2016-07-21 by Marty
Hi
Wandering around I found your site. Great stuff.

The Sidney 17 was called a LOA 17 by it's builder, Sidney Blinder of Marina Del Rey. In the spirit of the times, the design was lifted from a 19 foot Lightning hull.

A lot of builders of the time out right lifted molds from competitor's boats. Some did some pretty good work, resulting in a better boat that the original, like the Del Rey 24 which was a direct copy of the Islander Bahama 24. The Del Rey was a better boat in every regard. Not so with Sidney sailboats. The LOA 17 was a disaster. It was unweighted (like the Lightening) and would tip over fairly easily.

I knew Sidney Blinder. A lot of people have good things to say about him. I knew him because I was the sabot measurer. The plans he was responsible for didn't match his boat.

He took the old Windward Sabot and the El Toro and attempted to build one boat that measured into both classes. He oversaw altering the Windward Sabot building plans to help in that effort. This eventually ruined the Windward Sabot class as most boats were built by Sidney, and none measured correctly. The builders of home made boats, that WERE built to the plans were screwed (I was one of them).

I measured one of Sidney's original boats built in the 50's. It had the same bad measurements the new ones had, he just kept building the same hull, they never measured into any class.

It is as simple as holding a tape measure up to the bow and measuring corner to corner, then looking at the plans to see what it should measure. Missed it by a mile in both classes. People bought the boats and wanted to race, so the US Sabot was born, being neither a Windward Sabot or an El Toro. For some idiotic reason Catalina built them after Sidney passed on. The foam core construction makes for a delicate boat that won't last if kept in a garage.

Sid wasn't good at exact measurements, or boat building in general, but a good guy.

Thanks
Marty

Date Posted: 2016-07-21
Comment ID: 669
Posted By: Marty
Sailboat ID: 66
Sailboat: Sidney 17 / LOA 17 Sailboat by Sidney Blinder of Marina Del Rey