Since today is Pi Day I figured this was an auspicious occasion to post another sketch from the Wayback Machine. This is a 1989 rendering of a round boat. The idea was to take the “skimming dish” to its ultimate conclusion by making it literally a skimming dish… or snow saucer. This saucer-like, planing hull has absolutely 0 directional stability, so it is free to crab in any direction, which is what it does. The inclined, aerodynamically lifting rig is fixed to the hull and cannot be trimmed to the wind. Instead the entire boat is trimmed, via the fore and aft rudders that are controlled via joysticks in either hand. The twin rudders provide both steering and lateral resistance.
This mad hatter’s teacup is actually a kind of ‘proa’, because it shunts to come about. The ‘hatter’ is always to windward and never switches sides to come about. Instead, the boat stops, pivots 90 degrees, and reverses direction, cutting it’s way to windward. The advantage is that the crew weight is always positioned correctly - directly opposite the lift coefficient of the sail. The other advantage is that compared to a traditional proa that shifts its entire rig and rudder system for every tack, everything stays put except for small rotational movements of the rudders and the hull. Which means this might be the first proa to beat a Laser in a tacking duel.
Would it work? I don’t know, but if it did it would be a riot to sail.
It is rare when a world famous yacht designer blogs so it is a real pleasure to discover that Chuck Paine, the architect of beautiful yachts large and small, is semi-retired in Maine and writing - even has a new book coming out! I saw one of his Carol designs at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival a while back and was completely captivated by the craft’s simplicity and clarity of form and function - ‘best in show’ in my eyes, and that year had some serious competition!
It’s also nice to see more and more designers “outing” themselves in regards to the environment and sustainability. Like Chuck says, “the world does does not need more ways to use up its precious one-off gift of liquid energy”. Amen. Chuck is currently working on a new 26 footer - the Paine 26 which he calls an enlarged Herreshoff 12.5. Go check it out!
This post is filed under the “where the hell is my flying car?” category. It is an aerodynamic and hydrodynamic balanced sailboat where the force vectors of the foils balance each other out at all wind speeds, creating a sailboat that is theoretically capable of the speed of light. I drew this in 1985, after reading about Bernard Smith’s “fliptacker”. This version is what you get when a budding industrial designer gets his hands on it. I called it the “Shot Wing”, which explains the stylized “S”.
Ice Scooters are a fascinating species of iceboat, evolving out of the primordial ooze of Long Island’s south side bays. From the South Bay Scooter Club:
The evolution of the Scooter is not well documented. It did not evolve from a designer’s drawing board nor was there a class association. It evolved out of necessity. Something like this. Take an old duck puntie and add runners. A mast, sprit sail or gaff and a pike pole to steer her. Angle the runners (bevel) to bite into the ice and to prevent the boat from sliding sideways. Add a jib to balance the main sail and a bit of rocker (curve) to the runners to increase steerage and you have a Scooter.
Scooters have a charming form factor and are certainly the most “boat-like” of the iceboats. In their early evolution they were capable of sailing equally well on soft or hard water, which must have been very useful. The inevitable racing led to lighter and more powerful boats that were no longer soft-water worthy, but they soon developed a new sport - jumping the water holes at high speed!
Scooters are steered by weight shift and sail trim, since they have no rudders. In that sense, they are like Oceanic proas.
The scooter, unlike other iceboats, is rudderless. She is steered by her jib. By trimming or slackening the jib one can change course. To head up, ease the jib and trim the main. To bear off, trim the jib and ease the main. Shifting your weight forward or aft accordingly accelerates the process.
The boomed jib evolved into an unusually low-aspect ratio, aerodynamically balanced “air rudder”. So not really rudderless after all.
Last week I received an invite from Scott V. of the Ravenna Tiki build project to come visit, and I’m glad I did. This Tiki 21 is a collaborative project of guys who meet every Tuesday (“Tiki Tuesday”) after work, to build the double canoe and assign “homework” for the following week. Scott’s (Model T sized) garage serves as the “canoe house”. Not exactly speedy progress, but they appear to enjoy themselves.
