Byte CII

Are you Byte size??  And what is that weight? It’s anywhere between 90 and 160 lbs with the optimum all-round, all-weather weight for racing being 120 - 145 lbs. If you’re just out sailing for fun, which is what sailing is all about, your weight really doesn’t matter at all.

So who is Bytesize? When you come down to it, a huge part of the population comprising almost all of the early adolescent age group emerging from the Optimist, about 95% of the female population and about 45% of the male population. Of the above groups, the first is, by far, the most important for our sport and the Byte provides that all important first step after the Optimist.
 

For years and years we have been watching our trained young sailors walk away from the sport - not because of ability but purely for lack of a boat that the vast majority can handle in the heavier conditions. Any youngster can handle any boat in 5 knots; if they can’t in 15 knots, you won’t see them again. There’s too much else to interest them out there: canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, roller blading, horseback riding, go karting, swimming, surfing, scuba, surfboarding etc., etc., etc.

Specifications

We first saw the new CII at ISAF’s annual meeting in November 2003 and considered it to be one of the greatest developments of single-handed dinghies. It is technically revolutionary. For that reason we applied for the right to sell the dinghy in Denmark while the CII rigging was still under construction.

The weight area for Byte sailors is wide. Because of the dynamic rigging, the dinghy is attractive for sailors between 41 and 75kg. This also makes the dinghy an interesting alternative to the more widespread and widely distributed dinghy types for clubs and continuation schools.

Ian Bruce, the father of the Laser dinghy, constructed Byte CII. The Class is aspiring to become the women’s Olympic single-handler.