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Date Posted: 13:42:10 08/20/08 Wed
Author: Bill
Subject: Re: islander 29
In reply to: Neil 's message, "Re: islander 29" on 20:12:01 08/19/08 Tue

Neil,

It seems like you have your requirements based on a type and a size of boat. My assumption is that behind that you have ideas of what you want to do (coastal cruising, ocean voyaging, engineless etc). The only reason I bring this up is that I think every choice you make helps narrow the focus on what boats are suitable for the task.

For instance, I think when I chose to sail engineless sailing performance became the number one concern. For me, I like a boat with the largest working sail plan that I can find. I like the genoa to be my light air sail not my working sail. Way to many boats of the 60's and 70's are advertised as being able to carry full sail without reefing in lots of wind. This is not an advantage in my book.

I think it makes the most sense to focus your goals as much as possible and find the boats that meet them. You may wait a bit, but you are in a buyers market.

MORC stand for the Midget Ocean Racing Club. It was a racing handicapping rule for small, 24 ft and later raised to 30 ft, offshore racing boats that was based on the CCA (Crusing Club of America) rules. Bill Shaw was the lead designer at Sparkman & Stephens working on this Rule. In his spare time he designed the Shaw 24 which went on to become the Dolphin 24 (manufactured by O'Day, Yankee and Pacific). Bill Shaw eventually moved on to Pearson and was the designer for many of their boats including Jay's Renegade.

I guess my point in this long winded history lesson is that in my way of thinking how a boat sails is far more important than how cheap she is and what equipment come with her. My advice would be to figure out how much you have to spend, focus your goals, determine your boats requirements and then buy the size boat you can afford that meets you needs.

Cheers, Bill

One of the best descriptions that I have read on the topic sailing performance comes from “The Proper Yacht" by Arthur Beiser quoted below:

I believe that the majority of cruising boats today carry rigs that are too small for both performance and convenience. No sailboat should need half a gale or some absurd expedients as oversized genoas and spinnakers in order to really go, yet that is precisely the case far too often. Most weather in most parts of the world contains a good percentage of light winds, and it is simply a crime to design and build a sailboat unable to move well under such conditions. It is not just the that one of the keener joys ofsailing is to ghost along in a zephyr; on a long trip, proficiency in light airs usually means days saved.

The shrunken rigs typical of cruising boats have their origins in a number of misconceptions. One is that argument that a large rig is more fragile than a small one and also puts too much stress on the hull. This was certainly true in the past but modern material permits a rig of any size to have any safety margin desired without compromising performance (except inracing , which is not our concern here). And the hull of a properly built modern cruising boat is well able to take all the loads imposed by whatever rig is chosen. An extension of the same train of thought rejects large sails because once upon a time they were heavy and hard to control. Again today's technology comes to the rescue, with soft, lightweight synthetic cloth, strong but supple synthetic line, and powerful multi-speed winches that can incorporate electric drives if desired. Roller furling for jibs, and even for mains, is available to provide further help. So a generous rig need not be any harder to manage than a skimpy one. In fact, experience show that a sizable rig actually makes coping with the sails easier. The point is that with area to spare, one can arrange matters in a seamanlike manner - a well-divided rig, headsails with only moderate overlaps (or none at all), no spinnakers - without worrying about maximum efficiency.

When a person interested in a cruising boat of certain sizes sees a racing boat of that size go by with her army of gorillas all working their tails off, it is natural for him to think, "My God, the rig is too big," and to seek a smaller rig for himself. This reaction does not survive close scrutiny. The basic sail area of aracing boat is heavily taxed by the measurement rule. Accordingly such a boat is obliged to have a rig not larger that absolutely necessary and to rely upon exploiting it to the utmost. Two flukes of theracing rule provide the means the racing boat uses to augment here basic sail area; that part of a jib aft of the mainmast is not counted in the sail area unless it exceeds a generous limit, and spinnakers are also "free" up to a point. Over lapping genoas and huge spinnakers are labor-intensive expedients, which is no handicap sinceracing boats are the better for plenty of live ballast anyway. There is no reason for a cruising sailor to let the vagaries of a measurement rule govern his life on the water. With sails large enough in area to provide the push required and sensible enough in design to be servants and not masters, a proper cruiser should be able to sail circles around anyracing boats with a crew of the same strength. One wants speed and convenience in a cruiser, pleasure for the few instead of work for the many, and an ample rig is necessary to achieve this goal.

Another argument against enough area for light conditions is that, if the wind picks up sail with have to be shortened. Absolutely correct - but it is not compulsory to carry the largest sails if prudence dictates otherwise on a particular day. Most cruising is done in regions where winds of no more than about 15 knots predominate, and it seems silly to have a boat just right from the Roaring Forties anywhere else.

And a little latter in his discussion:

Since the wetted surface of a boat is rarely stated and is tedious to establish from a lines plan (itself seldom published), the sail area-displacement ratio is the more practical one for comparing different designs. This ratio for the designs in Part Two of this book is platted in the first graph on page 44, and the sail areas themselves against in the second. The average ratio is 16.0, which is greater that the figure of 15.5 often quoted as optimum for cruising yachts and that I consider unduly small.

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