This year’s WoodenBoat Design Challenge III, “A Fast, Expedition Sailboat”, is a theme near and dear to my Proafile heart. Last winter, I was working up a design that fit the parameters pretty well, so when Canadian designer Laurie McGowan suggested we enter the contest, we chose EVERGREEN, a 6m (19’-8”) camp-cruiser cat. We had to really push to make the May 29 deadline but in the end we got the packet in the mail and had a great time…
Here’s the Wally Fulcrum 88’ Concept Yacht recently accomplished at the Art Center College of Design. One might easily presume from the continual output from Art Center that, deep down, all designers would really rather be designing starships, and they’ll quickly turn any vehicle of transportation into one at the drop of a hat. Note my own previous design concept as an example of this insidious impulse.
I’ve had a good amount of…
This is old news, but I’m always happy to hear about another win for the team of James Wharram and Hanneke Boon. The brief from Classic Boat magazine was for an under 10m boat that would not require a license for fishing under sail or oar.
They chose the new Wharram Ethnic design, the 27ft Amatasi double canoe, the only catamaran entry. The design is developed from the 21ft Tahiti Wayfarer design and inspired by the Ethnic canoe craft…
This design was inspired by the Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor that Obi Wan flies on a reconnaissance mission to the planet Kamino in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The Delta 7 is a small, one-man starfighter not capable of light speed, so to travel great distances it uses a Syluire-31 hyperdrive ring. Obi Wan docks into the hyperdrive ring and zips out to Kamino, where once safely in orbit, he undocks and descends…
Americans may have made the first sustained powered flight, but the French will be the first to fly a sailboat over a few meters above the waves. It’s bordering on a national obsession, with l’Hydroptère being the world’s fastest and highest flying sailboat to date, but hydrofoils are just baby steps. The French dream big.
Designed for Renault, the “Zep’lin” by industrial designer Damien Grossemy is a hypothetical vehicle to explore…
There are no more audacious multihull sailors, designers and builders on the planet than the French. The modern, post-war multihull boom may have begun in the U.S., but in 1936, it was Frenchmen Eric de Bisschop and Joseph Tatiboet who first pitched a tent on a secluded, shady spot of Waikiki Beach, to build Kaimiloa. The “mad Frenchmen” sailed safely back to France, via the Cape of Good Hope, and the French have been mad about…
Maestro proa designer John Dalziel has an interesting new project - an 8m proa “workhorse” for the Greek Isles.
On the Greek island of Naxos, fabled home of Dionysus and Ariadne, Helmut Mueller is building an 8 meter proa. Unusually for its size, it is actually a half-displacement model of a 10 meter proa Helmut intends to build. However, we decided it was best to build the 8 meter model first and test it thoroughly. Besides being a…
The return of Beach Cruiser - in 3D!
The Beach Cruiser sketch from last March has progressed into a 3D model - my first 3D project in a long while - a good vehicle for relearning the ropes. To recap, Beach Cruiser is intended to be a multihull version of the popular “open boat” style of camping cruiser. Over the years, small cats have become somewhat the victims of their own success - evolving into pure race boats. It’s a bit of a…
Spark is from the drawing board of Richard Newick - which he describes as a “three-hulled Rozinante”, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s as if the spark of Herreshoff’s inspiration was passed along and reinterpreted through Newick, resulting in this outstandingly elegant trimaran. These images are of Jim Conlin’s Damfino, launched last June in Westport Point, MA. She seems a perfect steed for sailing the coast, perhaps tilting at a few…
A 19 foot beach cruising catamaran
Beach cruisers are single gear bicycles with upright posture and balloon tires that put more emphasis on ride comfort and style than ultimate performance - the alternative to the ubiquitous road and mountain bikes. In that spirit, I present Beach Cruiser, the alternative beach cat. 19’ LOA by 8’-6” beam, Beach Cruiser fits nicely on any beach cat trailer. The sail area of 220 sq. ft. also means that…
