PHOTOS: A fast single handed boat

The Musto Skiff is popular in Europe with the 15-footer expected to attract 70-100 entrants for its 2022 World Championship on June 21-26 in Kiel, Germany.

When World Sailing put out a brief in 1999 to design a fast single handed boat. Long-term German Contender sailor, Dr Joachim Happrecht, took this brief on and developed the OSP or Olympic Singlehander Project.

The first boat was built in plywood and the skiff prototype was shown at the Hamburg Boat Show in 1999. It was here that it caught the eye of Nigel Musto who brought it to the attention of fellow Finn sailor, Tim Tavinor.

After a promising test sail on Lake Garda in this new boat, Tavinor and his then business partner Luca Devoti decided to invest in the project. Needing an identity for this new boat, Nigel stepped up to sponsor the class and the MUSTO Skiff was born.

The single-handed skiff features a trapeze, asymmetrical spinnaker, wings low weight and achieves speeds of over 20 knots to makes it one of the fastest single-handed sailing boats.