Dart 18

The Dart 18 was designed and built by Panthercraft, a company formed in 1969 by two friends Ian Fraser and Kim Stephens.

Kim sailed the International Canoe and Ian the Shearwater Cat and both had some success at National level.

When the Tornado catamaran was chosen for prospective Olympic status in 1966 Ian obtained one of the original Tornadoes from the designer, Rodney March, as a ‘demonstrator’ at Restronguet in late 1968 and persuaded 6 friends to join him in building 6 boats . John Pitt, David Stonehouse, Brian Bishop, John Cooke, Graham Parkin and Ian Fraser. They pooled their resources and in the summer of 1969 established Tornado racing on Carrick Roads .

Kim and Ian both had the desire to ‘build boats’, Kim gave up his surveyor’s job with Ronnie Prior and he, with Ian, applied for a licence from the IYRU to build Tornado catamarans – not in wood, which was the method to date, but in GRP to Rodney’s specification . By using high tech laminates and materials only used so far in the aircraft industries Panthercraft built the world’s first all ‘glass’ Tornado which Ian sailed to 3rd place in the 1970 European championships in Copenhagen . By proving the design and construction was capable of winning, orders for the boats started coming in from all over the world. With the advent of containers it was possible to build boats in the old ‘clothing factory’ at Ponsanooth (which Kim and Ian had earlier purchased), load them in the field opposite Ian’s house and ship them to Hawaii, Los Angeles and Hong Kong and establish a thriving export business .

Panthercraft boats won all the major international events and Ian won the World Championship in 1971 and the Europeans in 1972. At the peak of production the firm was building some 100 Tornados a year .

With the adoption of the Tornado for the 1976 Olympics both of the partners realised that the prospect of making a living out of just one product was numbered . There were approximately 30 licensed builders around the world chasing a very select market and to survive Panthercraft needed a more universally popular design .

Terry Pearce who had, along with Rodney March, engineered the building of the original Tornado for its ‘trials’ in 1966 joined Ian and Kim to share their experiences and produce an outline of the boat that they would wish to sail .

The very first Dart 18, designed and built in Falmouth, Cornwall, is now owned by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Up to the present, a number of improvements have been made, but the original concept was preserved though strict class rules. More than 8350 boats have been built up to 2016, which are sailed in more than 16 nations on 4 continents. Since 2012, Windsport International holds the worldwide licence to build the Dart 18. The boats are manufactured since 2005 at Collins Fibreglass Plastics in South Africa and in Europe. The World Championship results can be found here.

The hulls of the Dart 18 are similar to most sailing catamarans, but without centreboards. Instead, the lower part of the hulls have skegs typical for a beach catamaran. The hull material is glassfibre. Both hulls are filled with flotation inserts to preserve buoyancy in case of damage. The inside of each hull can be reached through a hatch cover located at the rear of each hull. The boat is assembled by attaching the main and rear beams to the hulls with spring-loaded retaining clips, and lacing the trampoline to the beams and hulls. The two rudders are removable without tools, retract on impact with the beach, and can be locked in the up position.

The rigging consists of a rotating mast held by a forestay and two shroud wires. The shrouds can be adjusted by simply moving the bolts in the chainplates. The Dart 18 mast does not have spreaders. There is a trapeze for the crew.

The mainsail does not have a boom, has nine full battens, and is controlled by a main sheet with a 7:1 mechanical advantage. The jib sail has two short battens, and is controlled by a jib sheet with a 2:1 mechanical advantage. The main sheet block and both jib sheet blocks have a ratchet and a cleat.

A gennaker sail can be added, but is not legal for racing. This is usually combined with a jib furling system. The boat can also be sailed by one person, without a foresail, with a D-PN of 78.7.[2]

• List of multihulls

• UK Dart 18 Catamaran History
• UK Dart 18 Catamaran Association
• SA Dart 18 Catamaran Association
• ISAF 2020 class report for the Dart 18
• National Maritime Museum Cornwall
• Windsport, supplier of Dart18 boats and parts