by comparison with its main rivals, the fireball and hornet, the jacksnipe is lightly canvassed, which makes it ideal for lighter crews, but this combined with the large underwater planing surfaces leads to a boat which performs better in stronger than in lighter winds - a characteristic of many later 'skiff' designs. in overall performance terms, the portsmouth yardstick in 1970 was 88, which compared to 85 for the fireball and 88 for the hornet (at the time in its original form with jib rather than genoa, and a small spinnaker).