ISCA Windward Leg April 2025
New Boat Update!
By Chris Williams
Zim has been hard at work on the new boat, and the first boats have hit the water for testing!
Zim has made improvements to the boats to made them more durable. To be sure the boats are stiff, construction now uses waterproof foam blocks and adhesive for flotation and to provide structural support. With the waterproof foam, if the boat does get holed, there is nothing to soak up water. The rudder cheeks are of a stronger plastic with a new reinforcing rib. While the old cheeks had evolved to become stronger, these take it up another notch. Racing boats will come with Harken Carbo boom blocks, and those blocks will be phased in on recreational boats. Also, racing boats will have roller cleats on the boom for the outhaul and cunningham. There is also reinforcement in the seating area to prevent cracking, and in the mast step area to eliminate problems there. A recreational and a racing line package from Kingfisher Ropes is included, and all boats, rec and race, comes with a North sail, which are now available exclusively through Zim and Zim dealers. For those wanting to upgrade their boom blocks, the forward block is a Harken 348, and the aft swivel block is the Harken 340 or 340F. These will be legal as soon as Zim ships the first racing boat. That should happen in May.
Its very important to point out that there aren’t expected to be any performance differences with the new boats vs older ones. The new ones should simply be more durable than the boats of the past few years. For instance, my 2013 boat, built with foam blocks, is still solid - we are expecting the new boats to last a long time too.
Zim’s factory is in Bristol, RI, and they’ve been testing the new boats at the Bristol Yacht Club. In addition to Zim’s employees, former Sunfish/ISCA North American champion Bill Brangiforte also sailed the boat. Bill had good timing, as he was able to sail in a nice 12 knot southerly that generated a good amount of chop. You can read his comments here. There are several more test sails scheduled.
Zim expects to begin production and start shipping boats to dealers in May. You can visit Zim’s ISCA home page to see and learn more more here.
Finally, ISCA and USSCSA are working together to develop an FAQ about the new boat, and it should be available shortly. Keep an eye out for it; its designed to help everyone as we progress to the ISCA.
View the full newsletter at https://www.sunfishclass.org/newsletter/06670-20250508151922-079191500-77149291
