Jack and his crew of fellow Sea Scouts spent countless hours on the water, learning the art of rowing And the science of seamanship. They learned how to keep the boat steady in rough waters, how to work together to maintain speed and direction, and how to use their collective strength and skill to win races and flotilla competitions. And they learned more.
Speed is Safety “Unfortunately, the speed range for typical displacement boats between 20 and 50 feet is only five to 10 knots- not nearly enough for many recreational roles. True, slow moving, full displacement vessels are reasonably efficient at carrying heavy loads because buoyancy forces sustain the weight for free, and only modest engine power…
The nature of the Murrelet centerboard is not well understood. MacGregor Yachts states in the cruiser’s brochure that A long, thin airfoil is far more efficient than a short, wide one. This is why racing sailboat keels are deep, and why sailplane wings are long and thin. The relationship between the fore and aft width of the board…
The perfect blue water sailboat is a work in progress. Novice builders and beginning yacht designers have been trained in the US to accept the notion of a trade off between sea worthiness, comfort, performance and cost. This notion is prevalent on the east coast of the United States. The notion allows architects to rationalize…
High freeboard improves buoyancy with no decrease in hull speed. Sailboats at rest with low freeboard only look faster than many of their high freeboard counterparts. Unless the boat has the general shape of a log, the heel of the vessel increases the freeboard presented to the wind. High freeboard presented to the wind when…
The competing hull forms in Murrelet (displacement in the bow and planing aft) bring up some interesting aspects in sailing the cruiser. Because the manufacturer built so many pocket cruisers, the best hull form and ballast configuration was extensively studied. For example, one contemplated factory modification in 2000, involved adding a platform to the transom…
Time to wake up! This happens all the time I’ve seen people discussing liferafts and such, but for me this big issue here is keels. The four crew on Cheeki died because the boat’s keel fell off, probably very suddenly, and this is not, as some have suggested, an unusual occurrence. It is frighteningly common. Modern fin…
Joshua Slocum Joshua Slocum was from Nova Scotia, Canada. He owned several ships as well as commanding many others. After loosing one of his ships, the Aquidneck, on a sandbank in Brazil, he and his family sailed the Liberdade, a canoe of about 35 foot, from the site of the grounding to Washington DC USA,…
I’m occasionally asked if I miss the larger, deep draft sailboat. The answer is always no. That type of craft now seems to me like a helpless one-legged seabird soaring above the surface of the sea, never able to safely land or seek shelter. Ron Hoddinott Small Craft Advisor March/April 2006 issue, pg 26 …
There are four modes of sailing. Displacement mode, forced mode, planing, and the 4th mode. Obviously many ocean sailboats do not plane and hence there is no reason to learn sail planing techniques on those boats. In fact it is just the opposite. There are good reasons to learn how to prevent planing on displacement…