the canoe

Oracle on its foils. A new level of sailing performance

I've been thinking lately about the state of the sailing industry in the US, and, frankly, it's not pretty for the designers or the builders. Since the "Great Recession" there has been a decline in yacht design activity in this country. With a few exceptions, most of the designers I know are struggling to find commissions and many builders of custom and semi-custom yachts have diversified into powerboats or other products, or simply shut their doors. Is this the natural ebb and flow of business cycles, or are there other forces at work? It may be a matter of business cycles but I think there is more to it than that. It's pretty clear that the recession took a lot of money out of the sailing industry, which is to be expected since many people have been understandably more focused on their economic survival than new boats.

International Laser at speed

Another factor is the way people spend their most precious commodity, leisure time. Sailing is time consuming compared to other sports that compete for your recreation time. Golf is a good example. You can go play a round of golf on a Saturday morning and be home in time for brunch. You drop your clubs in the garage and you're ready to spend the rest of the day doing other things. Sailing, on the other hand, is pretty much an all-day affair. If you just want to go out for a couple of hours, you head down to the boat, spend a half hour getting it ready, then push off from the dock and, if you're lucky, there is a breeze and you go out and enjoy sailing for a couple of hours. But who wants to sail for just a couple of hours on a Saturday? Instead you spend the day on the water, enjoy the hell out of it, then get back to the dock around four in the afternoon. Then you spend an hour folding sails, hosing down the boat, etc. and perhaps have a cold beverage and watch the sunset. Sounds like a good day to me. But for many, that doesn't work because they always have so many other things to do. Further, in many families not everyone involved in the decision-making process is as enamored of sailing as we are, so compromises must be made. Soccer, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, riding, biking, hiking, surfing, etc. all compete for their time and interest, and most of those sports are less work, less expensive and less time consuming than sailing, so it's no wonder the sailing industry is struggling.

Another interesting symptom of the sailing malaise is the average age of the people you find out on the race course on any given weekend. It's been going up. Of course there are younger people coming into the sport and I am pleased to see the vibrant junior programs of the yacht clubs in my town. Still, the geezer-to-young buck ratio at my yacht club appears to be on the rise. Among the ranks of the cruisers, both local and long distance, the average age also seems to be on the increase. I guess it's all part of that 70 is the new 60 paradigm.

A Hans Christian 38 drives to weather

With all of these forces at work, there seems to be a lot of hand wringing over the changing sociological and economic landscape in the sport of sailing. Declining sales, declining demographics, fewer boats on the starting lines, danger and death at the Americas Cup...Yikes, it's enough to make you trade your boat shoes for golf shoes.

For some this is a catastrophe. My God, our beloved sport is shrinking! What shall we do? Well, I have a couple of recommendations. First take a deep breath and relax. So what if our sport is shrinking? It'll find some point of equilibrium, some point where it's in balance with all the other forces that work on our leisure time, our psyches, and our multifarious commitments. Second, remember that you enjoy the sport. Remember that there are thousands of us out there enjoying our time on the water. If you're in the recreational boating industry, think about building the quality of the sailing experience instead of the quantity. Take your family and friends out sailing and don't worry that some or maybe even most of them don't connect with the absolute pleasure we derive from it. I'll wager that there is someone who has encouraged you to try something new, mountain climbing, horseback riding or whatever, that just didn't work for you. Those sports are no poorer because you didn't go out and buy a new Stetson or ice ax. And our sport is no poorer because someone came, saw... and decided they'd rather be on a mountain trail.

Left Coast Dart headed your way

Frankly, I'm not the least bit disappointed that our sport is in something of a decline. Here in California, in the last year or so we've lost eleven people in yacht racing accidents. The jury is still out on the death of Andy Simpson, the crewman who died when the Swedish Americas Cup catamaran capsized, but the other deaths can be attributed to operator error. So either we need to improve the skills and knowledge of the folks that are already out sailing, or we might be better off if people who don't have those skills took up a different sport, or got the necessary training before heading offshore. Sailing is a lovely sport, pastime, and lifestyle, but it's not for everyone so let's just relax and enjoy it. We can and should welcome anyone who joins in, and we need not be concerned when people don't get it and prefer other things. Sailing and the sailing industry will survive and thrive in its own way, its own time and at its own level.

