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How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat
by Dick McClary ©

All rights reserved. This eBook may be printed for the personal use of the original
purchaser either in part or in whole but may not be resold or otherwise distributed in any
form without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

Note: While all reasonable care has been taken in the publication of this eBook, neither
the author nor publisher takes responsibility for the use of methods or products
described in these pages.

First published 2019 by Sailboat-Cruising.com

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Introduction
You might think the title of this eBook – How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat - is rather
strange. Wouldn’t How to Buy the Right Sailboat be more appropriate?
Well, no. The whole process of finding the right sailboat is best tackled as one of elimination. If
you go about it the other way around – looking for the ideal sailboat - you're likely to very
quickly paint yourself into a corner. You’ve got a much better chance of choosing the ‘Right’
sailboat once you’ve dismissed all of the ‘Wrong’ ones.
And of course, by ‘Right’ I mean ‘Right for You’ as your ‘Wrong’ may be someone else’s ‘Right’
and vice versa - if you see what I mean.
Having decided you’re in the market for a sailboat it’s tempting to make a start by diving into the
multitude of ‘Sailboats for Sale’ websites or the classified ads in sailing magazines without a clear
idea of what you’re looking for; it may be fun, but it’s not the best approach.
The problem is not helped by the fact that sailboats are notoriously seductive items, so much so
that you can easily be deceived into basing your purchasing decision on passion rather than
pragmatic rationale.
Love, so they say, is blind. Let your heart rule your head and you’re very likely to end up buying
the wrong boat.
If you follow the process set out in this eBook, the chance of that happening is greatly reduced.

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Contents

Introduction Page 3
Contents Page 4
List of Illustrations Page 5
How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat Page 8
Sailboat Checklist: Example 1 Page 10
Sailboat Checklist: Example 2 Page 20
Appendix 1: Draft Sailboat Checklist * Page 28

Appendix 2: Displacement - Heavy, Light or Moderate? Page 33

Appendix 3: The Sloop Rig Page 38
Appendix 4: The Cutter Rig Page 41
Appendix 5: Ketches and Yawls Page 44
Appendix 6: The Freedom Rig Page 47
Appendix 7: The Solent Rig Page 49
Appendix 8: The Schooner Rig Page 52
Appendix 9: Catamarans for Cruising Page 54
Appendix 10: Cruising Trimarans Page 57
Appendix 11: Hull Materials Page 58
Appendix 12: Masts - Deck Stepped or Keel Stepped? Page 63
Appendix 13: Headsail Furling and Reefing Systems Page 64
Appendix 14: Mainsail Furling & Reefing Systems Page 66
Appendix 15: Centre or Aft Cockpit Page 71
Appendix 16: Keels and Rudders Page 74
Appendix 17: Conventional Shaft or Saildrive Page 80
Appendix 18: Wheel or Tiller Steering? Page 82

* An MSword (.doc) copy of the Draft Sailboat Checklist was included with this PDF eBook
download for your own use. This is a modified version with additional columns for specification
and equipment details of any sailboats you may be reviewing.

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List of Illustrations
Fig 1: A Westsail 32 - Ultra-Heavy at SA/D ratio of 419 Page 34

Fig 2: Malo 45, Medium Displacement with SA/D of 234 Page 35

Fig 3: A J46, Light Displacement with SA/D of 161 Page 36

Fig 4: The moderately rigged masthead sloop Westerly Centaur 26 Page 38

Fig 5: A fractional rigged Bavaria 44 sloop Page 40

Fig 6: The Valiant 40 cutter Page 41

Fig 7: A Bayfield 40 cutter, with the yankee set on the forestay rigged to the Page 42
end of the bowsprit.

Fig 8: The 'Slutter' Page 43

Fig 9: An Allied Princess 36 Ketch - the mizzen is forward of the rudder post Page 44

Fig 10: A Hinkley 42 Yawl - the mizzen mast is aft of the rudder post. Note Page 45
the mizzen staysail.

Fig 11: A Reliant 49 Staysail Ketch Page 46

Fig 12: The Freedom 40 Cat Ketch. Note no headsails. Page 47

Fig 13: A Nonsuch 30 Cat Boat with a Wishbone Rig Page 48

Fig 14: Solent Rig fitted on a Westerly Oceanlord 41. The working jib is set Page 50
and the genoa remains furled.

Fig 15: The Solent Rig - Why stop at two? Page 51

Fig 16: A Frans Maas 50 Staysail Schooner. Note the boomed staysail and the Page 52
triatic stay between the two mastheads.

Fig 17: A Charter Catamaran – the Lagoon 42 Page 54

Fig 18: Great for living at anchor. But underway? Page 55

Fig 19: You could rightly expect much better sailing performance from this Page 56
cruising catamaran. Note the raised daggerboards.

Fig 20: The Neel 45 - A modern production cruising trimaran Page 57

Fig 21: A centre-cockpit cruising trimaran Page 57

Fig 22: A Beneteau 393, a modern mass produced GRP sloop Page 58

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Fig 23: The rust streaks on this Alan Pape designed ketch are a clear indication Page 59
of a steel hull.

Fig 24: An Aluminium hulled Ovni AluBat 43 Page 59

Fig 25: The writer’s wood-epoxy (cedar strip) cutter. Page 60

Fig 26: An RM1050 ply-epoxy cutter. Page 61

Fig 27: A professionally built Ferrocement Hartley 43 cutter. Page 61

Fig 28: A Deck Stepped Mast. The deck beneath the baseplate is reinforced by Page 63
a load-bearing pad, and glassed in.

Fig 29: A Manual Headsail Furling Drum. Electrically powered versions are Page 64
available for large headsails.

Fig 30: Sacrificial Strip on the leech and foot of the headsail on this Oyster Page 65
Heritage 39.

Fig 31: An in-mast mainsail furling system on this deck-saloon sloop. That’s Page 66
probably as far into the mast that the sail will go.

Fig 32: An In-Boom Headsail Furling System on this Chuck Paine designed Page 67
Apogee 58.

Fig 33: A large sailboat with no in-boom or in-mast mainsail furling systems - Page 68
just slab reefing and lazy-jacks.

Fig 34: Let go the halyard, the lazy-jacks guide the sail into the bag, zip it up - Page 69
job done!

Fig 35: Aft Cockpit Bavaria 55 Page 71

Fig 36: Centre Cockpit Caliber 47 Page 71

Fig 37: At around 30 feet, this is probably as small as you would want to go Page 73
for an aft cockpit boat.

Fig 38: Long Keel. Note propeller in aperture between keel and rudder. Page 74

Fig 39: Long Fin Keel & Skeg Hung Rudder Page 75

Fig 40: Long Fin Keel & Spade Rudder Page 75

Fig 41: Deep Fin Keel & Spade Rudder Page 76

Fig 42: A Macwester 27 high and dry on her bilge keels Page 77

Fig 43: A Wing Keel Page 78

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Fig 44: A Bulb Keel Page 78

Fig 45: Combined Wing & Bulb Keel Page 78

Fig 46: Spade Rudder Page 79

Fig 47: Skeg-Hung Rudder Page 79

Fig 48: Half-Skeg, or Balanced Rudder Page 79

Fig 49: The Shaft Drive. Note 3-bladed folding prop and the V-bracket. Page 80

Fig 50: The Saildrive. Note 2-bladed folding propeller. Page 81

Fig 51: Flying the flag for a tiller! Page 82

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How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat
The intention of this eBook is to enable you to easily and quickly draw up a personalised
checklist of sailboat criteria against which to compare those of any particular sailboat that you’re
considering for purchase.
This is achieved through a tabulated process as set out in the Draft Sailboat Checklist at Appendix
1.
The essence of the process can be described as three basic steps:

Stage 1: Establish your Primary Criteria

1. What type of sailing will you use the boat for?
2. Where will you use the boat?
3. How many people are likely to be aboard?
4. Where will you keep the boat when you're not using it, during both the sailing season and
lay-up period?

Stage 2: Eliminate the Unacceptable.

This where you establish a comprehensive checklist of sailboat attributes that wouldn’t satisfy the
requirements of your established primary criteria.
These attributes are set out in the Draft Sailboat Checklist under the following categories:

• Hull Material;
• Number of Berths;
• Monohull or multihull;
• Boat Length;
• Type of Rig;
• Displacement, Heavy, Moderate or Light;
• Keel/Rudder Configuration;
• Sail Handling Systems;
• Cockpit Location, Centre or Aft;
• Steering, Wheel or Tiller;
• Drive Train, Conventional Shaft or Saildrive;

Stage 3: Select Your Preferred Gear & Equipment.

Here you do select the items that appeal to you rather than eliminating those that don’t.
Once you have completed these three stages on the Draft Sailboat Checklist at Appendix 1, you
will have a very good idea of the sailboat that would be ideal for you and your family.
But before you start that process, I suggest you read through the following two examples.

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Example 1 describes a couple with two young children looking for a sailboat in which to cruise
the relatively sheltered waters of Chesapeake Bay.
Example 2 describes a couple of experienced sailors wishing to buy a boat for an ocean crossing
and a period of extended cruising in the Caribbean.
Please note that both of these examples are entirely fictional. You may well disagree with some
of their reasoning and the choices they make.

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Example 1
A couple with two young children, living in Maryland, a temperate zone of the USA.
The climate varies from mild to hot and humid in the summer months, but it can still get pretty
chilly in the Spring and Autumn (Fall) evenings.
Our breadwinner is in fulltime employment, leaving some weekends, occasional summer
evenings and annual holidays available for sailing.
They’re already members of a sailing club.
Competitive types, intend to use the boat for some round-the-cans club racing when they can
and will want to participate in the club’s annual regatta.
They live some distance from the coast so will keep the boat in a marina during the season for
convenience and security.
Out of season, they’ll have the boat hauled and stored ashore in a boatyard.
Cruising in Chesapeake Bay will be fairly local inshore stuff, mainly daysailing from one marina
to another, or anchoring or mooring occasionally in sheltered waters.
Occasional night aboard, more so in annual vacation. Creek crawling will go down great with the
kids. They’ve got no intention of chartering the boat to third parties, so it will have to be large
enough for their own family needs but no larger.
This is how he (or she of course) may complete the checklist, describing their thought process in
doing so.

