A Boat Specially Made for Lill' Ol' Me.........

So what type of boat would I have built for me?


Being a Scot and a pragmatist, I wouldn’t say “Wild Oats V” at 100ft LWL. First of all I couldn’t have it over winter in my garden or even in a local boat yard. Running costs would require ownership of some evil empire or other, and frankly the whole Darth “MBA” Vader thing just isn’t me. Also you have the elite, presidential guard of this corporate death star- your crew of 20 and pool of maybe all and sundry unknown would-be-rock-stars. Sod that for a game of soldiers. I wanna know my bowman when I swear abuse at him and hear what he says under his breath back to me….

Given a life time and a product life cycle for size that fits, there would more than one in the next 30 years or so. Firstly an over-winter-in garden boat, a bigger IRC boat for later and a dream boat within reach.

The latter is ‘case closed’. The J125. Maybe some IRC oppies can be done, but the sheer joy of a fastnet in whatever the weather throws at us or denies us.

Small Fry, Six is a crowd, Think cheeky.

Regarding the smaller boat, 27 – 31 feet with possibility for trailer width reduction somehow- tilt or retractable deck. It would be a racer sleeper, with an inboard for utility and ballast.

Otherwise performance, well it has to do over 7knts up wind at 44’¨or less, or have some killer VMG at 5.9 knts BSp or whatever. Offwind, should go near wind speed like the bene 25 in light, go deep, but also tight reach on what kite it carries as H1. Like the bene it should surf readily and plane, but unlike it it should go higher and sit a bit happier in the wave form. Both of which are ballast related I would take a stab at. In the end I reckon with a 20knt performance with the larger OD sails in 28knts true or 16 knts with IRC sail wardrobe.

So it’s going to be a farr type machine with more freeboard but maybe not as much as the 27.7 or even the Laser 28. Like I say, better to know you have to bend.

Critter comforts wise it could come with a water boiler / spout and maybe an oven/grill. My brother swears by a petit pressure cooker onboard, so maybe a single ring would suffice, but hey, cut out the middle man with a safe integrated water boiler with variable temperature control and auto-shut off after boil. Maybe venting out to the cabin top sides. I digress on to one of my favourite subjects.

She’d have to be fast and IRC/IMS optimisable.
Maybe someone has built this boat already?? The grand surprise 30? The bruvaria 28 with normal kite?

Sailing in a Style of My Own

I don’t know if all these slippy farr type hulls lend themselves to a neutral helm but I would rather a big more feel up wind and some angle lift from the rudder. I’d happily conced light airs and heavy airs to not having any weather helm though.

Offwind some feedback and fightback before broach and an easy positioning in bigger offshore waves is my desire. So a deep rudder with maybe a compromised cord length may be the best.

IRC optimisation

When I say IRC optimisable, it would already be on the way with a good ballast ratio and an inboard diesel. I don’t think IRC penalises draft over the odds, so a lever optimised for 200kg on the rail and a design wind of say 12 knts. A deep keel also generates a lot of lift. In the end IRC optimisation may mean just a smaller wardrobe, but I’d keep the boat with a frac’ and a 105% max genoa/joboa. For OD hey, the sky is the limit, but a bigger kite, an assym option and a code zero or even spinnoa. At this size of boat a 9 sail wardrobe is not an insurmountable cost mountain given it adds a lot to the racing.


To Sprit or Not to Sprit


Well the last paragraph is a good point to diverge into this whole debate. For me the true test of skill and the added VMG DDW mean that normal pole-ing and good old bell shaped kites are to be used. The Assymetric market is a little cluttered with many one off’s and some attempts at OD in my market. The j92 and its development “S” are in there as are older bruvaria 28s the bene 27.7, even the J80 and bull boats. As we showed with both the Laser 28 and the Bene 25 Platu, you can catch that little more wind and dig that little deeper or surf that wave better with a symmetrical.

For cruising or cruiser racing / distance races an assym would however be desirable. Perhaps a la simon Jackson a strap on and flip out A frame could be utilisable with a smaller cruising kite and kode 0. This could also swing the anchor chain clear of the nice hull and moulded gunwhale!

With a vote from enough potential owners towards an international OD class, then I’d go along with assym. But the space a retracting sprit uses and the length a fixed A adds I’d be very persuasive to the contrary. I’ve seen some of the pole telescope tube conversions and also just a big pole on a 707 protruding out from a mast foot strop. Maybe a deck fitting on the hatch area could provide for use with an assym and no extra crap.




Ballast-

The aim would be to reduce way down the moveable, fleshy variety to sail with four really big adults or five average. Mainman is going to have to sit in above 6 knts breeze, so that leaves 120kg on the rail. I guess tricked out regatta sailing would actually need 6 crew. It may all take the size and LWL down to the lower range, but at about 28.5 ft you certainly sleep five is some degree of comfort or six with a pipe bunk berth.


Cruising Capacities

The cruising with the family thang is always likely to raise it’s head. Most racer sailors manage a weekend, a couple of evenings and a booze cruise with either extended family or work, club or committee colleagues. Otherwise the pink elements in the family avoid the waters deeper than the knee and daddy never has the time at weekends to organise it outside sailing. Ikea owns that. Perhaps with the protracted 5 weeks summer holidays, which would drive Americans and Londoners to suicidal boredom and workaholic withdrawal cold turkey, would in fact necessitate a week on board, weather picked out and destinations of entertainment to all.

I happen to think that race boats make very good cruisers, and just require some simple temporary arrangements and equipment to take leisurely tours in. The nice open cockpit keeps you outdoors all day and for ‘smokes and pees’ in the night. The gangway is easy to get in and out of and not very deep as per lower freeboard. This compensates for the ducking and diving down below. Once in the cabin main, you know you are going to be either sitting, kneeling, braced in some contortion by the cooker or heads or otherwise half bent. You learn to live with that instead of the usual, god that was lower than I expected cranial skuffs!

Race boats often draw a little more but lower freeboard and open transom means easy swimming or rescue possibilities. Air draught wise they can be more, but hey the average cruiser here seems to be a brute of 38ft- three or four more roman strides longer than from two decades ago.

Modification wise, well delivery sails can be included in the purchase price as a closer. A code zeroish. Astro-turf for the anchor hadling on deck, a boom tent and a solar dehumid/heater if not actually a full on diesel heater. Given my Herdla 2005 experience, near frost and a shivering half-sleep, maybe the latter would be on the list- if removable for racing or of light.


Delivery sails lend themselves to reefing and stripping, flattening to hell or letting out as baggy wind catchers and on a smallish boat swapping out roler furler need not be a sod (and any way there will be a good solution to light luff foil with roller reefing no doubt on the market soon.) Race boats have the decided advantage of speed under sail. VMG upwind and DDW are more satisfactory, and even faster than on race days given time to build up momentum with the extra weight on board and a free shot at the undisturbed coastal swell. Also you have the asymmetric options or with skilled family, usual kite, for which a broad reach or tighter can actually determine your course and probably destination for the days forecast wind. A further bit of kit, which may lie in the OOD racing wardrobe but unlikely in IRC, would be a code zero fixing to an A-sprit.