Shilshole 27

and here she is in sailplan mode:

Shilsole 27 Sailplan

Regular readers of my deathless prose will recognize that I’m a constant fan of any design coming from Paul Bieker’s office (www.BiekerBoats.com).  This is the latest and, according to their website, draws upon the great earlier success of the Thunderbird.

“An updated Thunderbird for the 21st Century: Trailerable, high performance/cost ratio, home build-able and fun for the family to race and maybe spend 10 days cruising on.  The combination of high stability, light weight and large sail area should give the Shilshole 27 excellent all-around performance on a windward-leeward race course.

The lifting keel and rudder make shallow anchorages accessible, and with the easily lowered deck stepped carbon mast, trailering is convenient. A combination pop-top/sliding hatch gives standing headroom while at anchor.”

And here is where it gets VERY INTERESTING for the home builder:

“Construction is basic stitch-and-glue style, with plywood parts highly detailed and marked for easy assembly.  Plans will be offered for home construction along with the NC cut plywood parts.  Key components such as the foils, keel trunk and pop top are lightweight high quality composite construction and will be sold as finished parts.  The goal is to keep costs for a home-built version around $50,000.”

Her specs:

SEWAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 liter [6.6 gal]

She looks like another winner from Paul and Eric.  As of last report, there are hopes the prototype will debut at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in two weeks.

Place your order for plans now.  Visit the website:

http://www.biekerboats.com/Bieker_Boats/Shilshole_27.html

For those of you interested in the Thunderbird, their website is here:

http://www.thunderbirdsailing.org/

And now, on to the Presto 30.

Presto 30

This is a wonderful boat by all accounts.  To date, though, she has only been available in ‘glass.

But in conversations last week with Rodger Martin, her designer, he indicated he’d LOVE to see her built in wood, which would be easy to do (given her lines).  So if you are interested and are a professional wooden boat builder, please contact Rodger.

The website is here:  http://www.rodgermartindesign.com/portfolio.php?item=82

What do these two designs have in common?  As we are finalizing parameters for our next design challenge (Design Challenge III), one of these qualifies and one doesn’t.  (Setting aide for the moment that neither qualifies because both designs were finished prior to Sep 1, 2010.)

We will announce Design Challenge III perhaps as early as next week.  Get your pencils sharpened.

KATYDID IV at ERR 2010

(Photo courtesy John. K. Hanson, Jr.)

Here we are, burning down the Reach.  The 25 year-old sails don’t look half-bad.  And, no, we didn’t foul that pot buoy.

I know I’ve written here about the 210 before.  But this is my first summer actually owning one.  As I remarked to Jon Wilson the other day, I’ve never had such consistent fun on a boat.  So please permit me to indulge myself a bit, and then call for your comments and contributions.

Last Friday was yet another quintessential day of this spectacular summer.  Temps in the 70s, winds out of the west at 15-20 knots, full sun.  Aaron Porter, editor of Professional BoatBuilder, came into my office and said, “OK, bub, let’s get going.”  Aaron and I have sailed the 210 a lot together this summer.

We rowed out to her here at Boat Heaven.  Fewer than ten minutes after boarding, we cast off the mooring… of course tacking into the breeze and short-tacking our way up Eggemoggin Reach.  Other than whitecaps, there were no seas.  As well as a paucity of other boats.  Mostly just us, seabirds, and seals.

We reached into Benjamin River, and then headed back home on a screaming broad reach.  (I mentioned to Aaron what old 210er Tom Price had advised:  ”The 210 will plane.  But she doesn’t like to….”)

We picked up the mooring at 4 pm and headed back to the office.  Yet another fabulous daysail.

This thought has occurred to me often this summer:  For me, it’s not about the destination but about the exhilaration.  [And you thought I was going to say "voyage..."]  Being so close to the water, the sails nicely trimmed, sailing through the lee of other sailboats on the Reach…  The ease of sailing….  And all this on a beautiful boat.