Before we bought Finisterra it was named "The Cat's Meow". The previous owner had proudly applied that name in eight inch tall letters on each side of the hull.  And just to make sure there was no mistaking the name of the boat, he had lots of cat's paws applied to the hull in strategic locations on the bow, around the name and across the transom. The boat looked like a big cat had walked up the bow, along the sides of the hull and across the transom before disappearing back into a surrealistic cat dream. It really did look like a cat lover's dream boat.  It only took me a couple of days of sitting in the sun with a heat gun and putty knife to get the name and all those cat prints off.

The dodger and bimini on The Cat's Meow were a faded shade of green and were at the end of their useful life when we bought the boat. I like the color green, and I like cats.  But I can't say I like green cats or green dodgers, so the day we bought her we knew we'd soon replace the green with new cadet gray canvas. The job is just about complete and we are quite pleased with it.

New Dodger

It's always an interesting experience to design a dodger for a boat. In this case, the stainless steel framework was already installed and was in good condition. The challenge was to use the existing frame to redesign the dodger so it meets our specific needs. I like to be able to see over the dodger from the helm and Lisa doesn't like to have to duck under it. Since I'm about seven inches taller than her I was able to adjust the height to accommodate us perfectly. This involved lowering it about three inches by cutting a little off the frames and adjusting the angles of them a bit.

I think most of the dodgers I see around my marina are too tall and clunky looking, which is surprising since virtually all dodgers are custom made. I am also of the opinion that most of the time, the person who designs the dodger gives little consideration to the aesthetic effect of the dodger on the overall look of the boat. I understand that their primary purpose is to provide protection from wind and spray but I'm not prepared to sacrifice style for the minimal added protection of a taller dodger. So, perfectionist that I am, I took dimensions and photographs and made CAD drawings of the whole thing superimposed on the profile of the boat and puttered around with it until I was satisfied with it. Then I adjusted the angles of the frames this way and that until I had it all just so. When all that was done, I passed this information on to Dan at Harbor Custom Canvas in Long Beach and he, being a master dodger builder, converted it into reality. We had them build the dodger on our last boat and found their workmanship and service to be excellent in all respects then, and they did another outstanding job on the Finisterra.

Lots of Strataglass for good visibility, a full length grab rail and a zippered roll-up section amidships

I chose Strataglass over vinyl because it doesn't wrinkle, it's very clear and it's durable. Strataglass is also flexible enough to allow for the roll-up center section, which is very valuable in the tropics. Notice that the corners of the glass are radiused instead of sharp. I like the look of this design better and as an engineer and designer, I have always associated sharp corners with stress risers.

New bimini

Our boat came with a bimini mounted to the stern pulpits. The original was about four inches higher than the new one. My goals in lowering it were threefold.  A lower bimini is structurally more stable, presents less windage and is better looking. It actually provides more shade than the old one because it is about four inches longer and the low height helps put the shade where it's needed instead of off to one side or the other when the sun is at an angle instead of directly overhead, which is virtually all the time.

We had snaps fitted to the sides and back, and a zipper on the forward side. These are for side curtains and a filler piece that connects the dodger to the bimini and provides shade over the entire cockpit. The side curtains will be made of polypropylene mesh and will attach to the top rails of the pulpits and lifelines. The mesh is fairly see-through and lets the breeze pass through as well.

This view gives a sense of the proportions of the dodger and bimini

Dodger + filler + bimini = comfortable cockpit

Notice that the bimini extends the full width of Finisterra's ample stern. The extra shade this provides becomes more important south of the Tropic of Cancer. It isn't visible in any of the photos but I had Dan weld a grab rail onto the aft side of the bimini similar to the one on the dodger. It's fairly handy as a grab rail, but it's the perfect place to put the solar panels. On our last boat I mounted them on the aft end of the bimini and made them adjustable so that I could angle them toward the sun. That's the next project I have planned for Finisterra.

About a year ago, when we were still searching for a new boat, I came across a beautiful 2005 Dehler 41 on Yachtworld. It had all the right gear and was well priced, but it had a teak deck and a couple of other features that made it unsuitable for us. But that is not to say that it was not a good boat. Quite the contrary, it was a fine cruiser/racer and we came close to making a bid on it in spite of all that teak.

Fast forward to February 2013...I've been eagerly anticipating the unveiling of Dehler's new 38 here in the States but not surprisingly, it's running a bit late. So while we're waiting for the new boat I thought it would be fun to take a look at the latest version of Dehler's 41 footer. The Dehler marque is not as well known on this side of the Atlantic as other German names such as Hanse and Bavaria, but the company has a long and admirable history of producing high quality boats for both cruising and racing. Unfortunately, Dehler, like many other sailboat manufacturers in the last decade, had a close encounter with oblivion, but was rescued by the Hanse Group. This German boatbuilding conglomerate owns the Moody line of yachts as well.