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Example 1, Stage 1: Primary Considerations
A. What will you use the boat for?
Coastal cruising?
Offshore Cruising? X
Ocean Cruising? X
Living aboard?
Occasional club racing & regattas?
Occasional chartering to offset costs? X
Reasoning:
We should be able to find plenty of sheltered water sailing in the Chesapeake, and we’ll be keeping
a very close eye on weather forecasts. We’ll be plugged in to all amenities in marinas when living
aboard.

B. Who will use it?

Singlehander? X
Skipper plus mate (and occasional guests)?
Full crew?
Reasoning:
There will usually be just the four of us. Maybe up to six when club racing.

C. Where will you be doing most of your sailing?

In the Tropics? X
Temperate regions?
High latitudes? X
Reasoning:
We’ll be staying well clear of the tropics and high latitudes! Some form of cabin heating would be
good for cool evenings at either end of the sailing season.

D. Where will you keep the boat when you're not using it?
Laid-up ashore?
In a marina?
Deep water mooring? X
Drying or 'Half Tide' Mooring? X
Reasoning:
We’ll be marina based during the season, hauled out and laid-up ashore in the winter months.

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Example 1, Stage 2: Eliminate the Unacceptable
1. Hull Material Showstoppers 2. Number of Berths Showstoppers
GRP (Fibreglass) Fewer than 2 X
Steel X Fewer than 4 X
Aluminium X Fewer than 6
Wood Epoxy X Fewer than 8
Traditional Wood X
Ferro-Cement X Reasoning:
They need a minimum of four berths, without having to
Reasoning: use the saloon seating.
Steel and traditional wood require more
maintenance than this working family man has
time for.

Ferrocement would be far too heavy and there’s a

real risk in buying a secondhand boat in this
material. There’s no way of telling how well the
hull was laid up.

The others would be acceptable but he’s not that

familiar with aluminium or wood epoxy as hull
materials.

Being relatively easy to maintain and repair, GRP

emerges as the clear favourite.

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3. Hull Showstoppers 4. Boat Length Showstoppers
Configuration
Monohull Under 30' X
Catamaran X 30' - 35'
Trimaran X 35' - 40' X
40' - 45' X
Reasoning: 45' - 50' X
With two young children, the stability offered by a 50' - 55' X
catamaran really appeals. But that wouldn’t fit over 55' X
with their club racing requirement and the increased
marina and boatyard costs may well be prohibitive. Reasoning:
Full standing headroom in the saloon for the adults is a
A trimaran would cost even more when not in use requirement, as is the need to keep the sleeping
and with less accommodation than a similarly sized accommodation out of the living accommodation.
monohull is clearly a showstopper.
Two singles or a double berth in the forepeak for the
A Monohull it has to be. kids and a double berth aft for the grown-ups would be
ideal.
It’s unlikely a sailboat under 30 feet will achieve this
but something around 35 feet would be ideal.

A larger boat would be excessive for their sailing plans

and their budget.

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5. Type of Rig Showstoppers 6. Mast & Spars Showstoppers
Sloop Aluminium
Cutter X Composite X
Ketch X Wood X
Yawl X Deck stepped
Schooner X Keel stepped
Freedom Rig X Unstayed X
Gaff Rig X B&R rig X
Junk Rig X
Reasoning:
Reasoning: 3 alternatives can be designated ‘Showstoppers’
It’s likely that with two young children aboard, immediately:
there’ll be times when one of the adults will be
sailing the boat while the other attends to the need • Wood because of its maintenance issues,
of the children. • the unstayed mast due to its limitation for club
racing (no spinnaker), and
That person becomes in that instance, a • the B&R rig because of its extreme swept-back
singlehander. spreaders.
Consequently, the Sloop, the Freedom Rig and the
Junk Rig emerge as the simplest rigs for a Keel or deck stepped mast makes little difference for
singlehander to deal with. inshore cruising, but the alloy mast wins over the
composite for ease of maintenance and repair.
But the Freedom Rig (it has an unstayed mast)
can’t fly a spinnaker which makes it less than ideal
for club racing.

Similarly, you won’t collect much silverware on the

club racing circuit with the junk rig!

The sloop stands out as the preferred vessel here.

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7. Displacement Showstoppers 8. Underwater Showstoppers
Configuration
Heavy X Long (full) keel X
Moderate Encapsulated Fin Keel
Light X Fin Keel & Skeg-hung
Rudder
Fin Keel & Spade
Reasoning: Rudder
A heavy displacement boat makes little sense for Lifting
this type of sailing. Keel/Centreboard
Bilge Keel X
Slow and ponderous, it takes a lot of wind or sail Twin Rudders X
area to get one of these moving – and it would be a Deep Draft (more than 6 X
nightmare to wriggle in and out of a tight marina feet)
berth. Shoal Draft (less than 5
ft)
Light displacement might be a little too lively with
two young children – moderation in all things. Reasoning:

A long keel is associated with heavy displacement, so

that’s out.

Creek crawling with a bilge keeler can be risky as, if you

run aground, you’re likely to be there for a while until a
rising tide lifts you off. Also, their high wetted area
(more drag) makes them somewhat pedestrian for round-
the-cans club racing.

Twin rudders get no prop-wash over them, so like long-

keelers, that can be a cause of embarrassment in
marinas.

Deep draft is definitely not preferred for creek crawling.

A shallow draft fin keel with a skeg hung rudder

emerges as the best all round option, although a lifting
keel/centreboard variant would be given due
consideration.

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9. Sail Handling Showstoppers 10. Cockpit Location Showstoppers
Hanked-on headsails X Centre Cockpit X
Roller Furling Aft Cockpit
Headsails
In-Boom Mainsail X
reefing/furling Reasoning:
In-Mast Mainsail X A centre cockpit on a boat of less than 40 feet effectively
reefing/furling splits the accommodation below in two – not ideal if you
Slab reefing main and have two children tucked away in the forepeak with the
lazy-jacks parents isolated in an aft cabin with the only access from
the cockpit.
Reasoning:
No-one wants to get involved with sail changes on a
pitching foredeck these days, so a roller-furling
headsail is the way to go.

Mainsail reefing and furling systems are expensive

and can be unreliable. There’s no case for them
whatsoever on a relatively small boat such as this.
They’re most definitely showstoppers.

The simplicity and reliability of slab reefing and

lazy-jacks makes this mainsail reefing system the
clear favourite.

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11. Steering Showstoppers 12. Drive Train Showstoppers
Wheel Steering Conventional shaft
Tiller Steering Saildrive

Reasoning: Reasoning:
The wheel steering pedestal in the relatively small No preference here, either is acceptable.
cockpit of a 35 footer takes up a lot of space.

At anchor, a tiller can be lifted up out of the way,

maximising the space available for lazing around.

The wheel arrangement is more complex and hence

more likely to fail than the simplicity and directness
of a tiller.

A wheel isn’t a showstopper, but the tiller is

definitely the preferred option.

13. Your Additional Showstoppers

Bowsprit; X
Open Transom; X

Reasoning:
It’s unlikely you’d find a GRP sloop within this
preferred size range with a bowsprit, but if you did,
you wouldn’t want it. It would add considerable
cost to your marina and boatyard fees with little or
no benefit.

An open transom is great for getting rid of a

cockpit full of sea, but not ideal when you’ve got
young children aboard.

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Example 1, Stage 3 – Select Your Preferred Gear & Equipment
14. Gear & Equipment Preferred 14. Gear & Equipment Preferred
(continued)
Air conditioning; Holding Tank; ✓
Autopilot; ✓ Hot/cold pressurised water; ✓
Bowthruster; Outboard crane; ✓
Built-in Generator; Seawater tap in galley;
Built-in Washing Machine; Second head compartment;
Cabin heating; ✓ Shower compartment; ✓
Cockpit shower; Solar panels; ✓
Dinghy davits; Spinnaker/Cruising Chute; ✓
Dorades; Spinnaker/Whisker pole; ✓
Electric anchor windlass; ✓ SSB Radio;
Electric Flush Toilet; Storm sails;
Electric Winch(s); Trysail track;
Folding/Feathering Prop; ✓ Watermaker;
Freezer; Windcharger;
Fridge; ✓ Windvane self-steering;
Granny bars; ✓

So, there you have it. Through a totally logical and pragmatic process these family cruisers have
developed a personal check list of the preferable and desirable attributes of their next sailboat.
They now know what they definitely don’t want and what they do want.
To summarise, in our example the boat they’ll be looking for will be:

• a GRP sloop;
• 30 to 35 feet overall;
• 4 berths minimum;
• Moderate displacement;
• Fin keel and skeg-hung rudder;
• Draft less than 5 feet;
• Roller furling headsail;
• Slab reefing and lazyjacks for the mainsail;
• Aft cockpit;
• Preferably with tiller steering.
Furthermore, their next sailboat will ideally be equipped with:

• Autopilot;
• Cabin heating;
• Electric anchor windlass;
• Folding/Feathering Prop;
• Fridge;
• Granny bars;

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• Holding Tank;
• Hot/cold pressurised water;
• Outboard crane;
• Shower compartment;
• Solar panels;
• Spinnaker/Cruising Chute;
• Spinnaker/Whisker pole;
Armed with this information they’re now ready to start the search for their next sailboat.

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Example 2
Experienced sailing couple, approaching retirement, living on UK’s south coast. They wish to
buy a secondhand sailboat and embark on their dream – crossing the Atlantic Ocean from east
to west and spend 18 months or so exploring the West Indies before returning home to
England. This is how they may complete the checklist, describing their thought process in doing
so.

Example 2, Stage 1: Primary Considerations

A. What will you use the boat for?
Coastal cruising?
Offshore Cruising?
Ocean Cruising?
Living aboard?
Occasional club racing & regattas? X
Occasional chartering to offset costs? X
Reasoning: No racing for this couple, just long-term cruising and living aboard.

B. Who will use it?

Singlehander? X
Skipper plus mate (and occasional guests)?
Full crew? X
Reasoning: Just the two cruisers plus occasional guests. Unlikely to be more than four aboard at any one
time – except for sundowners of course!

C. Where will you be doing most of your sailing?

In the Tropics?
Temperate regions?
High latitudes? X
Reasoning: From the UK via France, Spain, Portugal, Madeira, the Canary Islands followed by the
Atlantic crossing to the West Indies – and back!

D. Where will you keep the boat when you're not using it?
Laid-up ashore?
In a marina? X
Deep water mooring? X
Drying or 'Half Tide' Mooring? X
Reasoning: Will lay the boat up ashore during the hurricane season, returning to the UK for the summer
months.