I’ve experienced feelings similar to this with rowboats, kayaks, canoes, powerboats.  Boats of materials other than wood.  But never to the degree I have this summer, and with this particular boat.  In a word, I LOVE the 210.  Oh, we could tart her up and get new sails, complicate her with racing gear… but that would be counter to the joy I’m having.  She’s just perfect as is.  And I’m not sure this is a feeling I’ve ever had before except on the simplest and smallest of craft.

Once on a windy day at the beginning of the summer, Aaron and I sailed past a Bermuda 40 and a J160.  Aaron suggested, “Why don’t you yell over and tell them how much you paid for KATYDID?”  True, we weren’t racing.  But there is some degree of joy in passing boats far more expensive than the $6,000 I paid for the 210 a year ago.

We’ve only raced once this year, at Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, and it was great fun as well.  Here’s a photo (courtesy of Art Paine) showing how we were all feeling.  Cap’n Porter at the helm, Kate Holden holding down the critical center position, me thanking the heavens….

More KATYDID IV

For me, the joy is in the simplicity, a feeling like weightlessness….

KATYDID IV at Dawn

(Photo courtesy Thad Danielson)

www.210class.com

Please feel free to comment below.  What simple boats elicit similar feelings for you?

Three Brothers

Ross, as you may know, is a talented designer and builder in Oz.  I thought this design looked familiar, and then I read this (part of the design brief):

“Jumping to now –

Ian rang me a couple of months ago to say that he had seen the advertisement for the WoodenBoat/Professional Boatbuilder Design Competition 2 , and said that he thought that something like the boat we had been discussing would fit the design prescription perfectly. So, I started burning the midnight and early morning oil in an attempt to get a design on paper, and to do the required calculations to determine whether such a boat could meet the criteria specified in the competition rules.

Two-and-a-bit months down the track, and I have a buildable design on paper, with two different wheelhouse layouts, and a completed weight analysis. The conservative weight calculations and the comparative data from the hull drawings have allowed me to make some firm predictions regarding speed, fuel consumption, and load-carrying ability.

In broad terms, the character of the design is as follows: -

· Long and narrow with a very fine entry to promote fuel efficiency and smooth running in a short, steep chop;

· Light-weight and simple;

· Hull-form optimised for efficient operation in the semi-displacement speed-range;

· Trailerable.

My performance predictions with 288kg (634lbs) passenger weight and 85kg (187lbs) for engine and fuel are as follows: -

· Assume displacement of 820kg (1804 lbs)

· Salt water

· LOA 26ft 2ins      LWL 22.6 ft”

Ross did, indeed, enter her into our Design Challenge II.  Although she didn’t win, she certainly is one of MY notables.  (Both WoodenBoat and Professional BoatBuilder will be writing about the winners and notables in future issues.  To see/read about the winners, click HERE and scroll down the page.)

Ross’ client wanted a improvement on Phil Bolger’s Sharpshooter design for quite a daunting trip.

“Some time ago I received a letter from my long-time boating and bush-exploration friend, Ian Hamilton. Ian seemed to have been going through something of an extended mid-life crisis, but never having been one to comply with convention, his mid-life crisis-driven ideas were not much different from his normal fantasies, and I didn’t pay him too much attention.

Ian’s latest idea was for us (not that I was consulted about the ‘us’ bit) to wander over to Western Australia to spend a few months exploring the Kimberleys. Australia is a very big place – as big as the U.S. – and most of it is made up of desert. In fact, Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the face of the globe: the Kimberleys are as far from where we live as it is possible to get in this country - about 3,500 kilometers or 2100 miles in a straight line, and all across uninhabited desert…

Now, I am interested in the Kimberleys - the fantastic terrestrial and nautical scenery - but I didn’t ever believe that the trip would come off. With that in mind, I let Ian babble on about boats and equipment in the hope that it would all go away. However, he has remained persistent, and for a long time he pushed to have a boat designed which would have the load-carrying ability and the range, to operate in that remote part of the world.”

http://www.baysidewoodenboats.com.au/

And, as always, please feel encouraged to post your comments below.

Island Blossom

http://vimeo.com/13044424

Island Blossom was built in 1892.

I’m still basking in the memories of this past weekend’s Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.  Unbelievable.

So  this week is a video instead of photos and words.  What do you think?  Please comment below.