Back in the 1980's and '90's Dehler worked closely with the E. G. Van De Stadt design firm and produced such IOR classics as the DB1 and the Sprinta Sport, which some 35 years on is still going strong as a one design class in Europe.

DB1 Circa 1980.  A well balanced IOR design

For the Dehler 41, the builder turned to the firm of Judel/Vrolijk. Americas Cup aficionados may recall that Rolf Vrolijk was the chief designer for the winning 2003 Alinghi team. Friedrich "Fietje" Judel, the other half of the design team recently retired from active involvement in the office, but the J/V firm continues to produce extremely fast and good looking designs. Okay, enough history, let's take a look at the new 41.

Sleek lines and no chines

The D41 fits into that very competitive market segment that includes the Jeanneau 409, the Beneteau First 40, Elan 400 and others. With a Displacement/Length ratio of 152 and a Sail Area/Displacement ratio of 22.85 we can call this boat a medium-light and moderately high powered cruiser/racer. But the numbers don't exactly tell the whole story. Let's take a look at the drawings and photos of the boat to get a fuller understanding of the performance potential of the D41. Notice the plumb bow and longish stern overhang in the drawing above, then take a look at the proportions of the stern in the photo below.

Dehler 41. Notice the very powerful stern sections.

Those powerful aft sections add about three feet of waterline length and change the D/L ratio to a much more competitive 125. Then notice the mainsheet traveler on the cockpit sole and the removable transom door. Add the deep keel with nearly eight feet of draft and suddenly the Dehler 41 looks like a dangerous competitor on the race course.

D41 Deckplan. Clean lines, spacious cockpit, conventional ergonomics.

Looking more closely at the deck, notice that the chainplates are located nearly at the sheer. This dictates non-overlapping headsails for upwind work. Again, this is something we find mostly on race boats but it also makes good sense on cruising yachts. The aft winches on the cockpit coaming are dedicated to the mainsheet. This boat is equipped with what is referred to as the German or Admirals Cup mainsheet system. It leads from the traveler up through the boom, then down to the deck from the gooseneck fitting and back aft under the deck to the winches. De riguer on grand prix racing yachts for years, this system is becoming increasingly popular among the racer/cruisers as well. In the plan view the cockpit coamings look rather hard-edged but in reality they are artfully shaped and look like a reasonably comfortable place to sit if you're steering or trimming a sheet on race day.

This is a nice racing cockpit, but what about cruising? The wide open transom, which is lightweight and functional, isn't necessarily the best thing for cruising, so Dehler compensated by incorporating a "tailgate". I'm not a fan of this arrangement because for cruisers there are ever so many reasons to step out on the transom while at anchor, in a marina or under way, and raising, lowering and generally fiddling with that thing is inconvenient at best. In my opinion a better solution would have been to extend the transom a bit and forego the tailgate. I also question the angle of the cockpit seats. They are angled aft about nine degrees. This is totally acceptable for racing because the crew will be on the rail most of the time and the trimmers will be perched on those comfortable coamings instead of on the seats. But let's say you're cruising and the crew consists of yourself and another person. When you are on watch you're likely to be sitting on those cockpit seats twisting your neck to see forward as your vessel plunges through the night toward your destination. In such conditions I think seats that are parallel to the centerline of the boat would be more comfortable. This is a small point in the overall scheme of things, but it's these details that separate a great cruising boat from a good one. On the other hand, notice that the halyard winches are on the cabin top and there is plenty of room between the helm, the mainsheet winches and the jib sheet winches. The D41 will be a more efficient boat to sail than those that have the halyards and control lines led aft, either inside or on top of the coamings to someplace near the helm.

Going below, Dehler offers a wide range of variations in the accommodations. On their web site I scrolled down until I found the one that works best for me. I recommend that you visit www.dehler.com and do the same thing. There is enough variety there to please almost everyone. Anyway, I chose the version pictured below. It offers two cabins, a relatively large galley and a single spacious head.

The Dehler 41 offers excellent accommodations for the cruising couple.

