What do you think of this design ?

[Guest ShallowMindedII]

Greetings from a long time lurker & a Sea Pearl owner. Now, before you kick me out on my first post for being a Sea Pearl owner, I'll let you know that one of the main reasons I bought a Sea Pearl is because of Doug Cameron. I figured if that 'ol boy from Tennessee could win a WaterTribe Everglades Challenge with a SP it might be the kind of sailboat I was looking for. And, as an adult male, I'm embarrassed to admit that my 1 and only tool box has a total 14 tools in it (not including the beer bottle opener). So the thought of building my own CS seems a little beyound my skills. And I've even had the pleasure of watching Southern Skimmer disappear over the horizion while doing my own WaterTribe ECs. I still feel that it's not fair to have Graham & that boat together.

I was linked to this new sailboat design by a fellow Sea Pearl owner here in Florida.

I haven't decided if it's a good design or just an exercise in designing a sailboat with limited appeal. Some of you will notice that the design is done by Rodger Martin who designed the new 30' pulling boats for Outward Bound. Of which there is a nice write up in the current issue of Small Craft Advisor. I believe Ray Frechette might be able to give his opinion on the design.

On the plus side I see these. The boat is trailerable (at 5500 lb displacement, it'll be a load, but doable with a V8). Because there is no standing rigging to deal with, launching time should be around 20 minutes with 2 people. With a 8.5' beam, it will be easily driving by its sails (390sq ft) but, I wonder how the roll cycle would be compaired to a modern keel boat with an 10.5-11' beam. Of course the shallow draft would leave other sailers calling Sea Tow as they would see the boat sitting on a sand bar. A longer waterline would mean a better turn of speed compared to our boats. The "look" appeals to me. I think there is really only 1 reason why I couldn't see myself owning this sharpie someday. I have a rule (written in sand) that I would never own a boat if a loan had to come along with it. I'm sure the sail away price would be close to $60K for boat, motor, trailer. But, maybe not. Either way, I think it's a cool new design and look forward to seeing some write-up's in the mag's in the future.

http://www.rodgermartindesign.com/portfolio.php?item=82

[Howard]

Not sure I see any advantage of this boat over Graham's Princess Sharpies (other than it's glass and somebody else builds it):

http://www.bandbyachtdesigns.com/princess26.htm

Graham can elaborate if I've got it wrong, but I've seen bits and pieces of plans for a Princess 28, which in my mind stretches it out to a very functional shallow water cruising boat. 

[Tom Lathrop]

It's a real looker all right.  I have several reservations about it though.  One is that I don't want to have anything that big and heavy behind me on the road.

Low headroom for a 30 footer?

Low form stability. (need to see stability curves)

Scant interior room for a 30 footer.

Great looking boat though.

[Ken_Potts]

  Welcome aboard!  I don't think anyone here is going to run you off for sailing a Sea Pearl.  I've admitted to doing the same and people don't seem to hate me (maybe they're being polite, though)  ;D

  Talk to Crazy Russian about his Freedom 28.  They've been around for a while.  To me they look like capable coastal cruisers (but I'm no expert and I've never sailed one), and one can be bought used.  Occasionally you can find one that comes equipped with a guy who will tell you funny stories about inflatable catamarans.

[ecgossett]

If I was to build a boat in the 26' range I would build a F-22 (Farrier 22) trimeran. The design is incredible, the layout is as simliar to stich & glue except with foam. One version has an aft cabin design that is very unique. http://www.f-boat.com/pages/trimarans/F-22.html

For a bigger boat I would go with a F-32 / road legal trailerable verison. They have two versions, the trailer version has a narrow beam.

Of course both these boats take some money just for supplies, the F-22 costs about $25-35k (materials) with a tacked on $80k for labor if you don't want to build it yourself.

[Garry]

That is a nice looking design. It has no stub keel which means it's easier to load on a trailer but the ballast is internal where it's even less effective. There is a large trunk in the middle of the cabin which the Princess designs up to 26' offset to provide more interior space. I'm told the offset centerboard has no noticeable effect on performance.

My biggest concern is the very rounded hull shape. I would think this design would be very tender until heeled well over. The Princess designs push the waterline beam to make it much stiffer from the outset. The ballast is listed as 1,000 lb. which I fear would be increased to gain.

I made some preliminary drawings of the Princess 28 online at http://www.pbase.com/sailrosita/princess28. These are based on Graham's early line drawings but you can see the hull shape would offer much more initial stability. The stub keel provides a place for the centerboard below the cabin sole. I imagine there are more complete drawings available as I think there are one or two who are building or preparing to build a P28.

Note - This is my sketch and the cabin does not reflect Graham's design.