Ideal Boats and Ideal Racing for Your Budget?

I read on Clyde Sailing that some of the big guns of the Clyde CHS/IRC fleet are a'goin' Etchells racing. Already a faction of bigger boat sailors had elected to sail Pipers and Flying Fifteens out of Holy Loch SC some years ago.

The key thing here is you CAN go one design racing AND own a racer cruiser, in fact it makes economic sense for a fanatical sailor or syndicate to do so!

As the boys from our local five way split Melges 24 say, you can own an older M-24 over a period of five years and it will cost you less than the racing sails and repairs for one IRC cruiser racer. I've done some pretty reasonable sailing on dacrons with a forestay slot or even hanks, so if you think about it why not buy into an international OD that is sailed locally and keep your cruising sails light used and use some dacron or pentex sails for the odd racing, extending their life to many years with cautious change downs and reefing!

For me this change on the Clyde is a dream come true after the damp squib of SB3/20 which never materialised as a fleet, and a decimation of the snot and smeg fleets. Apart from holy loch and the RNCYC I saw no light at the end of the tunnel of IRC boats sailing their own wind round the course, and endless bavarias and horrid old cruisers plodding around race courses.

With 707 fleet building to very decent numbers on the Forth,  accumulating an ECSW entry of no less than 14 boats this is all good news and I think rather inevitable now that these boats are super reasonable and that IRC cheque book- or rather credit card- racing has had its day, maybe for a very long time among we, the hoi palloi. However, wishful thinking aside,  this is all a great surprise and I could actually consider moving home due to the level of some of the Etchells sailors and choice of two man boats to sail given a lack of crew.

American clubs are pretty clever at maintaining one design fleets through leasing, loaning and some degree of excluvisity by design behind closed doors, making OD the preferred choice of the gentleman.  However this lead to some very stayed fleets and dropping interest in the sport, with PHRF freindly clubs picking up members.

In contast to this I think there is a good mid way in having smaller OD boats available for cheap lease which work ( of all the boats I have loaned from clubs, the majority have had at least one major control line or block fault) by virtue of some experienced hands volunteering to get them up to a standard. Also then having a class captain as a champion who is diplomatic enough and well respected enough to have some gravity in attracting good sailors into the fleet a new. By the principle above: reduce costs and maximise sailing and the immediacy of racing small, fast boats like Etchells or FF's for example.

My ideal boat then is of course two boats; a reasonable priced local OD boat with between 2 and 5 crew needed, and then .....well at the moment it would be a Melges "28" - a melges you can sleep on.

For my sports 28 I have gone off the idea of a standard kite, and am totally converted to Assy', this is a big point I take first- handeling assy's which have big sail area is so much easier for all concerned and usually faster, that I is gorne orff poles with guys and all.

It would be a trailer sailor, I see this as only advantageous and a major plus in growing a regional, national and international fleet. You could allow for floating fleets to have silicone on the inside, and an epoxy-gel coat seal on the hull join and be craned in, but trailing is cool, apart form the width thing! F30s get trailer sailed so it is do-able.

My pocket rocket needs to sleep all its' crew and to those ends it needs a bit more ballast such that it can be sailed by 4 larger adults or 5 smaller, given also that main sheet would be trimmed sitting in so only the same on the rail as a M24. Keel bulbs are a good place to put weight, they are quite low in drag and of course the weight is most effective down there. Depleted uranium anyone ?

  Also it would have some offshore capability : this would mean a locking keel, inboard, water tight bulkheads and cooking equipment. If Impalas and Laser 28s can race in the Channel then why not a sporty?

Inboard and 240v in one fell swoop: make it a diesel electric based on one of those very quiet 30 Amp machines with 12 v and 240v output. Now you have a water boiler, a microwave and a heater all be it requiring logging of engine hours mid race. Another possibility for this is then a lifting propeller drive, which can be gussetted swing box solution, saving a lot of money while reducing huge amounts of drag over a sail-drive.