Beginning in the forward cabin, the V-berth is of modest but adequate dimensions, leaving plenty of space for a comfortable seat and a large locker. Aft of the main bulkhead we find a conventional main salon, with a "U"-shaped dinette to starboard and large settee to port that incorporates a nav table. Aft of the navigator's seat is the head, which incorporates a spacious shower. This will be much appreciated by those who cruise aboard this boat. The galley is of reasonable proportions and aft of it is a spacious quarter cabin. The boat is blessed with lots of storage capacity aft of the head and in the very large lazarette area. To me, the clean, simple styling of the Dehler 41 is evocative of a modern, or perhaps post-modern version of  the Bauhaus school of design. Straight lines, pure functionality and simplicity of form all work together in the styling of this boat.

I think Gropius or Mies van der Rohe would approve of the D41's styling.

This stylistic approach may not work for everyone, and I have criticized the Hanse 415 for being a bit too squarish for my taste, but I have to respect the quality of design in these accommodations. The same can be said of the deck design, with its softly curving coamings in contrast with the harder edges of the rest of the cockpit, and the sleek yet functional proportions of the cabin trunk.They all strike a nice aesthetic and functional balance that appeals to me.

Simple elegance combined with impressive performance potential in the D41

When I began to study the Dehler 41 I was prepared to find it unappealing, as I did the Hanse 415, but I think the designers and builder got it right on this boat. It is clearly a fast and powerful vessel, no question about that. But more than that, they found the right balance of form, function and performance. As I studied the photos and drawings of this boat, I got the sense that the D41 isn't a wolf in sheep's clothing, it's more of a wolf in wolf's clothing. I like this boat!

Anybody who has even the slightest interest in the Americas Cup competition has seen the video of Team Oracle's spectacular crash last October.  It is amazing that there was no serious damage to the boat except for the carbon wing, which was demolished. Until the crash, no one truly knew where the edge of the envelope was for these extremely powerful boats, so it was a learning experience for the crew of Oracle 17. The question now is whether they will overcome this setback in time to mount a competitive defense of the cup. The crash was certainly a serious bump in the road for them, but now they have a real, rather than theoretical understanding of how hard to push and, probably more importantly, that feeling in the collective gut of the crew of where the edge is. Anyone who has pushed a high performance boat, whether it's a 49er or TP52 beyond the edge of control, knows that feeling. Ironically, that experience, and the experience of quickly putting a broken AC72 back together, could turn out to be a winning edge when the big boats race on the bay.

Yesterday I visited the Oracle compound at Pier 80 in San Francisco and had a chance to see the nearly completely repaired 17 as well as the newest boat, which is still under construction in the same building. While there I also got a look at the newly delivered wing mast whose basic structure was built in New Zealand for completion in San Francisco. Here are some observations:
1. It wasn't until I was right up close to both the wing and the hulls that I could truly appreciate the power to weight ratio of this boat.
2. The hulls are beautifully sculpted shapes that hardly appear to be up to the task of supporting the vast size of the rig, until you realize that the wing, which towers about 130 feet above the deck, weighs only about 3,000 pounds.
3. I was impressed by the fineness of the bows of the hulls. These are almost delicate shapes that will be extremely fast in light air, but will be more challenging in a breeze. I say that because they are very fine, with commensurately little reserve buoyancy. When you consider that the center of effort in the wing is some 65 feet or so above the waterplane, with its center of gravity likely a few feet down from there, it's easy to understand that if the boat is at speed and sticks a bow or two into a wave, the chances of pitchpoling are significant. It's interesting to note that the boat that crashed didn't flip, that is, it didn't fall over sideways, it pitchpoled, or sailed over its bows. Clearly, sailing these boats will be more about power management than power generation in the conditions they are likely to encounter on San Francisco Bay.
4. The wing mast is a fairly simple shape in the profile view. It is a two-element structure, that is, a main element and a flap, and it appears to me that the real technology is in its structural design and control system.
5. Clearly the trick will be in knowing how to control the power in this rig. If there is much breeze at all during the actual races, the winner may well be the crew that has learned how to allow the rig to generate enough power without overpowering the boat and capsizing. As we have already seen, bearing off  an AC72 in a breeze will be tricky. The trimmers will have to be in perfect sync with the helmsman to ease the throttle as the boat turns away from the wind.
6. The course seems awfully short for these 72 foot boats. The marks appear to be set fairly close inshore so there will be little room on the left side of the course. The venue along the city front will make for spectacular viewing but the legs are only about 3 miles long, so these boats that are easily capable of 30 knots might take 15 minutes to get from the leeward mark to the windward mark. That doesn't leave much time for tactics, so I think the key will be to win the start and then don't crash.