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Example 2, Stage 2: Eliminate the Unacceptable
1. Hull Material Showstoppers 2. Number of Berths Showstoppers
GRP (Fibreglass) Fewer than 2 X
Steel X Fewer than 4 X
Aluminium Fewer than 6 X
Wood Epoxy X Fewer than 8
Traditional Wood X
Ferro-Cement X Reasoning:
A comfortable double for sleeping at anchor for
Reasoning: themselves, plus another double or two singles for their
Steel and traditional wood require more guests, and two singles, at least one of which will be a
secure seaberth, for passage making.
maintenance than this experienced couple would
want to commit to.
That’s six berths minimum.
They have no intention of investing their cash in a
ferro-cement boat whose condition can’t be properly
established and which would be extremely difficult
to sell on at a later date.

GRP, Aluminium or wood-epoxy would all be

equally acceptable.
But on second thoughts, a wood-epoxy hull is likely
to be a one-off and may be difficult to value and
sell on when their cruising is over.

So, wood-epoxy will go in the ‘Showstopper’

column and they’ll stick with either an aluminium
or GRP hull.

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3. Hull Showstoppers 4. Boat Length Showstoppers
Configuration
Monohull Under 30' X
Catamaran X 30' - 35' X
Trimaran X 35' - 40' X
40' - 45'
Reasoning: 45' - 50'
The living space and stability offered by a 50' - 55' X
catamaran really appeals. over 55' X

But they’re monohull people, with very little Reasoning:

experience of catamarans, and even less of This boat will be their cruising home for a couple of
trimarans. years or so. It needs to be big enough for all of their gear
and that of their occasional guests, together with all the
They’re very conscious of the fact that a capsized boat spares and equipment as a voyage such as this one
multihull stays that way, rather than the self- requires. Full standing headroom throughout is a must.
righting ability of a properly designed ocean cruising
monohull. A second head compartment too is a must-have, as much
for the redundancy it offers as for the convenience of their
A monohull it has to be. guests.

They believe that they’ll need a boat between 40 and 45

feet overall to achieve this level of accommodation,
although if a slightly bigger one is on offer at a price they
can afford, they’d certainly consider it.

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5. Type of Rig Showstoppers 6. Mast & Spars Showstoppers
Sloop X Aluminium
Cutter Composite X
Ketch X Wood X
Yawl X Deck stepped X
Schooner X Keel stepped
Freedom Rig X Unstayed X
Gaff Rig X B&R rig X
Junk Rig X
Reasoning:
Reasoning: They don’t much care for the B&R rig due to the
They don’t want a gaff rig or a junk for ocean likelihood of the 30oswept-back spreaders chafing the
cruising – they just don’t! mainsail when running downwind.
But they do want a fully stayed rig, so that’s the
Freedom Rig out of the equation too. The unstayed rig is also a showstopper as they don’t have
confidence in its reliability.
The additional cost and maintenance of the two-
masted ketch, yawl and schooner rigs don’t attract Wood they don’t want because of the maintenance
them either. requirement and they don’t want the expense of repairing
a composite mast.
The simplicity of the sloop is attractive, but with
just a single headsail, when heavily reefed its shape Clearly, an aluminium mast it is, preferably keel
gets pretty baggy. stepped for robustness.

But their preference is for the cutter. The staysail

would be hanked-on making it easily
interchangeable for a storm jib, should one be
needed. And for reaching between the islands of the
West Indies the robustness and adaptability of the
cutter rig is ideal.

The downside of the cutter though is the

requirement for running backstays (or more
accurately ‘checkstays’).

But then, in the north-east tradewinds of the

Eastern Caribbean, there shouldn’t be much of a
requirement for short-tacking.

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7. Displacement Showstoppers 8. Underwater Showstoppers

Configuration
Heavy X Long (full) keel X
Moderate Encapsulated Fin Keel
Light X Fin Keel & Skeg-hung
Rudder
Fin Keel & Spade Rudder X
Reasoning: Lifting Keel/Centreboard X
Although heavy displacement boats are popular for Bilge Keel X
ocean sailing (albeit less so now than they once Twin Rudders X
were) there’s no getting away from the fact that they Deep Draft (more than 6
are slow. feet)
Shoal Draft (less than 5 ft) X
A heavy displacement plodder would add several
days to the Atlantic crossing. Similarly, with the Reasoning:
Caribbean Islands being about a daylight sail A long keel is associated with heavy displacement, so
apart, you could well end up arriving in the dark that’s out.
more often than not.
Spade rudders are inherently less robust than skeg-hung
With all the gear and equipment necessary for a rudders so they are unacceptable.
voyage such as this one, a light displacement boat
would be heavily weighed down and lose much of its Twin rudders are usually of the spade design so they’ve
performance. gone too.

Moderate displacement is definitely the way to go They think a lifting keel is an unnecessary complication
here! for ocean cruising – just something else to go wrong!

Bilge keels - why?

With no keel bolts to worry about an encapsulated fin

keel and a skeg-hung rudder is the preferred choice here.

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9. Sail Handling Showstoppers 10. Cockpit Location Showstoppers
Hanked-on headsails X Centre Cockpit
Roller Furling Aft Cockpit X
Headsails
In-Boom Mainsail X
reefing/furling Reasoning:
In-Mast Mainsail X Centre-cockpit sailboats of 40 feet and over generally
reefing/furling have sumptuous aft cabins. They’re useless in a seaway
Slab reefing main and of course but with a couple of seaberths available that’s
lazy-jacks not an issue.

Reasoning: With many nights to be spent peacefully at anchor, for

No-one wants to get involved with sail changes on this cruising couple a centre-cockpit sailboat it has to be.
a pitching foredeck these days, so a roller-furling
headsail is the way to go.

The prospect of a partially furled mainsail jammed

inside the mast or boom on a dark and stormy
night is not a pleasant one.

Our experienced cruising couple won’t have in-

boom or in-mast mainsail furling systems at any
price.

The simplicity and reliability of slab reefing and

lazy-jacks makes this mainsail reefing system the
clear favourite.

11. Steering Showstoppers 12. Drive Train Showstoppers

Wheel Steering Conventional shaft
Tiller Steering X Saildrive X

Reasoning: Reasoning:
Having stated a preference for a centre-cockpit, This crew is risk averse. Why chance a leak around the
you’re left with no choice but wheel steering. saildrive seal and the possibility of galvanic corrosion?

13. Your Additional Showstoppers

Teak decks: X

Reasoning:
The tropic sun can play havoc with teak decks.
They look attractive but require a high degree of
maintenance.

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Example 2, Stage 3 – Select Your Preferred Gear & Equipment

14. Gear & Equipment Preferred 14. Gear & Equipment Preferred
(continued)
Air conditioning; Holding Tank; ✓
Autopilot; ✓ Hot/cold pressurised water; ✓
Bowthruster; Outboard crane; ✓
Built-in Generator; ✓ Seawater tap in galley; ✓
Built-in Washing Machine; ✓ Second head compartment; ✓
Cabin heating; Shower compartment; ✓
Cockpit shower; ✓ Solar panels; ✓
Dinghy davits; ✓ Spinnaker/Cruising Chute; ✓
Dorades; ✓ Spinnaker/Whisker pole; ✓
Electric anchor windlass; ✓ SSB Radio; ✓
Electric Flush Toilet; Storm sails; ✓
Electric Winch(s); Trysail track; ✓
Folding/Feathering Prop; ✓ Watermaker; ✓
Freezer; ✓ Windcharger; ✓
Fridge; ✓ Windvane self-steering; ✓
Granny bars; ✓

So, through this totally logical and pragmatic process our experienced cruising couple developed
a personal check list of the preferable and desirable attributes of their next sailboat.
To summarise, in our example the boat they’ll be looking for will be:

• GRP or aluminium, moderate displacement, centre-cockpit cutter around 45 ft overall;

• Separate sleeping accommodation for two couples, plus two single berths at least one of
which must be a secure seaberth;
• Aluminium, keel-stepped mast;
• Fin keel (preferably encapsulated) and skeg-hung rudder;
• Furling headsails, slab reefing mainsail;
• Conventional Drive shaft;
• No teak decks!
Ideally their new boat will have the following items and equipment:

• Autopilot;
• Built-in Generator;
• Built-in Washing Machine;
• Cockpit shower;
• Dinghy davits;
• Dorades;
• Electric anchor windlass;
• Folding/Feathering Prop;

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• Freezer;
• Fridge;
• Granny bars;
• Holding Tank;
• Hot/cold pressurised water;
• Outboard crane;
• Seawater tap in galley;
• Second head compartment;
• Shower compartment;
• Solar panels;
• Spinnaker/Cruising Chute;
• Spinnaker/Whisker pole;
• SSB Radio;
• Storm sails;
• Trysail track;
• Watermaker;
• Windcharger;
• Windvane self-steering;
Now they know what they want – and what they don’t want – they can start searching for their
next sailboat.

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Appendix 1, Draft Sailboat Checklist
Stage 1: Primary Considerations
A. What will you use the boat for?
Coastal cruising?
Offshore Cruising?
Ocean Cruising?
Living aboard?
Occasional club racing & regattas?
Occasional chartering to offset costs?
Remember we’re in elimination mode here, so mark those that definitely don’t apply with an
‘X’, and leave blank those that just might.

B. Who will use it?

Singlehander?
Skipper plus mate (and occasional guests)?
Full crew?
Even singlehanders have occasional guests, and some competitive cruising couples may need
additional crew for club racing and regattas - so be careful what you eliminate here.

C. Where will you be doing most of your sailing?

In the Tropics?
Temperate regions?
High latitudes?
What’s it to be? Palm trees and parrots, polar bears and penguins, or somewhere in between?
A singlehander I know voyages from the south coast of England to the Caribbean and back
every year! He would only discard item 3 - probably.

D. Where will you keep the boat when you're not using it?
Laid-up ashore?
In a marina?
Deep water mooring?
Drying or 'Half Tide' Mooring?
Item 4 will only apply to those harbours and estuaries that experience a considerable tidal
range, where such moorings are usually available at a fraction of the cost of any other place to
park your boat.

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Stage 2: Eliminate the Unacceptable (the ‘Showstoppers’)
1. Hull Material Showstoppers
GRP (Fibreglass)
Steel
Aluminium
Wood Epoxy
Traditional Wood
Ferro-Cement
If you eliminated all but 'High Latitudes' in 'B', then you'll clearly be aware of the risks of
bouncing off icebergs and are likely to eliminate all but steel or aluminium hulls. And few
sailors in the process of choosing a cruising boat are likely to leave ferro-cement as an
acceptable option.

