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K6

The K6 is primarily a two person sportboat, but there are several other and more subtle attributes that distinguish it from other boats in this category. It is a simple, yet sophisticated boat, bred from Rondar’s 505 heritage that was conceived and designed primarily to be fast, fun and easy to handle. The displacement/length ratio was kept as low as practical for early planning, and the narrow easily driven hull has plenty of rocker aft to lift the rear sections out of the water in light air. Because of the relatively narrow beam with round hull sections, the drag coefficient of the hull shape does not alter significantly over the first 22 degrees of heel. This means that it does not have to be sailed flat to be fast, and it will track straight in gusts, making the K6 easy to sail and less prone to loss of control and wipe outs than wide boats.

The relatively high ballast ratio and narrow beam ensures that the K6 is very difficult to capsize to a mast on the water state, and very rapidly recovers should it do so. It also has a more sophisticated rig with the ability to alter the tension and power of the rig while sailing. All of this makes the K6 less sensitive to crew weight than wider sportboats, and the close fleet racing in Europe and the US with a broad range of weight on board reflects this. The design optimum weight is around 375lb, but crews from around 350lb to 450lb can sail competitively, and the boat can also be sailed by three lighter sailors with just enough cockpit space.

The K6 is the lightest of its type and the narrow hull with fine entry is easily driven so the sail area is kept low which keeps the sheet loads low. All the controls are centrally placed for skipper or crew, along with a self tacking jib, chute launcher and the asymmetric kite - crewing a performance boat has never been easier. This means that it is possible for couples and families to be competitive, even in a breeze. More importantly it opens up crew options and that gets more boats onto the starting line more often.

The K6 was also designed to be easy to rig and launch and inexpensive to own and transport. On shore it is easily handled and takes the least space to store. Launching can be with a hoist or from a ramp or hard beach. In fact, the K6 was designed to be ramp launched by hand using the supplied custom dolly (that nests into a road trailer base for over the road transport), and its furling jib, permanently rigged keel hoist system, and lifting rudder make sailing off a ramp as easy as possible. For longer distances, the dimensions allow for several boats to fit in a 20ft container, minimizing shipping costs.

Ownership costs are kept down due to the vacuum bagged epoxy construction that that will make the hull last many years. The class also uses specified sails from a single sailmaker to keep sail costs down and standardize tuning within the class.

• LOA – 19'
• LWL – 18'11"
• Beam – 6'
• Draft (Keel Up) – 10 "
• Draft (Keel Down) – 4'1"
• Displacement – 616 lbs.
• Ballast – 278 lbs.
• Mainsail & Jib – 210 sq. ft.
• Spinnaker – 310 sq. ft.
• Portsmith Handicap 903

• Designer – Paul Handley