We had been planning to spend the first few days of the new year at Catalina Island but the recent cold temperatures (highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's) made that plan unappealing. So instead I worked on a couple of winter projects. First I removed the old dodger and cut the frame down a bit. The old dodger was taller than it needed to be and was not the best design. The photo below is a 'before' shot, and I'll post some pictures of the revised dodger in a couple of weeks.

Finisterra's dodger is taller than it needs to be

The cockpit is almost four feet wide between the seats.

I love the new-found space here!

Beneteau installs a clear plastic cover on hinges over the instruments at the helm. Nearly every Beneteau we've looked at, ours included, showed signs of the hinges coming adrift. Naturally they were installed with self tapping #6 screws which usually lose no time in working loose, so it's not long before those itty-bitty threads are stripped.  I took the plastic cover off permanently, and will do something creative with the leftover holes.

The table is stoutly made with a nice welded stainless steel frame that includes a foot-rest. The table comes with a plastic lid that fits loosely on top.

The drop-leaves are attached to the table with slip-pin hinges, and the blue tape covers the forward one because it had an uncanny ability to grab clothing as you go past it. Beneteau used a RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) process to make this molded fiberglass part. This is a cost effective and environmentally responsible process that results in a strong, lightweight part with a smooth finish on both sides. I'm a big fan of RTM.

There is a big, boxy-looking Lagoon 40 berthed on the next gangway over from us in the marina and it got me thinking about cruising multihulls and how they have evolved since the partnership of Rudy Choy, Warren Seaman and Al Kumalae developed the first offshore racing/cruising cats back in the 1950's. Back then catamarans were exotic, and were shunned by the offshore racing crowd. Today, thanks to those pioneers and countless others, offshore cruising multihulls are totally mainstream.  I did a bit of research on the Internet and came up with some interesting numerical comparisons for medium sized cruising cats and after reviewing three of the more popular models in that size range I decided to take a more thorough look at the Nautitech 441. But first, here are the numbers:

 A few weeks ago I mentioned that the windlass was severely corroded and that I was planning to repair or replace it. When I removed it from the boat and got a look at the underside of it, the corrosion was as bad as I feared it would be. The screws that hold the gypsy assembly to the cast aluminum housing were completely frozen and no amount of PB Blaster could loosen them, and the corrosion around the mounting studs was severe enough to give me doubt about the entire base of the casting. One thing you don't want in your ground tackle is doubt, so last weekend I replaced the entire unit, and while I was at it I built a spacer out of StarBoard to raise the windlass up so that whenever there is water standing on its shelf in the anchor locker, it will not be sitting in it.

Using the paper template that came with the new windlass as a guide, I made a base plate out of StarBoard.

It would have been a simple matter for Beneteau to mold a riser into the windlass shelf, or perhaps make the shelf slanted enough that water would run off, which might have made this project unnecessary. Anyway, once the plate was made I check-fitted it on the windlass. I also took the opportunity to back all the screws for the gypsy and back cover out and give them a liberal coat of Tef-Gel before re-tightening them, and did the same to the mounting studs before installing them. As far as I know, nothing beats Tef-Gel for preventing seizing of mating parts, including dissimilar metals.

This is what the base of the windlass look like. The housing that holds the gypsy and mounting studs is cast aluminum and the back cover, where the Lewmar sticker is located is composite material.

The unit comes with a rubber gasket that is about 2 mm thick, which isn't enough raise the unit up clear of any water on the shelf. On the old windlass, water had seeped between the gasket and the aluminum housing and worked its corrosive magic across the entire area of the base, especially around the stainless steel mounting studs.

Windlass with the gasket installed.

Woody checks the fit of the new base plate on the windlass.

After making sure the base and windlass fit together, it was time to mount the base plate into the anchor locker. I applied a bead of 3M 4000 around the perimeter and the holes, carefully pressed it into position and allowed it to cure.

Base plate is bonded in place with 3M  semi-permanent adhesive.

Now all that's left to do is bolt the windlass in place and connect the wiring. Of course it's never as easy as you'd think. The back cover of the windlass must be removed in order to make the connections, and there isn't enough clearance in the locker to do that with the windlass bolted in place, so that work has to be done before the windlass is bolted down.  If the windlass was mounted a couple of inches further forward you'd be able to get it off without removing the windlass.

Windlass installed.

The last step was to test the windlass. It worked like a champ. Now I can finish the job of rigging the boat with proper chain and rode and try out the new Rocna 55.