2. Number of Berths Showstoppers

Fewer than 2
Fewer than 4
Fewer than 6
Fewer than 8
Largely based on your response to items 'A' and 'B' of Stage 1: Primary Considerations.
If Offshore and Ocean Sailing remain as options, then you need to consider the number of sea
berths you'll need for off-watch crew.

3. Hull Configuration Showstoppers

Monohull
Catamaran
Trimaran
Most of us have a personal leaning towards either monohulls or multihulls and no amount of
persuasion from the other camp will get us to change our minds.
Marinas ('D' above) and multihulls are not natural bedfellows - expect to pay at least one-and-
a-half times as much as you would to pay for a monohull of similar length.
But multihulls, particularly catamarans, can make a deal of sense in places like the Caribbean
where free anchorages abound - and where you might want to charter your catamaran when
you're not using it.

4. Boat Length Showstoppers

Under 30'
30' - 35'
35' - 40'
40' - 45'
45' - 50'
50' - 55'
over 55'
At this point you should be able to eliminate all those size ranges that are too small to meet
your requirements. Now eliminate those that are just too big – the Showstoppers.
You should be left with one - or at the most, two - size ranges.

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5. Type of Rig Showstoppers

Bermudan Sloop
Solent Rig
Cutter
Ketch
Yawl
Schooner
Freedom Rig
Gaff Rig
Junk Rig
Masthead Rig
Fractional Rig
Eliminate any rigs here that are unlikely to satisfy your remaining options in Section 'A' of
Stage 1: Primary Considerations.

6. Mast & Spars Showstoppers

Aluminium
Composite
Wood
Deck stepped
Keel stepped
Unstayed
B&R rig
You’re unlikely to want the maintenance involved with a wooden mast unless it’s already on a
wooden boat.
The B&R rig has 30o swept-back spreaders which avoids the need for a backstay, but can
create chafe on the mainsail when running downwind.
Unstayed masts are usually seen on Catboats and Freedom rigs.

7. Displacement Showstoppers
Heavy
Moderate
Light
As a general rule for monohulls, heavy means comfortable and slow, light means a livelier
motion but quicker.
If you eliminated monohulls in Section 3 you have no choice here. All multihulls are, by
design, light displacement.

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8. Underwater Configuration Showstoppers

Long (full) keel
Encapsulated Fin Keel
Fin Keel & Skeg-hung Rudder
Fin Keel & Spade Rudder
Lifting Keel/Centreboard
Bilge Keel
Twin Rudders
Deep Draft (more than 6 feet)
Shoal Draft (less than 5 ft)
If your boat is going to spend much of its time in a marina, then be aware that a long-keeler -
with manoeuvrability characteristics akin to those of a shopping trolley - can be an
embarrassment.
Bilge-keelers are a peculiarly British thing. There are only two reasons for having one, and
that's to take advantage of the lower cost of half-tide moorings as in D4, or perhaps you enjoy
being left high-and-dry on the beach when the tide goes out. If D4 was eliminated, you should
seriously consider eliminating bilge-keelers too.
Twin rudders work well in a seaway, where the leeward one digs deeper below the surface.
Manoeuvring in a marina though, where the propwash passes between them, it’s a different
story.

9. Sail Handling Showstoppers

Hanked-on headsails
Roller Furling Headsails
In-Boom Mainsail reefing/furling
In-Mast Mainsail reefing/furling
Slab reefing main and lazy-jacks
No-one wants to get involved with sail changes on a pitching foredeck these days, so a roller-
furling headsail is the way to go.
Mainsail reefing and furling systems are expensive and difficult to fix if something goes wrong.
Slab reefing and lazy-jacks is a simple, reliable and inexpensive system and easy to fix if
something goes wrong.

10. Cockpit Location Showstoppers

Centre Cockpit
Aft Cockpit
In my opinion, centre cockpits are seldom a success on boats smaller than 40 feet or so.
The sensation is one of sitting on the boat rather than in it, and the access to the aft cabin is
often somewhat tortuous.
Larger centre cockpit boats usually sport a sumptuous aft cabin.

11. Steering Showstoppers

Wheel Steering
Tiller Steering
The fashion these days is for a wheel - sometimes two of them - but on a well-balanced, aft
cockpit boat smaller than 45 feet or so, a tiller can be a joy to use. But think carefully about
eliminating a wheel, as you'll be eliminating a lot of good cruising boats with it. And if you've
also eliminated an aft cockpit in 9, then you'll be left with no boat to choose from at all!

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12. Drive Train Showstoppers

Conventional shaft
Saildrive
Sailboat manufacturers like saildrives as they eliminate any issues with engine/shaft alignment.
But there can be problems with galvanic corrosion, and do you really want to rely on a rubber
gaiter to seal the aperture around the drive unit?

13. Your Additional Showstoppers Showstoppers

Here’s where you add your own additional showstoppers that don’t appear in the previous
tables 1 through 12. For example, you might have an absolute aversion to teak decks, as I
would if I wanted a boat for the tropics.
Similarly, you might not want to pay marinas and boatyards the additional costs that a
bowsprit would incur.

Stage 3 – Select Your Preferred Gear & Equipment

14. Gear & Equipment Preferred 14. Gear & Equipment Preferred
(continued)
Air conditioning Holding Tank
Autopilot Hot/cold pressurised water
Bowthruster Inverter/Charger
Built-in Generator Outboard crane
Built-in Washing Machine Seawater tap in galley
Cabin heating Second head compartment
Calorifier Shore power circuit
Cockpit shower Shower compartment
Dinghy davits Solar panels
Dorades Spinnaker/Cruising Chute
Electric anchor windlass Spinnaker/Whisker pole
Electric Flush Toilet SSB Radio
Electric Winch(s) Storm sails
Folding/Feathering Prop Trysail track
Freezer Watermaker
Fridge Windcharger
Granny bars Windvane self-steering

Here you mark as preferred those items you’d like to see on your next sailboat, the inference
being that if they weren’t already on her, you’d need to buy and install them.

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Appendix 2: Displacement - Heavy, Medium or
Light for Cruising?
The displacement of a sailboat is defined as the weight of the volume of water it displaces when
afloat.
But a sailboat's displacement doesn't mean much unless compared to its waterline length, so you
need to take a look at the Displacement/Length Ratio to compare the relative heaviness of boats
no matter what their size:

Displacement/Length Ratios:
• Under 90 - Ultralight;
• 90 to 180 - Light;
• 180 to 270 - Moderate;
• 270 to 360 - Heavy;
• 360 and over - Ultraheavy;
In the early days of sailboat cruising, heavy displacement hull forms were the only choice for
long-distance offshore cruising, solely because light materials for the hulls, spars, rigging and all
the other fittings and equipment that go to make up a sailboat just weren't available.
These days, with the advent of exotic composite laminates and lightweight fittings, super-strong
and ultra-light displacement hull forms are regularly seen crossing the world's oceans.
But there are plenty of sailors around that still favour the easy motion of heavy displacement
hulls for offshore cruising, cheerfully conceding the extra days spent at sea for the benefit of
increased comfort in rough seas.
Let’s take a look at the strengths and weaknesses that each one - from ultra-heavy to ultra-light
displacement hull types - has to offer.

Heavy and Ultra-Heavy Displacement Hulls

With Displacement/Length ratios of 360 plus, ultra-heavy displacement hull styles have fewer
devotees these days, though for passionate cruising traditionalists it's de rigueur. Heavy
displacement sailboats of this type will have a full (or long) keel, which will bring with it some
benefits - and some significant limitations.
In light winds, a boat of this type will sail slowly - if at all - due to the hull drag caused by its high
wetted area and the power required to shift its massive weight.
It will only just be getting into its stride when other more moderate types are taking in reefs.
To counteract the hull-drag caused by the surface area more sail area is required, so to enable the
boat to stand up more ballast is needed, which is why long-keelers need to be heavy and why
they are often underpowered.

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When heeled, the general symmetry of the immersed hull section will mean they should remain
well balanced at high heel angles, but the barn door proportions of their unbalanced rudders and
the fact that they are often raked off the vertical make them heavy on the helm at all times.
With their shallow draft, protected propeller and rudder these boats will take the ground well,
and should breeze over floating ropes and nets without problem.

Fig 1: A Westsail 32 - Ultra-Heavy at SA/D ratio of 419

The high load carrying capacity of heavy displacement hulls will be greatly appreciated by live-
aboard sailors, which together with their other attributes will probably make them best suited for
those sailors with ambitions to spend much of their time offshore in remote areas of the world.
But for those of us who are more inclined to spend our time island hopping in the Caribbean
and Mediterranean, and cruising offshore in Europe and the USA their sluggish performance will
make them less attractive.

A Moderate Displacement Hull

Moderate displacement sailboats are a natural development of the heavy displacement hull types,
with a moderate length fin keel and a separate rudder which is either transom hung or supported
on a skeg.
On GRP boats, the fin keel may be part of the hull moulding and have its ballast encapsulated
within. This avoids the need for keel bolts, and the corrosion and security issues often associated
with them.
Although still on the heavy side by modern standards, with a Displacement/Length Ratio of
around 300, this type remains a firm favourite with many long-distance cruisers.
Performance, whilst not of the 'ocean greyhound' nature, should be adequate in most conditions
and owing to the separation of keel and rudder, manoeuvrability under both power and sail will
be much improved.

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For a given Sail Area/Displacement ratio her sail area will be less than for the heavy
displacement type, making her easy to handle for a small crew. Directional stability and balance
will be dependent on the quality of the design, and there's no reason why both shouldn't be
excellent.

Fig 2: Malo 45, Medium Displacement with SA/D of 234

Light Displacement Hull

Driven partially by the need for economy in a competitive market - lighter means less material -
and an increasing demand for better performance, more and more yachts are falling into this
category.
Typically, with a Displacement/Length Ratio of around 200, a modern light displacement
production boat - often dubbed a 'cruiser/racer' - will sport a medium aspect ratio fin keel'. The
rudder will be either transom hung, or be supported by a short skeg, or be a cantilevered spade
type. The underwater shape will be dinghy-like, with minimal overhangs at bow and stern to
maximise waterline length.
A lot of ballast is clearly not an option for a light displacement boat so much of its stability is
gained through increased beam.
This means that when excessively heeled the asymmetry of the immersed hull sections coupled
with the broad beam carried well aft can make them hard on the helm.
Much is to be gained by reefing these boats early and sailing them fairly flat. Performance will be
brisk in nearly all conditions, especially off the wind, when hull speed may well be exceeded with
a light displacement hull of this type.

