Design and Construction
Perry's sportboat fits inside a 40-foot container, and that packaging discipline produced a slender 32-foot 10-Meter with a retractable keel and a transom-hung rudder that lifts off easily removable steering blade. The hull is cored fiberglass with a single-skin cabin top, and along the structural spine the core was routed out and brought to a single-skin laminate that is actually thinner than the surrounding cored layup, reinforced internally by fiberglass spine frames. Hull construction was described by the originator as medium-tech foam core with vinylester resin, and the forward hatch is molded into the front of the deckhouse in plain fiberglass rather than clear polycarbonate. The class rules were posted to permit three sails, and the rig itself is a swept-spreader carbon setup with a keel-stepped carbon-fiber mast and a carbon-fiber sprit.
Rig and Handling
On the water the boat behaves like a purpose-built buoy racer. Writing in Sailing World, test sailors recorded boatspeeds around 16 knots in the larger gusts, tracked well upwind, and tacked through high angles upwind tracking and quick tacking. Despite its modest length the hull's high sides gave it more of a big-boat feel than some other sportboats the testers had sailed. The easily removed transom rudder and retractable keel speak to a trailerable, container-shippable race machine rather than a cruiser, and the outboard well sits immediately aft of the companionway with doors that close flush with the hull when the engine is raised.
Accommodations
This is a racer first, and the interior shows it. The cabin has an agricultural, unfinished feel, with only 29 inches of headroom under the deckhouse. The two bunks tucked under the cockpit are the most usable berths aboard, while the settee seats look inviting until you sit and the low overhead forces you to lean inboard. A class-mandated maximum crew weight of 1,050 pounds tells you all you need about the boat's intended payload: this is a lightweight planing sportboat, not a weekender.
Known Issues
The earliest hulls shipped with under-specced tillers, underbuilt transoms, and rudder hardware unequal to the loads of the outboard-hung blade, and the debut was further hampered by poorly designed and built class sails. Testers noted daylight visible through the laminate in low-stress areas, nonskid that was merely adequate, outboard-well doors that kept opening on the sail, and a retractable bowsprit that lets water seep in unless an aftermarket gasket is fitted.
The Verdict
The Flying Tiger 10M is a focused, container-sized sportboat that delivers exhilarating round-the-buoys performance and a genuinely big-boat feel on the wire, wrapped in a no-frills racing shell. Early-production defects were largely addressed, but the boat remains a raw racer with minimal creature comforts.
Pros
- 16-knot gust performance and crisp upwind tracking in a 32-foot package
- Container-fit hull with retractable keel and easily removed rudder for trailering and shipping
- Carbon rig and spine-frame cored construction keep weight low
Cons
- Agricultural interior with 29 inches of headroom and limited berths
- Early hulls had tiller, transom, and rudder-hardware shortcomings
- Bowsprit seepage and opening outboard-well doors need owner attention
