quote: "Those who have sailed a Skate will testify that, they provide the most exciting and best sensation of speed of any monohull sailing boat. Even after graduating to other larger boats, people hold the Skate in high esteem. They remember it for providing the best ride they ever had on a sailing boat." History The Skate sailing dinghy was designed in 1956. It is a two-man dinghy and was the original performance development class, with the sail plan created by J. Herrick and the hull by Vince Minter. Vince's idea was to design a boat that was easy to build, cost effective and would keep the older and bigger sailors of the day who were mainly sailing VJ's to stay on the water. And that was exactly the Skate did in those days. It offered high performance at an affordable price. Today Skates are regularly updated and take advantage of technological advances to maintain the "excitement" factor and original spirit. Skates are currently sailed in three states of NSW, WA and SA. Although boats still exist in Victoria, they are not sailed regularly and are older boats. Good class racing takes place at a number of clubs during the summer months. The VJ and VS associations were not interested in adopting the Skate as a class, so the Skate association was formed in 1957 and 1958. The Skate itself was actually launched in 1956 and 14 races were held over the season with 14 wins against all