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Sailing hard on the wind in vigorous conditions will be less comfortable than in a heavier
displacement craft. The flatter forward sections can tend to pound, and the ride is likely to be on
the lively side.
Apart from beating to windward in heavy weather they are a delight to sail, pointing high and
tacking through the wind with ease - and passage times shouldn't be disappointing.

Fig 3: A J46, Light Displacement with SA/D of 161

Handling under power, both ahead and astern, will be good. Except, that is, when at low speed
in a crosswind.
The load-carrying capacity of smaller light-displacement boats can be a concern. Clearly if you
load, say, 1,500lb of stores and equipment on a 25ft boat with a Displacement/Length Ratio of
200 it will have a greater effect than if you loaded the same amount onto a forty footer of the
same Displacement/Length Ratio. The 25 footer's Displacement/Length Ratio would increase
to 242 and the forty footer's to 210 - obviously a more performance-sapping penalty for the
smaller boat.

Ultra-Light Displacement Hull

These ultra-light displacement boats (ULDBs) are probably at least one step too far for the vast
majority of offshore cruising sailors. Sharing many of the characteristics of the previous category
but more so, these will be beamier, lighter and deeper drafted. Keels will be high-aspect ratio and
of such depth to prevent anchoring anywhere near the beach. Performance in the right
conditions though will be awesome.

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These types will readily unstick themselves from the limitations of hull speed and plane like
dinghies, and it should come as no surprise that Ted Brewer's comfort ratio isn't high on the list
of design considerations.
To build such a light displacement hull whilst making her sufficiently strong calls for exotic
materials and hi-tech building techniques, both of which come with a high price. So much so
that cruising versions are generally owned by people with Lamborghinis, and backyards the size
of Regents Park.
Optimum performance, handling and comfort can't all be found at the same place on the sliding
scale of displacement.
Displacement, or more accurately the Displacement/Length Ratio has a greater influence on the
way in which a boat behaves in a given set of conditions than any other parameter, and should
be a crucial consideration for a prospective buyer.
Whilst boats at the heavy end will have a more comfortable motion, passage times will be slower
and handling more cumbersome. At the other end, the blistering performance of a ULDB will
shake your fillings loose.
Somewhere though, between these two extremes, lays your ideal heavy/light displacement hull
compromise.

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Appendix 3: The Sloop Rig
A single-masted sailboat with just two sails — a foresail (aka headsail or jib) and a mainsail — is
a sloop, the purest type of sailboat.
The sloop rig can also be described as a Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig or Marconi rig.
For ultimate windward performance,
nothing beats a deep-fin keeled
sailing sloop with a tall, high aspect
ratio Bermuda rig (also known as a
Marconi rig).
Low aspect ratio sails are short and
squat while high aspect ones are tall
and narrow, or long and narrow like
the wings on a high-performance
sailplane.
But unlike sailplanes - which, being
unrestrained by land or water, are
always heading directly into the
apparent wind - we sailors aren't
always beating to windward. In fact,
most of us go to some lengths to
avoid it if we can.
Very high aspect ratio sloop rigs are
only really appropriate for racing
sailboats, where windward
performance is vital for success.
Such rigs rapidly lose their efficiency Fig 4: The moderately rigged masthead sloop Westerly Centaur 26
when even slightly off the wind,
which is why successful racing sailboats carry an extensive sail wardrobe with sails to cater for all
conditions.
This is a route we cruising sailboaters don't want to go down, so the extreme versions of sloops
aren't for the likes of us, particularly as we may have difficulty getting eight crew members to sit
out when going to windward...
Sailing sloops with moderate rigs though, are probably the most popular of all cruising sailboats.
With just a single mast, two sails (a foresail or headsail, and a mainsail) and the minimum of
rigging and sail control lines they are relatively simple to operate and less expensive than two-
masted ketch rigs.
There are two sailing sloop variants - masthead rigs (like the Westerly Centaur above) and
fractional rigs.

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Masthead Rigged Sloops
The masthead sloop is the simpler rig of the two, with the forestay attached at the top of the
mast. Foresails of various sizes can be set on the forestay, from small 'working' jibs through to
large 130% deck-sweeping genoas.
Incidentally, foresails are called jibs if the clew of the sail doesn't reach farther aft than the mast
and genoas when it does. So, the 'luff perpendicular' of a 130% genoa is 30% longer than the
distance between the mast and the stemhead - known as the 'J' measurement.
Deck-sweeping genoas such as these create a wide blind-spot off the leeward bow. Unwanted
surprises and chance encounters will be far fewer if the clew is cut higher, providing forward
visibility from the cockpit under the foot of the sail.
Nowadays however, the headsail is set on a furling gear, with the mainsail being either slab-
reefed or equipped with in-mast or in-boom furling gear.

Fractionally Rigged Sailing Sloops

With the fractional rig the forestay is attached at a point further down the mast, leaving the top
section of the mast unsupported from forward. To maintain sail area the smaller jib is
compensated by a larger main, which provides the following benefits:

• In rising winds, the largest and most powerful sail is usually reefed first. On a fractional
rig this is the mainsail. It's much easier and quicker to reef the mainsail than change the
jib - though that's not the case if you have a sailing sloop with a roller reefing headsail.
• With the shorter hoist spinnakers are smaller and easier to control than the larger ones
flown on masthead sloops.
• Downwind the larger main gives more drive, and it's not so important if the smaller jib is
blanketed by it.
• By tensioning the backstay, the mast is deflected forward in the middle sections,
flattening the mainsail, and thus maintaining drive whilst reducing heeling moment.
And of course, there are downsides. The primary one is the requirement for running backstays to
tension the forestay and keep the mast in column. These must be properly handled during
tacking and jibing or you risk damaging, or even losing, the mast.

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Fig 5: A fractional rigged Bavaria 44 sloop

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Appendix 4: The Cutter Rig
The cutter has two jibs, the foremost one usually a high-cut yankee set on the forestay and the
other a staysail set on an inner forestay. It's a flexible, easy to handle rig, which is why so many
cruising sailors are such fans of it.

Fig 6: The Valiant 40 cutter

Admittedly a cutter rigged sailboat is not quite as efficient to windward as a sloop rigged version,
but its other benefits outweigh this small mark against it.
Often both foresails are on furling gears, but I prefer to have a furling gear on the forestay only
so that I can get rid of the hanked-on staysail and replace it with a hanked-on storm jib if I need
to.
The inner forestay (or cutter stay) exerts a forward load on the mast which has to be resisted.
This is usually achieved by either aft-intermediate stays or running backstays.

Types of Cutter Rigs

There are two variants of the cutter rig.
One, like the Valiant 40 above, where the whole rig is contained inboard.
The other incorporates a bowsprit. This arrangement is normally found on heavy displacement
sailboats, as a way of increasing the size of the fore triangle without having to extend the height
of the mast.

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Fig 7: A Bayfield 40 cutter, with the yankee set on the forestay rigged to the end of the bowsprit.

Off the Wind with a Cutter

On a reach you'll find it very easy to balance your sailboat perfectly with a cutter rig, such that
the windvane self-steering gear will have no difficulty in keeping her on course.
But when the wind drops and falls well aft of the beam the staysail (now blanketed by the
mainsail) starts to flap and disturbs any airflow into the yankee - you're effectively sailing under
mainsail alone.
With a sloop you'd probably pole the genoa out to windward in these conditions and sail wing-
and-wing.
This isn't really an option with the cutter rig as you'd be under-canvassed with just a yankee set
on the forestay - you'll need a spinnaker, a prospect that doesn't fill some sailboat cruisers' hearts
with joy.
Alternatively, you could turn your cutter into a slutter...

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The Slutter Rig
Slutter isn't a formal term - it sounds a bit derogatory - but most cruising sailors will know what's
meant by it.

Fig 8: The 'Slutter'

It's so called because it's a combination of a sloop rig and a cutter rig, the crucial difference being
that a furling genoa is set on the forestay in place of the yankee, but no staysail is set (initially) on
the inner forestay. This is effectively a sloop rig at this point, so windward ability isn't
compromised at all, and the genoa can be poled out when sailing downwind.
The inner forestay is likely to prevent the genoa blowing through smoothly when you go about,
so it's best to roll it in a few turns before you go through the wind.

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Appendix 5: Ketches and Yawls
It's easy to confuse a ketch sailboat with a yawl so perhaps we should clear that up before we go
any further. Both are two-masted rigs with a mainmast foremost and a smaller mizzen mast aft.
It's generally accepted that the difference between the two types comes down to the location of
the mast in relation to the rudder post. In a yawl the mizzen mast is aft of the rudder post and in
the ketch, it's forward.
But the real difference is one of purpose. The mizzen on a yawl is intended to help trim the boat,
in capable hands giving them the ability to follow a compass course despite minor wind shifts.
This was a very handy feature in the days when commercial fishing was done under sail, but
these days efficient autopilots and navigation aids have made this less important and the yawl has
generally fallen out of favour.
Although you'll see many ketches with a triatic backstay tensioned between the two mastheads,
each mast should be stayed individually.
Whilst this stay is ideally placed to act as an insulated SSB radio aerial, in the event of the loss of
one mast it's almost guaranteed to result in the loss of the other.

Fig 9: An Allied Princess 36 Ketch - the mizzen is forward of the rudder post

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The Mizzen Sail on a Yawl or Ketch
The mizzen sail of a ketch is larger than that of a yawl and is there to add drive. And so it does -
off the wind. On the wind though, the mizzen is likely to add nothing but drag, being back-
winded most of the time by the mainsail.
In these conditions the mizzen sail may as well be dropped, at which point the ketch becomes in
effect an under-canvassed sloop.

Fig 10: A Hinkley 42 Yawl - the mizzen mast is aft of the rudder post. Note the mizzen staysail.

