1959 to 1967 - The Early Years
In mid 1959, members of the Manly 14’ Sailing Club were seeing a decline in membership as the founding sailors were mostly in their 20’s, married and starting families. It was concluded that introducing a junior class would attract the younger members to progressively rebuild the club.
The available classes, Sabots and Pelicans, which were ‘cat ‘ rigged were not considered an effective introduction to the light, fast 14 footers with their jibs and spinnakers, so in the winter of 1959 Ralph Tobias designed a more suitable class, and three weeks later the prototype Manly Junior was launched.
In setting out to design the MJ, the key issue was storage, and as the 14’s were taking up the rack space, there was very little room for the new class. The largest number of boats could be fitted if stored vertically, and the length of the new boat was determined by the ceiling height of the shed, just over (8’6").
Wanting to give the young sailors a boat with potential to plane and with the buoyancy to allow for a crew of two, Ralph decided on a snub bow. Other criteria were the boat should be able to be built by a handyman, and it should be of low cost.
A local sailmaker, Laurie Mitchell helped develop a sail kit that included all the sails, ropes, rigging and fittings. The price was 40 Pounds. A local timber yard provided a kit with all the timber parts cut to a pattern, and also cost 40 Pounds.
The original MJ was fitted with a buoyancy tank in the bow and another aft under a seat. The objective was to ensure crew safety in the event of a capsize, however this did not allow the boat to be righted, emptied of water, and sail on. The jib rigging included a cord tie which could be released from the bow in the event of a capsize, releasing the rigging overboard. The crew could then sit in the water logged boat until rescued.
1967 to 2000 - From Timber to Fibreglass
In 1967, the buoyancy was redesigned , removing the aft tank and installing a buoyancy compartment along each side , and around the centreboard case. The first boat with the new design was named "Transition" (#1400), This boat was to go and win NSW Championship in 1969. The MJ could now be righted after a tip up, and if righted correctly, most of the water could be drained allowing the boat to continue.
The Mark II Manly Junior dinghy, which was also built in timber, is the same as the one that was built in fibreglass. The fibreglass construction became popular as the disposable income increased and parents were able to use a professional construction rather than build themselves.
2000 to 2005 - The False Floor
In 2000 we saw only the second major change to this little boat, that is the advent of the "false floor" (#2720). The idea was to put a self draining floor into the boats. When you now have a capsize, your race is not run. The observations over the last nationals showed the smaller kids were able to right the boat and be off inside 2 minutes maximum. This has been a popular move, with over 32 boats being manufactured inside 24 months.
With the intention of maintaining the class as a one design, a simple set of class restrictions which determined the shape of the hull, centreboard , rudder, mast, and sails was adopted and the Class Rules were updated in June 2003. In 1972 attempts to ‘rule cheat’ were circumvented by the addition of a new rule which was included on the advice of Alan Payne (designer of the first Americas’ Cup challenge boat "Gretel") which stated:-
The" Manly Junior" class is intended to be a training class for learning to sail, and a racing class in which success will be achieved by the skills of the helmsman, and crew. It is not intended as a development class to encourage the building of a finely finished, lavishly equipped lightweight boats.
A builder who constructs a "Manly Junior" with the intention of producing a faster boat than the standard design is not following the objectives of the Manly Junior Sailing Association of Australia.
The race committee at any race conducted by the Association, may reject the entry of a boat which, in their opinion has not been constructed in accordance with objects of the Association. This rejection may even be made even though the boat complies with all existing requirements of the class.
These rules and the constant policing of such have provided an excellent platform to which our sailors are by far some of the best juniors in the world. We also have a comprehensive list of International world champion adults that started in this class.
2005 - A New Mould
In 2005, a new hull mold was made that took out some of the bumps and curves that had developed in the mold over 20 years use. Boat #2757 was made up as the "plug".
