Fun, Fast, Social, and Affordable Racing: One Design Sailing At Its Best!
MARTIN 242 FACT SHEET
January, 2025
- It’s the largest One Design Keelboat Class on the West Coast of North America by a factor of 2-3 relative to other Classes (J/70, Melges 24, Stars, etc.). There are 125 boats in total and growing via imports from the Midwest and East Coast of which 90 are in BC, Washington State, Alberta, and Oregon. 78 boats have changed hands in the past ~8 years in the Pacific Northwest, which is about 10 per year, with ownership changes tracked on our website in 2 locations and publicized via e-blasts and Facebook. Boats change hands between CDN$5,000 and CDN$15,000.
- New boat clusters are continually developing – New regions include Gibsons, Comox, Port Moody, and Nelson (Kootenay Lake Region). Starting in 2023 Victoria has resurged with additional active M242 boats, building on the success of the Orcas Island cluster, and in October 2024 appointed the first-ever Fleet Captain for Fleet 2, namely Mike Cannon.
- The Regional M242 Class has top racers in Canada and the USA including past National Sailing Team members, National and North American Champions in various Classes, and top PHRF competitors.
We have also recently attracted former top Regional Melges 24 owners to the Class: Bob Britten/Jose Gavina, Gord Galbraith, Richard Mundell/Dave Tolman, etc., plus top sailors from other Classes: Alex Fox, Mike Cannon, Phil Leitch, Tim Knight, Peter Grimm, Chris White, Betsy Wareham, etc., and our demographic is skewing younger over time: typically ~45 years old, and some are in their 20’s and 30’s.
- Wednesday Night Racing at RVYC typically sees 15-18 boats on the line, and 40-60 people at the post-race social on the front lawn of RVYC. Top boats frequently compete in 80 to 125 races per year in the Region.
- 30 Volunteers in Fleets 1 & 2 handling a wide variety of roles: Marketing; Finance; Social; Measuring Committees; Technical Committee; Executive Committees:
- https://www.m242fleetone.org in the M242 Fleet One docs section: Fleet Volunteers
- https://www.m242fleetone.org/index.php/fleet-one-docs/regional-measurers
- Buy & Sell page: “Key contacts in each area”
- Fleet 1 & 2 Website (m242fleetone.org) which has dozens of documents posted on it re boat setup, Maintenance, Rules, Buy & Sell, Calendar, Crew Pool, etc.
- Marketing: Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Martin242FleetOneFleetTwo) with 621 Followers; Monthly e-blast globally to 500 recipients; Fleet 1 Crew Night; WhatsApp; and Sailing Magazine articles.
- We make our own masts and booms: The Class has worked with Apex Extrusions of Langley to produce an Extrusion Die to push out 40 new mast tubes and 5 booms in 2025.
- The 2025 North Americans will be in Vancouver in late August and we expect 30+ boats.