The Mizzen Staysail

Off the wind a ketch is at its most efficient, particularly so if cutter rigged and with a mizzen
staysail set.
That's the sail set between the head of the mizzen mast and the foot of the main mast.
But all the additional hardware - mizzen mast, sails, winches, standing and running rigging -
comes with a considerable cost burden.
But there are benefits to be had from a split rig of a ketch:

• First, they offer greater flexibility for sail reduction, allowing a jib and mizzen
configuration in strong winds;
• secondly, at anchor where with the mizzen set as a steadying sail, the boat will lay
comfortably head-to-wind.

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The Staysail Ketch

Fig 11: A Reliant 49 Staysail Ketch

A staysail ketch will carry the following suit of working sails:

• jib;
• staysail;
• mainsail;
• mizzen staysail;
• mizzen;
A cruising sloop of a similar size has only two sails to make up the same sail area, which would
be considerably more difficult for a short-handed crew to handle.
Although they're not the best choice for windward sailing, the ketch can make an ideal cruising
sailboat.
Lastly, the mizzen mast on a ketch sailboat provides an ideal place to mount your radar scanner
and wind generator. And as one old sea-dog once told me, it’s a convenient thing to lean against
when you're smoking your pipe.

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Appendix 6: The Freedom Rig
Freedom Rigs (also known as Cat Boats) are instantly recognizable by their tapered masts and
total absence of standing rigging. There's nothing new about free-standing rigs though; they've
been around for thousands of years - the Chinese Junk being the best-known example.
But we have Gary Hoyt to thank for developing these sailboats for modern day cruising boats.
Hoyt, a former Finn Olympian and Sunfish World Champion, recognised that free-standing rigs
would be just as successful on cruising sailboats as they were on his racing dinghies, and set out
to prove it.
1977 saw the launch of Hoyt's Freedom
40 cat ketch, of which more than 90 have
been produced to date.
Hoyt's early version had aluminium
masts, but the development of carbon
fibre spars combining strength, stiffness
and light weight enabled these sailboat
designs to be brought really up to date.
All unstayed masts are keel-stepped as
they rely entirely on the cantilever thus
provided by the deck for support.
The mast is subjected to bending moment
only, with none of the compressive forces
that a stayed mast has to withstand.
The flexibility of the rig means that it's
impossible to get sufficient forestay
tension to support a conventional jib, so
any such sail is likely to be a blade type
set up on a fractionally rigged forestay.

Fig 12: The Freedom 40 Cat Ketch. Note no headsails.

More often than not headsails are dispensed with altogether and a single-masted cat rig or ketch
rig used - the Freedom 40 being a notable example.
Either conventional booms or wishbone rigs are used to support the clew of the sail. The
wishbone rig greatly reduces the risk of head injury from an accidental gybe - a valuable safety
feature indeed on cruising sailboats of any kind.
Aerodynamically this rig is very clean - few yachtsmen will lament the loss of the rigging-induced
whining when it starts to blow, but it does mean there's less to grab hold of when up on deck.

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Fig 13: A Nonsuch 30 Cat Boat with a Wishbone Rig

Advantages of Unstayed Rigs:

• Absence of shrouds and stays means less weight aloft;
• Low centre of effort produces less heeling moment than a conventional rig;
• Flexible unstayed mast bends in strong gusts, flattening sail and de-powering it;
• Ease of tacking and jibing - just change course and the sail will flop over onto the other
side of the boat without any drama;
• Running downwind is similarly stress free, with one sail out to port and the other to
starboard. If the wind pipes up both sails can be eased forward, spilling the wind and
steadying the boat.

Disadvantages?
It's often said that they're less efficient to windward than the Marconi Rig (the Bermudan Sloop)
- although this is contested by most of their owners - but off the wind they make up for it.
Seen alongside the complexity of a conventionally rigged sailboat, it's easy to imagine that the
unstayed rigs of cat ketch sailboats represent the future for cruising sailboat designs.

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Appendix 7: The Solent Rig
It’s possible to confuse the Solent Rig with the Cutter Rig - after all, they both have two
headsails.

• The cutter has its two headsails set well apart with the inner stay attached a distance
down from the masthead and aft of the stemhead.
• On a solent rigged sailboat, the headsails are set much closer together with both stays
attached close to the masthead and the stemhead.
But of course there's rather more to it than that, each of the two rigs having significant benefits
and disadvantages when compared to the other. Let's take a look at them...

The Cutter Rig

Unlike the solent rig, both sails are intended to be flown at the same time. Usually the jib will be
a high-cut yankee and the smaller staysail will have a lower clew catching the wind that would
otherwise escape below the yankee.

Benefits

• With both headsails set, the boat can be tacked without the need to furl the jib.
• In high winds, the yankee can be furled completely leaving the staysail set with a deeply
reefed main. Many fin-keel cutters reefed down like this will heave-to satisfactorily,
whereas they're much less likely to with a partially rolled jib on the forestay.
• The lower combined centre of effort of two smaller sails when compared to that of a
larger single sail produces a lower heeling moment. Translation - a cutter sails more
upright!
Disadvantages

• Hard on the wind, the jib stalls the staysail, leaving you with two options. Either drop the
staysail or bear off the wind a little.
• Downwind, the staysail will blanket the jib and has to be dropped, leaving a relatively
small jib to power the boat.
• Running backstays must be set up to resist the forward pull on the mast by the inner
forestay. Alternatively, aft intermediate stays could be incorporated in the standing
rigging.

The Solent Rig

The Solent Rig is quite different from the Cutter Rig in as much as it's effectively a sloop with
two different sized headsails on separate in-line stays - usually set on furlers.
You fly one sail or the other - not both at the same time as with the cutter rig.

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Fig 14: Solent Rig fitted on a Westerly Oceanlord 41. The working jib is set and the genoa remains furled.
Benefits

• You have a choice of headsails. Typically, the forward sail could be a 140% genoa for use
as an offwind/reaching sail and the aft one a 100% working jib for windward work.
• Having said earlier that you fly one sail or the other, I'll immediately contradict myself by
saying that you can sail dead downwind 'wing-and-wing' with one sail poled out to port
and the other poled out to starboard. You certainly can't do that effectively with a cutter.
• With both stays attached close to the top of the mast, there's no need for running
backstays, swept-back spreaders or aft intermediates as there is with the cutter.

Disadvantages

• You can't tack the forward sail through the gap between it and the one behind it - you
have to furl it away completely before hauling it out again when you've gone through the
wind.
• Hard on the wind, the furled sail disrupts the airflow over the working sail, reducing
performance.
• With the forestay tension shared between two stays, the luff of the sail may fall away
more than you'd want it to, also reducing windward performance.
The Solent Rig is not just seen on sloops. You’ll also find them on ketches, yawls and schooners
– and cutters!

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Going One Step Further…

Fig 15: The Solent Rig - Why stop at two?

If the sailboat is big enough you can extend the Solent Rig to provide more options. On this
large light displacement cruiser, they’ll have the choice of:
1. A Code Zero;
2. A Genoa;
3. A Working Jib.

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Appendix 8: The Schooner Rig
Like the ketch and the yawl, the schooner has a split rig. That is to say that the sail area is divided
between two masts, rather than crowded together on a single mast as it is with sloops and
cutters.
Unlike ketches and yawls where the mizzen mast is always shorter than the main mast, the
foremast on a schooner is either shorter than (or sometimes the same height) as the mainmast.

Fig 16: A Frans Maas 50 Staysail Schooner. Note the boomed staysail and the triatic stay between the two
mastheads.
Under full sail, the schooner is a magnificent sight, particularly so when on a reach where they
are at their best.

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Beating to windward though is not a schooners best point of sail, as the turbulent ‘dirty’ air
flowing off the foresails decreases the efficiency of the mizzen sail.
Clearly the further apart the are masts, the better the windward performance as the mizzen sail
will operate in cleaner air. For this reason, schooners are normally in excess of 45 feet or so on
deck.
They’re expensive too, both to build and maintain.
Compared to sloops, cutters and ketches there are far fewer schooners cruising the oceans so
you may have difficulty finding one on the secondhand boat market.

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Appendix 9: Catamarans for Cruising?
With accommodation in both hulls and the central structure, catamaran sailboats have certainly
got ample space below to make good cruising homes - but not all of them make good long-term
cruising sailboats.
And catamarans work better in some parts of the world than others. In the Caribbean for
example, where they're very popular, safe leeward anchorages abound - so there's little reason to
tie up in expensive marinas.
In other parts where safe anchorages are not so easy to find, mooring your catamaran in a marina
can be pretty expensive. Expect to pay double what you'd pay for a monohull of similar length
overall.

Fig 17: A Charter Catamaran – the Lagoon 42

Charterers though, looking for a spacious floating home for a few weeks that doesn't heel over,
love them.
And herein lies the problem with most, but not all, production catamarans...
Their ability to sail upright, together with their commodious accommodation makes them very
attractive to the bareboat charter market.
The temptation is for the catamaran manufacturer to pander more to the lucrative charter market
than the prospective cruising owner, and maximise accommodation - and hence the income for
the charter company - to the detriment of everything else.
Three separate cabins, each with a double berth, is the norm in a 38 foot catamaran sailboat
designed for chartering.
Catamaran manufacturers often make two versions of the same model – a Charter version and
an Owners version. If you’re looking for one solely for personal use, then the owners version is
for you.

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Unlike a monohull, these double berths stay reasonably flat and level when underway, so
individual seaberths with leecloths aren't necessary.
In catamarans of this type, the bridgedeck is often set low to provide standing headroom in the
saloon, when it would be better set higher to enable waves to pass unhindered beneath it.

Fig 18: Great for living at anchor. But underway?

The resultant noise and slamming when underway is not something that can be easily ignored.
The windage of these bungalow-proportioned multihulls has led to the catamarans' reputation as
a poor windward performer, and this is particularly so when reefed down in heavy weather.
Overloading catamarans will, as with all light displacement sailboats, decrease the Sail-
Area/Displacement Ratio and spoil performance.
Consequently small, high volume cats, when loaded with the equipment for offshore cruising can
become, well, dogs. And it's for this reason that, in my opinion, long-distance cruising
catamarans only begin to make sense at around 45 feet.
Some are manufactured from hi-tech materials - carbon composite hull, carbon masts...
On the wind, owing to their minimal draft, catamarans can make considerable leeway. Most have
vestigial keels to resist this tendency, but those designed to really tramp on have daggerboards.
At sea, their inability to absorb the small variations in the wind by heeling gives them a peculiar,
lurching movement which can be a bit disconcerting until you get used to it.
Also, the rapid variations in speed and the effects these have on the apparent wind direction,
mean that wind vane self-steering systems find it very difficult to keep multihulls on a straight
course

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But a properly designed catamaran from the board of a designer unconstrained by the
requirements of the charter market can make a fine cruising boat.