Thomas Nielsen (of Tsunamichaser) has been helping out with the build, and he brought a bamboo-skinned surfboard he’s made for Show and Tell. Coincidentally, Boat Bits blog told us about Greenlight Surfboard Supply last week who is into sustainable surfboard building materials, and their new Bamboo fiberglass.
Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on Earth; it has been measured surging skyward as fast as 121 cm (48 in) in a 24-hour period, and can also reach maximal growth rate exceeding one meter (39 inches) per hour for short periods of time.
As anyone who has bamboo in their yard knows, it is only an Act of God that has kept the plant from completely taking over the world. It grows like a noxious weed, and that is half the reason it receives so much attention from sustainable materials scientists. The other half is because of the fiber’s remarkable engineering attributes, often called “green carbon fiber”.
Surfers are definitely the early adopters of the maritime world - taking the theoretical and making it practical. They embraced foam and fiberglass before everyone else, and it was also the watermen who first tried unballasted multihulls and canoe culture, with surfer Hobie Alter bringing the double canoe to the masses. It is already cooler to surf on bamboo than carbon fiber, can boats be far behind?
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a bamboo garden as your local “lumberyard” and “carbon fiber” factory? A superlative engineering material literally growing in your own backyard. No clear cuts, strip mines, or oil fields required. Don’t tell Exxon.
A pair of Santa Cruz Islands Tepuke sailing canoes. This canoe fascinates me, mostly because it flies against most of my notions of what constitutes a proper sailboat. The tiny sail area set from over-long spars, massive windage, submarining hull, etc. And yet I find it a beautiful and captivating craft. I even tried an updated version at Proafile. I strongly suspect that canoes like the Tepuke are the Pacific version of ancient Egyptian solar boats - in other words, their form is strongly influenced by a religious belief system. Perhaps the extreme crab claw sail represents something to the builders besides an aerodynamic power plant - something symbolic of an ancient religious concept, or totem? Like the upturned and highly stylized ends of Egyptian craft, or like the spires of medieval gothic churches.
To the Pacific Islanders, a boat was a living thing, a vessel imbued with spirit no less than a human being. I admittedly know little of their symbolism, but I do recognize a ‘church’ when I see one.
Professional Boatbuilder has a nice feature on the life and career of Dick Newick, written by Steve Callahan. Besides interesting background (for example, Dick explored the canals of postwar Europe in a kayak long before such trips became popular), the article highlights the significant boats in his portfolio - a formidable list indeed. I didn’t know that it was Cheers, the 40’ OSTAR racing proa, that began his career in ocean racing multihulls.
Dick Newick was already regarded as an innovative designer, builder and sailor. But it took the 1968 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race, or OSTAR - at the time the premier event for singlehanded sailors and their no-holds-barred boats - to telegraph Newick’s talent around the world.
The famous proa languished for years in the Exeter Maritime Museum until doctors Vincent and Nelie Besin brought her over to France for a complete restoration, where it has been made an official national monument. Interestingly, the Besins have commissioned a “new” Cheers from Newick - a 56’ (17m) proa for an around the world voyage. I can’t wait to see what 40 years of experience will bring!
A daring proposal to try to put a “boat” down on a sea of Saturn’s moon Titan is about to be submitted to NASA. The scientific team behind the idea is targeting Ligeia Mare, a vast body of liquid methane sited in the high north of Saturn’s largest moon.
I know we sailors are a superstitious lot, but I hope they don’t name their ship the ‘Titanic’.
The Aspen C-90 is an innovative new 28’ “power proa“ cruiser, designed and built in the Pacific Northwest, and Schacht Marine was contracted for the industrial design. The small yacht embraces efficiency as it’s mantra, and promises to set a whole new benchmark in comfortable and economical cruising.
I found an old college sketchbook from Architecture 101 buried in a box today. It was filled with site plans and sections but it included this drawing labeled ‘Hydrofoil Sailboat Cargo Vessel’. Also lots of sketches of beer coasters, cars and spaceships.
Schacht Marine is the blog and online portfolio of Michael Schacht, Seattle based marine industrial designer.
