User:Adam rec/sandbox

--Adam rec (talk) 20:29, 7 July 2012 (UTC)

L'Equipe (dinghy)

The L'Equipe is a two-person, One-Design, high-performance planing racing dinghy for children aged up to fifteen inclusive. Developed in late 1970s by Marc Laurent, she is aimed as a preparatory class for 420 and Olympic 470 dinghies, that would allow training crews rather than skippers from the very early stage. With that in mind the dinghy is equipped with a single trapeze and a spinnaker which, unlike in the two classes, is stored in a spinnaker chute.

Class name and symbol are licensed from the French nationwide sports newspaper L'Equipe which is French for 'the team'.

Construction
Since the designer of the dinghy aimed at eliminating technical differences from youth training, the L'Equipe is a strict One-Design class. To maintain quality and conformity with the class rules manufacturer licensing was introduced early in the class development. Currently there are three hull builders and five sailmakers licensed.

Main construction materials of the dinghy are listed below:
 * Hull: composite (fibreglass reinforced epoxy).
 * Main sail: three-ply laminate.
 * Spinnaker: nylon.
 * Mast, boom, spinnaker pole, rudder: aluminium.

Class development
Initially, the class was carrying smaller main sail and spinnaker which where 4.5 m2 and 7.0 m2 respectively. In 2006 current sails design was introduced by the designer and the International L'Equipe Class Association in order to improve dinghy's performance especially with older and heavier crews. This version of the dinghy was designated as L'Equipe Evolution. As of 2013 both types of sails are permitted by the class rules and dinghies carrying either design of sails can compete in the same event.

Events
L'Equipe class is mainly sailed in European countries with significant number of boats registered in France, Italy, Poland and Spain. Since the class is officially recognized by respective national sailing associations of those countries, the International Class Association organises European Championships every year. During the event two separate scores are drawn - mixed and women only.