Freeboard may be relative to length about the same as a M24, maybe with a sloped side deck. While talking relative, the sail area would also be relative to the scale up, while I think the keel may have to be deeper with more bulb weight relatively, to allow for a smaller payload of rail-lard!

The things I dislike about the Melges 24,  I would make up for in this 28 sporty: a higher boom for general safety,  with more room for the helm to cross the boat too: possibly a dinghy style transom mounted wire strop solution, relying on a powerful kicker instead of a traveller. Also the main should be reefable and there should be interchangeable jibs to strip down in 25-30knts for upwind, while blasting off wind. M24s tend to be survival upwind when you are then blasting off wind trying to get 20 knts boat speed. I guess also a twin spreader mast would help with reducing mast breaks in the heavier stuff along with the reefable main.

Down stairs is pretty much a stoop in, but once in it should be comfy enough for the crew to sit around the table and then crash out. I would put an Impala style dropping chart table but near the gangway with the choice of mounting it face in or face out, using the berths aft or beam as the seat.

Berths are a double back, two in the peak and one on the port side, with " galley" stb and heads a porta pottie in the stb sail store or alternatives around maybe a six berth boat with a porta potty in the peak as beneteau have forced upon several larger  boats! The 'peak then would need a curtains solution, while the aft "cabin" could have a Z door solution with brushes over the berth end allowing for some dossing while someone works on the chart table. Alternative could be a wet peak with a bulkhead and gusset door, with potty up there, and then two double aft berths and two beam berths. This is quite like the solutions on various sub 30 footers, such as the wonderful to sail, cramped to cruise Impala, the better solution to cruising on the laser 28, and the stripped out racer sleeper solution on the Figaro deriviative.

Sleeping its crew is a really important point as regatta costs to skipper and crew can rocket with the need for shore B&B at any major keel boat event, and it opens the boat up for deliveries and cruises: I have had some lovely delivery runs on a First Class 8m and recently a wonderful day out in a Melges where the weather was clement and we chose to leave the trailer, sail five hours and then fetch the trailer 30 mins up the motorway!

The engine being midships perhaps depending on the weight distribution desired, hidden under the table. These generators are so light that it could be fitted aft. Stair well would cover the keel,  with a lift out the gang way hatch (like M32s I believe) and also provide a sealed box around the keel mount in case of hard groundings. 12V would stuff would be run from the new solonoidal style single backbone to lights and transponders, while the 220/240V would be arranged to have a main motoring phase and a secondary, or three lower amp phases when under sail / mooring. I'd have an electric heater and several 220/240 power points: but I think it could be desirable to have two generators on board for deliveries , one portable with a full phase input to the "main board"....also of course shore power built in from bow or stern. Water heating to a small tank, and an ambient radiator circuit achieved by the special heat exchanger although an air cooled, dry exhaust with one of these gennies is completely envisable.


Carbon rig is kind of a must have in some ways: I dont know, perhaps a carbon reinforced rig would do the job. The M24 rig certainly feels lively, tunable and light but so does an Impala 28 alloy mast. Composite prodder is probably a must.

Rudder I would opt for inboard and plenty of it! ... with the Andrews' / Kullman lifting rudder- rising between the split tiller and a broad "bucket " double bearing at deck and hull. The cockpit would be pretty much M24 dimensions, but as I say with a traveller further forward, or aft of the rudder stock, or just being wire stops with a powerful kicker. This allows for a larger coach roof for both righting moment and a bit more head room volume down stairs.

Okay, there is the j92s, the brand new j88, the laser 28, the Archambault A31, the Grand Surprise 30 and a few 28 to 30 ish footers including the IMS 31 and some swiss boats, which all fit the bill but to date I see none of these as really hitting the marks of being a performance racer -sleeper which is basically a scaled up M24 for the budget of any sub 30 foot cruiser new.