Fig 19: You could rightly expect much better sailing performance from this cruising catamaran. Note the raised
daggerboards.
In reasonable conditions a well-sailed catamaran can often arrive at an upwind destination earlier
than a monohull of similar length - any inferior pointing ability having been compensated by a
higher speed through the water and resulting VMG (Velocity Made Good).
Under power, a catamaran's manoeuvrability can be remarkable.
If they have an engine in each hull, putting one astern and the other ahead will turn a catamaran
sailboat in its own length with ease - a redeeming feature in a marina, where you're likely to
attract a hefty surcharge for a berth.

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Appendix 10: Trimarans for Cruising?
There’s only one reason for choosing a trimaran for cruising – speed! With no ballast and little or
no accommodation in the outer hulls (called ‘amas’), they’re light and quick- very quick!

Fig 20: The Neel 45 - A modern production cruising trimaran

Their wide beam makes them very stable, but expect to pay double the monohull rate when
berthing them in a marina.
Unlike a catamaran, where the voluminous hulls contain much of the accommodation, the amas
of a trimaran are much narrower, providing nothing more than stability.
Consequently, catamarans provide for more accommodation than an equivalently sized trimaran,
but trimarans are much faster under sail.

Fig 21: A centre-cockpit cruising trimaran

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Appendix 11: Hull Materials
GRP (fiberglass) Hulls
Of the four basic materials - GRP, metal (steel and aluminium), wood and ferrocement - GRP
(glass reinforced plastic) is the material of choice for production boats. Consequently, the vast
majority of boats on the secondhand market will have a GRP hull.

Fig 22: A Beneteau 393, a modern mass produced GRP sloop

Glassfibre, as it's almost universally known (fiberglass in the US), is in its basic form polyester
resin reinforced with chopped strand mat. Modern GRP designs employ more sophisticated
laminates, often incorporate layers of stronger woven glass rovings or exotic materials such as
aramids (Kevlar, Twaron) to build in additional strength where it's needed.

Steel Hulls
Steel suffers from chemical corrosion in saltwater, so it's absolutely vital to maintain a protective
surface coat of a water-resistant paint - epoxy being the best choice.
Because of its weight, steel is more suitable for hulls of 14m and above.
Many steel-hulled boats found on the secondhand market will have been welded by an amateur
boat builder, meaning that the build quality - and aesthetic appearance – can vary considerably.

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Fig 23: The rust streaks on this Alan Pape designed ketch are a clear indication of a steel hull.

Aluminium Hulls
Aluminium has the advantage of a better strength-to-weight ratio than steel, and it doesn't suffer
from saltwater corrosion.
But aluminium is susceptible to electrolytic and galvanic corrosion by contact with dissimilar
metals, or through improperly designed or installed electrical systems.
Sacrificial zinc anodes are essential to keep galvanic corrosion at bay. Many owners, wary of stray
electrical currents, choose to dangle a few additional ones over the side when in marina berths
but a better form of protection would be to fit an 'isolating transformer' or a 'galvanic isolator' so
there are no interactions with the marina's shore supply.

Fig 24: An Aluminium hulled Ovni AluBat 43

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Wooden Hulls
Modern wooden hulled cruising boats are usually strip-planked and epoxy sheathed. This
technique lends itself to custom self-build boat construction as no moulds are required, the hull
being built upside down around temporary timber frames.
The planks are glued one to the other with epoxy, and the completed hull is sheathed in layers of
woven glass rovings and epoxy. Such hulls, more often than not of western red cedar, are light,
strong and stiff, and require little maintenance.
Being completely sealed, rot - the enemy of traditional wooden hulls - is not an issue. It's a great
choice of hull material for self-build boat construction.

Fig 25: The writer’s wood -epoxy (cedar strip) cutter. Note helmsman steering with a tiller extension – it’s that
much fun!
However, in recent years epoxy-impregnated plywood hulls are being produced. The light
displacement RM1050 shown on the next page is a typical example, where its open plan interior
is made possible through the use of a galvanized steel framework.

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Fig 26: An RM1050 ply-epoxy cutter.

Ferroconcrete, or Ferrocement Hulls

We're back in heavy displacement territory here. Hull construction is an internal steel mesh
structure plastered with a sand/cement mortar. Because of the weight of hulls built in this
material, most ferro sailboats will be 45 feet (14m) and over.

Fig 27: A professionally built Ferrocement Hartley 43 cutter.

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Although the process is labour intensive, the construction materials are comparatively
inexpensive, making them an attractive building option to someone with more time on his hands
than cash in his pocket.
Consequently, unless it's been built by a specialist boat builder skilled in the technique, you could
be letting yourself in for a heap of problems downstream if you choose a secondhand boat built
in this material.
The quality of a ferrocement hull is totally dependent on the manner in which it has been built.
If the hull has been poorly constructed, for example with voids left in the mortar or with
inadequate bonding to the mesh reinforcement, then it will be structurally unsound at best and
may be very weak indeed.
Ferroconcrete boats are difficult to insure at reasonable premiums, some insurance companies
being unwilling to provide cover at any price. As a result, resale values are low.

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Appendix 12: A Keel-Stepped or Deck-Stepped Mast?
Conventional wisdom has it that for offshore sailing boats, the masts should be keel-stepped
because:

• If a shroud parts the mast is likely to remain standing, supported by the cantilever
provided by the keel step and the partners.
• In the event of a capsize any damage to the mast is most likely to occur some distance
above the deck, leaving a mast stub available for a jury rig.
But unless the deck is massively strong at the partners this area is likely to suffer structural
damage, which in conditions severe enough to cause a capsize will be very serious indeed.
A lesser problem is that rainwater always gets inside the mast through the various openings and a
keel stepped mast ensures that this ends up in the bilge rather than draining out on deck.
Nevertheless, for sailboats of 40' (12m) and above, a keel stepped mast is the more seaworthy
option.

Fig 28: A Deck Stepped Mast. The deck beneath the baseplate is reinforced by a load-bearing pad, and glassed
in.
A mast stepped on deck must be supported by a compression post below, which will transfer all
mast loads to the keel and floors.
Structurally, a deck-stepped mast is pin-jointed in the deck-mounted baseplate. This helps for a
dry bilge and facilitates easier removal at layup time, but does make it more likely that if you lose
your mast, you're going to lose all of it.

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Appendix 13: Headsail Furling & Reefing Systems
Like most cruising sailors, I'm a big fan of roller reefing (or roller furling) headsail systems. Not
only are they a convenient way of getting rid of the jib at the end of a passage, they enable us to
easily adjust the headsail area to suit the prevailing conditions.
And whilst it's undeniably true that a partially furled genoa will never be quite as efficient as a
hanked-on jib of the same size, for the cruising sailor the small performance loss is balanced by
convenience and safety offered by roller furling systems.

Fig 29: A Manual Headsail Furling Drum. Electrically powered versions are available for large headsails.

Improving Roller Reefing Efficiency

Some roller furling systems incorporate a double swivel arrangement which puts a full roll into
the middle of the sail before the rotation is taken up by the head and the tack.
This goes some way towards removing the fullness that would otherwise be present in the
partially rolled sail.
Sailmakers have done their bit, too, by building a foam insert into the luff which similarly flattens
a partially rolled headsail.
But it has to be said that whilst this improves the sail shape, the bulking of the sail around the
foil disturbs the airflow over the luff of the sail - which can only reduce drive.
And whether you sail in arctic waters, the tropics, or anywhere in between, a sacrificial strip is
essential to protect the sail from UV damage when fully furled.

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Fig 30: Sacrificial Strip on the leech and foot of the headsail on this Oyster Heritage 39.

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Appendix 14: Mainsail Furling & Reefing Systems
Take a look at any modern cruising boat and the odds are it'll have a roller reefing system on the
forestay. Solent rigged boats will have two; perhaps one for a lightweight genoa and another just
astern of it for a working jib. If the boat is cutter rigged, then it's likely the staysail will be set on
a roller furling gear too.
Not so long ago, we cruisers were quite content with these roller furling gears on our headsails
and simple slab reefing for our mainsails. Not, it seems, any more...
Most spar makers offer roller reefing mainsails as an option to their standard masts and booms,
and some are markedly more successful than others.
With headsail roller reefing systems, it doesn't matter too much if you've been a bit sloppy rolling
a reef in. Perhaps the sheet was a little slack and the sail was flapping around. OK, it won't look
very pretty but at least it's in - and you can pull it back out and start again.
But not necessarily so with roller reefing mainsails, which are contained (and that's the problem)
either within the mast or within the boom.

In-Mast Roller Reefing Mainsail Systems

At best, this is a quick and easy way - providing you get the procedure right - to reduce the area
of the mainsail in a rising wind.
But it can go wrong; and if it does with the sail jammed in the mast groove you won't be able to
get it in, out, up, down or do anything much at all with it - short of a bosuns' chair and a sharp
knife.

Fig 31: An in-mast mainsail furling system on this deck-saloon sloop. That’s probably as far into the mast that
the sail will go.

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Sails used with this system are flat cut, have little or no roach - or even a negative roach - and if
there are any battens at all, they'll be vertical.
Halyard tension is critical; too much and you'll have a job getting the first few turns in, and the
boom has to be adjusted just right, so you'll need a rod kicker. If your sails are new or in good
shape, then you've got a good chance of this system working at its best, but it your sails are past
their first flush of youth, and maybe a little baggy then you could be in for an interesting time.
And there's a penalty to be paid in additional weight aloft as a result of all the hardware inside
the mast.

In-Boom Roller Reefing Systems

Sailboat boom furling systems use a fully battened mainsail and are conceptually more seaworthy
than the in-mast type, because:

• if the sail jams in the boom slot, it's still possible to ease the halyard and drop it.
• a sail jammed in the boom slot will be much easier to sort out than one halfway up the
mast.
• reefing the sail in the boom lowers the centre of gravity, unlike the in-mast system which
leaves the weight of the sail aloft.

Fig 32: An In-Boom Headsail Furling System on this Chuck Paine designed Apogee 58.
For successful operation the angle between the boom and the mast is critical. In some systems
this is fixed by a rigid kicker, whilst others allow a degree of articulation and rely on a spring in
the kicker to return the boom to its correct angle.
The double swivel arrangement found on headsail furlers is also incorporated in some in-boom
systems, which flatten the main without reducing its area.

