505 (dinghy)
The International 505 is a one-design high-performance two-person monohull planing dinghy, with spinnaker, utilising a trapeze for the crew.
History
The origins of the class began in 1953 with the creation of the 18-foot 'Coronet' dinghy designed by John Westell. This sailboat competed in the International Yacht Racing Union selection trials at La Baule, France, in 1953 for a new two-person performance dinghy for the Olympics. Although the Coronet lost Olympic selection to the Flying Dutchman, in 1954 the :fr:Caneton |Caneton Association of France asked Westell to modify his design to create for them a 5-metre performance dinghy that would be suitable to their needs. Westell settled on a measured length 5.05 m to allow for boat-building tolerances of the day, and the resulting craft became known as the 505.The class achieved international status with the IYRU in 1955.
Fleets
The 505 is a very popular international class and is raced actively in 18 countries around the world, with the largest numbers in Germany, the US, UK and Australia. World championships are held every year at locations around the world, alternating between Europe, North America and Southern Hemisphere countries, and consistently attract over 100 boats to the start line. At the 2005 World Championships held in Warnemünde, Germany there were 171 boats. The 505 may also be sailed in a mixed fleet using the Portsmouth Yardstick handicap scheme. Its Portsmouth number is 902 and its D-PN is 79.8There are not many fleets in the conventional sense of boats parked side by side at a club and regular attendance at series-type 'club racing' is not typical for this class. The ease of trailering and storage of the boat coupled with its complexity, which makes it both engaging to tinker with and somewhat risky to leave untended in a parking lot, has led to many owners keeping their boats at home. Fleets are essentially collectives of sailors that keep in touch and train together at a convenient facility for the regional 505 event calendar, which may include perennial fixtures as well as regional, national or world championship regattas. Europe in particular has a well-attended calendar of events that attracts sailors from all over the continent because of the ease of travel and excellent venues.
Locales that have established core groups of 505 sailors are as follows:
| Australia: | Brisbane, Coffs Harbour, Adelaide, Fremantle |
| USA: | Marblehead, Rye, Annapolis, Galesville, Clearwater, San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco/Santa Cruz, Seattle/Bellingham |
| UK: | England, Scotland |
| Germany: | Kiel, Warnemünde |
| Rest of Europe: | Finland, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Ireland, Belgium |
| Canada: | Ottawa/Kingston, Toronto, Vancouver |
| South Africa: | Port Elizabeth |
The Boat
The hulls of early 505s were built in cold-molded marine plywood, new hulls are now built using composite molding: glass fibre and/or carbon fibre mats and vinylester or epoxy resin using either a wet layup technique or using heat-cured prepreg sheets. Hulls are usually cored with foam, balsa or Nomex to increase stiffness and durability, spars traditionally were manufactured from aluminium alloy, later rule changes have permitted the use of carbon fibre for boom and spinnaker pole.The hull shape and sail plan are tightly controlled, while the spars, foils and rigging are more open which allows the boat's rig and controls to be set up to the preferences of the crew, rather than dictated by the class rules.
As of 2009, over 9000 505s had been built.
There have been many builders over the 60-year history of the class. At present Rondar Raceboats is the most prolific builder, producing wet-layup hulls on a semi-production basis. Ovington Boats, which at one time built hulls for Rondar under contract, now build their own.
List of current 505 hull builders:
| Builder | Location | Description | Website |
| Rondar Raceboats | GBR | Hulls and complete boats | www.rondarraceboats.com |
| Ovington Boats | GBR | Bare hulls only | www.ovingtonboats.com |
| Parker 505 | GBR | Bare hulls and complete boats | www.parker505.com |
| Van Munster Boats | AUS | Bare hulls and complete boats | www.vanmunsterboats.com |
| Duvoisin Nautique | SUI | Bare hulls only | http://duvoisinnautique.ch/en |
| BlueBlue | POL | Bare hulls and complete boats | http://www.blueblue.pl/ |
It is typical for sailors to purchase bare hulls, spars and foils, and then rig the boats themselves. The result is that there is a wide variety of setups, with some notable regional preferences. For example, US boats traditionally have end-boom sheeting while German boats have mid-boom. This has led to the establishment of several rigging businesses, led by successful 505 sailors, that have developed standard rigging setups and sell complete boats based on bare hulls sourced from builders. These include Holger Jess with SegelsportJESS in Kiel, GER and Ian Pinnell of Pinnell & Bax in Northampton, GBR. Having standard setups with published tuning settings helps non-professional sailors become competitive more quickly.
Similarly with sails. There is a handful of sailmakers that dominate the 505 class: Pinnell & Bax in the UK, Bojsen-Møller in Europe, Glaser and North in the US and Narval in Poland.