Sure... wait, not all of them! Some sailboats were planing back in the
1890s, long before any motorboats had reached the necessary
power/weight ratio.

Ian Malcolm wrote:
Not intentionally and not for long. Maybe if they got caught out in a
squall and the crew lucky enough for the mast to stay up and they were
lucky and good enough to avoid sailing the boat under.

I beg to differ. You are apparently not familiar with the U.S. inland
scow classes. They planed regularly on offwind legs.


'In 1928 Uffa Fox introduced planing to an astonished racing world in
his International 14 boat, the Avenger. He gained 52 first places, two
seconds and three third places out of 57 race starts that year.'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclop...laning%20Hulls

True enough, but any of the 1890s scows would have sailed rings around
Avenger. The major advance that Uffa Fox made, which was partly due to
building technology, was to make a boat the looked like a conventional
dinghy and would plane.


The early Uffa 14s were really beautiful boats.

Agreed

... If I had loadsa dosh
and time a replica (with *slightly* modernised gear) would be my dream
project.

It would be worthwhile. We're fortunate that so many boats from that era
survived and are sailable.

Check out one of these babies
http://adkguideboat.com/restorations/

Fresh Breezes- Doug King