First Didi 29 Retro Sailing Photos

Bruce Mierke has had his Didi 29 Retro "Arabella" in Florida the past few weeks and has been pretty busy sailing her. Now he and his boat are back home and Bruce has sent me some sailing photos. She looks very pretty under sail and shows the clean wake of a slippery hull.

About his sailing, Bruce said "I have been sailing her as a cutter in light winds under 10. With Yankee, staysail,and full main that gets me 544sf of sail up. And she handles very good. And with that much sail up moves in very light winds. Just a lot of lines to handle when tacking. Had her out yesterday in 20 to 25 with double reef main and staysail still getting her to point 35-40 degs and doing 8.25 with two friends. But rail was in the water a lot. Still can't imagine having the bigger rig."

Nice-looking sails, Bruce single-handing in about 10 knots.

Nice flat wake of an easily-driven hull.

A small classically-styled yacht that can cover miles at a good clip.

Bruce built a shorter and narrower cabin than our design, which is proportioned to give comfortable accommodation down below for weekending.

A pretty boat from all angles.

The bigger rig that Bruce referred to is the one for Mike Kopman, who commissioned this design. But that is exactly what Mike wanted, a fast and easily driven hull with a big rig for classic racing, crewed by a select bunch of well-experienced heavies on the rail. It will be interesting to watch them taking their boat around the race course.

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