Ted Brewer, a designer who did much of his work in my own state of Washington, recently retired and moved back to British Columbia. His training material for amateur builders and beginning yacht designers, now in its 4th edition, portrays the typical hull form used on sailing craft from the 1800s known as the Cod’s…
In light to moderate conditions (when power to carry sail is not an issue), a center boarder or lee boarder has the advantage of more efficient and lower-drag lateral plane. All else being similar, it will point and foot better than a deep keel-ballasted boat” Phil Bolger and Susanne Altenburger Wooden Boats November/December 2000 issue…
It was pretty galling to watch the water-ballasted boats taking the conditions very much in their stride – and with significantly more comfort for their crews. The Cascails fleet exhibited a good representation of current offshore design, and it was interesting to see how they fared. Sitting on the weather rail of a Corel 45…
The 34th America’s Cup reintroduced catamarans. In 1988 a catamaran raced a mono hull with the result being a fiasco, the mono hull not being at all competitive. But multi hulled was not the only reintroduced innovation in the 34th. Centerboards increase a vessel’s draft and that old innovation was also used. The American built…
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…
The Dorade, a 52 foot 83 year-old yawl designed by Olin Stephens again won the TransPac race in 2013. She and the Santa Cruise 70 are two of only 4 vessels to be first to finish, first in class and first overall in the Transpac, a race to Hawaii that has been run regularly since…
While not true with a power boat, raceability – to use a Cardwell term – is a determinant of resale value in sailboats. MacGregor Yachts established itself as a race boat company with the MacGregor 65. The MacGregor 65 Joss, in 1985 established a record that went unbroken 22 years – one of the oldest records…