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Thames A Class Rater (scow)

The Thames A Class Rater is both a historic and modern specialist sailing craft designed for the particular conditions at Thames Sailing Club, on the River Thames at Surbiton in England. The rules refer to the craft as a yacht.

The rig is lofty, supported by standing rigging and usually by runners, and the hull is a scow with metal centreplate.

The rater is extremely fast, planes easily, and is a technically highly challenging boat to sail in anything above moderate wind conditions. It is usually sailed with a crew of three.

Raters have traditionally commuted by river under tow between Thames Sailing Club at Surbiton and Upper Thames Sailing Club at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

Sailing conditions

The home water was originally upstream of Raven's Ait, where the right bank of the Thames is a 15' (4.5m) high, mid-nineteenth century brick wall, designed to separate the river, even in spate, from the spring water of the Seething Wells waterworks. The left bank has tall mature plane trees. These enclosed conditions often result in unusually light wind conditions with variable eddies unless the wind direction is directly up or downstream when it tends to be funnelled along the river. The approximate boundaries of the water were from (Thames Sailing Club race start line) upstream to (Hampton Court Palace).

Over the years raters have developed extraordinarily tall masts and high aspect mainsails to meet the local conditions, and catch the wind above the trees and other obstructions along the banks. Their sails were always large, but originally they had long booms and shorter masts, but over time the booms got shorter and the masts taller. At first they used the so-called balance lug rug, then the Gunter rig, before moving on to the current Bermuda rig. Over the years bamboo spars were replaced first by wood, then aluminium, and now mostly carbon fibre.

Where raters sail

Thames Sailing Club

The original home of the rater

Upper Thames Sailing Club

Regattas

Mixed in with large fleets of other boats, the raters are usually seen at the following regattas with very tight, close quarters racing.

Tamesis Easter Regatta - Tamesis Club at , racing between Teddington Lock and Kingston Railway Bridge.

History

Boats past and present

Name	Sail Number	Dates		Description	Currently Racing
Name	Sail Number	Original Build	Last Rebuild	Description	Currently Racing
Kingfisher	1	1909 Alfred Burgoine	2001		Yes
My Lady Dainty	2	1911 Alfred Burgoine	1970 ~	When refurbished in the 1970s by Roger Harrall, boatswain at Raven's Ait, she was clad with a plastic sheath with embossed diamond pattern, similar to non slip floor surfacing, both on her hull and on her decks. She is currently in need of restoration.	No
Surf	3	1908 Linton Hope		Originally named Sea Miaou	No
Estelle	4	1902 Alfred Burgoine		One of the first to have the 45' mast, in 1938	No
Carina	5	1902 Alfred Burgoine	2003		Yes
Vanessa	6	1902 Alfred Burgoine		Originally called Latona Vanessa, she was built to conform to both the "A" and the smaller, slower, "B" rating rules. This results in her being relatively uncompetitive.	Yes
Saucy Sally	7	1906 d: Linton Hope b: Alfred Burgoine		In 1919, when the rest of the fleet was gunter rigged, she was the first to move to bermuda rig. She was built to conform to both the "A" and the smaller, slower, "B" rating rules. This results in her being relatively uncompetitive.	No
Ulva	8	1898 Alfred Burgoine		She is the oldest rater in existence. Ulva's hull has been used to create the moulds for the current GRP raters	Yes
Caprice IV	9	1910 Alfred Burgoine			Yes
Viva	10	1910 d: FH Jackson b: Townsend		Similar in design to My Lady Dainty. Now lost.	No
Dainty Too	11	1922 d: JM Soper b: Turk		The last wooden rater built. Bluff bows.	Yes
Scamp II	12	1906 d: Linton Hope b: Hart, Harden and Co	1999	Similar in design to Vagabond, less beamy, and with a longer waterline length	Yes
Vagabond	13	1907 d: Linton Hope b: Townsend	1980s	Distinctly narrow beam, came to prominence in Beecher Moore's ownership. Under Beecher Moore's ownership, Vagabond originated the dinghy trapeze system. Beecher Moore also experimented with a sliding seat, similar to that of the International Canoe. With many "firsts" to her name, Vagabond was the first rater to be commercially sponsored, with the sponsor's logo appearing on her sails.	Yes
Spindrift	14		1998	The first of the "Plastic" raters	Yes
Atlantis	15		1999		Yes
Osprey	16				Yes
Lady Iona	17				Yes
Sacre Bleu	18				Yes
Wings	19				Yes
Lady Jane	20				Yes
Champagne	21				Yes
Bonito	22				No
Tara	23			Renamed from Caprice V, and built with carbon fibre where technically possible.	Yes

The source data for this section is, in part Rater Descriptions from The Rater Association

In the table, "d:" refers to the designer, "b:" to the builder. Where simply a name is present that is the builder

Handicap

Unusually, for a class designed about a rule allowing wide variation in most design parameters, individual boats are handicapped.

Handicaps will be determined by a handicap committee consisting of the Rater Captain, plus the fastest and slowest helms in the FRP and wooden fleets respectively, based on the results of the most recent Thames Championship. In the event that the Rater Captain is one of the latter four, the closest helm to the Rater Captain in their category shall also be co-opted to the committee.

This committee will meet two or three times a year to decide the handicap of all boats.

The overriding principle that the committee will work to is to encourage the older and slower boats to compete.