The 29er was created by the Australian designer Julian Bethwaite, partly as a youth training boat for his popular 49er and partly with an eye towards becoming the Olympic women's doublehanded skiff. Modeled on the larger boat, the 29er has a single trapeze and an asymmetric spinnaker on a retractable sprit. It is comparable to the Laser and is kite-rigged. The 29er can plane both upwind and down, often exceeding the wind speed. Bethwaite is developing a variant called the 29erXX, which uses the same hull but adds sail area and a double trapeze. First produced in 1998, the 29er is an international class with nearly 1,000 sailors in 20 countries. Julian Bethwaite is the son of Frank Bethwaite, who designed the Tasar. The 29er is an International Sailing Federation (ISAF) International Centreboard Class Association. For more information, read the 29er Wikipedia article.