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But why Bother?
Both in-boom and in-mast systems are mighty expensive, and far from risk-free unlike a slab
reefing system with lazy jacks which is:~

• Simple
• Effective
• reliable
• cheap
• and you can fix it if it breaks

Fig 33: A large sailboat with no in-boom or in-mast mainsail furling systems - just slab reefing and lazy-jacks.

Lazyjacks, Slab Reefing and Mainsail Covers

If you've got a slab-reefing mainsail on your sailboat, you need lazyjacks. OK, they're not
absolutely essential but they'll definitely make for an easier time when pulling a slab in, or
stowing the sail along the boom at the end of a day's sailing.
Without lazy jacks you'd need to find some other method of controlling the redundant area of
sail that's created when a slab is pulled in.
Traditionally, the solution was to use reef cringles and pennants. The cringles were the rows of
holes along the sail at each of the reefing points and the pennants were the short lengths of line
secured through them.
These are tied under the foot of the sail - but never below the boom - leaving the sail tamed and
bundled along the top of the boom. Neat and tidy, but creating point loads in an unreinforced
section of the sail panel.

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Many a sail has been damaged in this way, particularly if a reef is pulled out with the pennants
still tied in.
There's nothing high-tech about lazy jacks; just a couple of fittings on each side of the mast,
several lengths of 10mm (3/8") line, a few thimbles and some pad-eyes for the boom.
The blocks are fitted around a half to three-quarters of the distance between the gooseneck and
the top of the mast and the cleats at a convenient point near the gooseneck.
The 'cats-cradle' part of the lazy jacks will depend on the length of the boom, and the pad-eyes
located accordingly - unless you chose to incorporate a mainsail cover as shown over the page.
Although you don't have to use swivel blocks at the intersections of the lines - hard eyes using
plastic thimbles will do at a pinch for small mainsails - the lower friction of swivel blocks make
the system more efficient.
So why bother with complex, expensive in-mast furling or in-boom furling systems?
You just can't beat slab reefing and lazy jacks for simplicity, reliability and value for money.

Combining Lazyjacks with a Mainsail Cover

Often called a 'Stack Pack'
A very nifty canvas sail cover can be combined with lazyjacks.

Fig 34: Let go the halyard, the lazy-jacks guide the sail into the bag, zip it up - job done!

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Not only will the flappy bit of the reefed sail be contained, with one of these 'stack-packs' the sail
can be dropped, the cover zipped and the gin and tonics dispensed in half the time it takes to
drag a conventional mainsail cover out of its locker.

Hoisting the Mainsail

Whilst lazyjacks efficiently collect the main and guide it onto the boom as it's dropped, they are
equally efficient at trapping the ends of the battens as the sail is raised.
The solution is simple - slacken them off, pull them forward and secure them on the mast. The
reefing hooks, if you have them as part of your slab reefing system, are ideally placed for this.

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Appendix 15: An Aft Cockpit or a Centre Cockpit?

Fig 35: Aft Cockpit Bavaria 55

Aft cockpit boats like the Bavaria 55 above are likely to have the in-harbour ‘stateroom’ forward
rather than below the cockpit. Instead they may have a double pilot-berth pushed out to the hull
side, perhaps with a similar one on the other side.

Fig 36: Centre Cockpit Caliber 47

As I see it, the main benefit of a centre cockpit sailboat is that it provides space below for a large
aft cabin – or in boatshow salesman’s parlance 'the owner's stateroom'.
On a 45-footer or so, this will often sport a king-sized walk-around bed with en-suite facilities,
and will stand comparison with an upmarket honeymoon-hotel bedroom. That is certainly the
case on the Caliber 47 LRC (Long Range Cruiser) pictured above.

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Such a cabin provides a level of privacy and seclusion not normally found on a sailboat; an in-
harbour refuge par excellence, separated from the rest of the interior accommodation by a walk-
through passageway under the cockpit.
At sea though, this type of aft-cabin is not so good. In fact, it's pretty much a waste of space
other than as a store room, as the occupants of the bed would soon find themselves rolled out
onto the cabin sole.
Some sailboat manufacturers, wrestling with the cost versus size versus accommodation
conundrum and seeing such commodious aft cabins as huge selling points, produce centre
cockpit sailboats that end up being less than successful for offshore cruising.
In these the cockpit sole has been raised to accommodate access below which in my view doesn't
make for seaworthy sailboat design.
In such sailboats the sensation for the crew is of being perched insecurely on the cockpit rather
than being securely protected within it.
As a result the boom will be higher than on an aft cockpit boat, and the crew will be at risk of
getting wet more often.
But it is possible to produce a smaller centre cockpit sailboat with a comfortable double berth aft
cabin without compromising cockpit security, but at the expense of access to it.
Gone will be the passageway connecting it to the rest of the accommodation, now access to it
will be through a forward facing companionway leading from the cockpit.
There are at least three issues with this:

• Facing into the elements, this type of companionway is very wet in bad weather;
• When the companionway is left open to the cockpit, as it must be to provide light and
ventilation, the occupants have almost no privacy if other people are aboard;
• It's too remote from the rest of the accommodation. Shut away in the aft cabin, what
chance is there of hearing the anchor chain graunch in the stemhead when the boat drags
its anchor?
My view? Well, a center cockpit sailboat is great for cruising, provided that:

• The sailboat is big enough to provide access to it from within the interior
accommodation below without compromising cockpit security, and
• There are sufficient 'proper' seaberths with lee-cloths for all offwatch crew.

The boat shown over the page which looks to be around 30 feet is probably as small as you’d
want to go for a centre cockpit boat…

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Fig 37: At around 30 feet, this is probably as small as you would want to go for a centre cockpit boat.

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Appendix 16: Keels & Rudders
Sailboat keels serve three purposes:
1. To provide ballast low down, and
2. To create hydrodynamic lift
3. To provide lateral resistance to the wind force exerted on the sails.
And like all things in the sailboat world, there are trade-offs to be made.
But just what are the alternatives? Let's take a look...

Long or Full Keels

These sailboat keels, which incorporate the rudder, are found on the heavy displacement boats
of yesteryear, and are still popular with some long-distance cruising sailors.
Unlike more modern keels they are built-in as part of the boat's hull construction which, together
with encapsulated ballast, makes them extremely robust.

Fig 38: Long Keel. Note propeller in apperture between keel and rudder.
But although well-mannered under sail, such boats are slow and need a large spread of sail to get
them moving, especially in light winds. This is largely due to the high wetted area, and
consequent drag, of sailboat keels of this type.
In their favour though, long keel sailboats track through the water as if on rails, have a
comfortable motion in a seaway and will heave-to readily.
The propeller is protected in an aperture and hulls of this type usually sail over floating fishing
gear and pot buoys with impunity.
Close-quarters manoeuvring, such as wriggling in and out of a marina berth, is not their specialty.

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Encapsulated Fin Keels and Separate Rudder
Most of the benefits of a long keel, but faster under sail and more manoeuvrable under power.
These were the natural development of long fin keels which, whilst retaining their positive
attributes, greatly improved manoeuvrability due to the separation of the keel and the rudder.

Fig 39: Long Fin Keel & Skeg Hung Rudder

Fig 40: Long Fin Keel & Spade Rudder

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Deep Fin Keels
Deep fin keels are manufactured separately from the hull, and are subsequently bolted on. Keel
bolts have a justified reputation as being 'suspect', owing to their habit of corroding undetected.

Fig 41: Deep Fin Keel & Spade Rudder

The racers choice, highly efficient and fast, but have been known to drop off because of poorly
engineered fixings or corroded keel bolts. They are usually paired with a spade rudder.
But this type of sailboat keel is more efficient to windward than the previous two keel types,
creating more lift and reducing leeway.
All sailboats make some leeway - perhaps just a few degrees - when sailing to windward, which
creates an angle of attack between the fin keel and the water flowing past it.
Much like a sail, or indeed an aircraft's wing, this produces an area of low pressure flow on one
side of the foil and high pressure on the other. The keel tends to move into the low pressure
area, conveniently reducing leeway and dragging the boat up to windward.

Retractable Keels
Retractable keel, or lifting keel sailboats, rely on ropes and pulleys - or hydraulic rams in some
cases - to retract a steel centreplate into a keel housing. Some types operate vertically and others
pivot around a pin at the forward end.
They are a deep/shoal draught compromise that enables upright drying out, but subject to jams
and mechanical failure.

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In some designs a ballast stub keel is retained which contains the keel housing. Others have no
stub keel at all and all of the keel housing projects into the boat to some degree, usually to the
detriment of the accommodation.
When all goes well, sailboat keels of this type would seem the ideal solution to provide deep draft
offshore and shoal draft when navigating in shallow waters.
Another much heralded benefit is the ability to dry out upright, particularly when partnered with
a twin rudder design. Nevertheless, some offshore sailors may feel that that the added
complexity and possibility of failure outweighs all other advantages.
Most skippers of lifting keel boats have experienced, or continue to worry about, at least one of
the following:

• That keel slot in the bottom of the boat. How well engineered is it to resist the side loads
imposed on it by the centreplate?

• The rope and pulleys that operate the centreplate. When is something going to break?

• When are all the barnacles, firmly attached to the 'impossible to anti-foul' inner surfaces
of the keel housing, going to gang-up and jam the centreplate?

• How soon before a stone wedges itself between the centreplate and the keel housing,
firmly jamming it in the 'up' position?

• How much longer can I put up with the noise of the thing rattling around?

Twin, or bilge keels

These are a peculiarly British thing. Nowhere else do they seem to enjoy the same level of
popularity.

Fig 42: A Macwester 27 high and dry on her bilge keels

Bilge (or Twin) Keels - Takes advantage of cheaper drying moorings at the cost of performance
under sail.
Along with long-legged birds and wellie-clad bait diggers, bilge keelers are very much at home on
tidal mud flats, where drying moorings are much less expensive than the deep-water kind.

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Apart from their shallow draft, the benefit of a bilge keeler is that these cheap moorings can be
enjoyed without falling over - twice a day in fact.
And that's it, as far as I can see. Underway, their high wetted area and lack of low-down ballast
can only detract from their sailing performance - and if you inadvertently run aground in one of
these, you may be there for a while, since you can't heel the boat to reduce its draft.
But they're very popular here in the UK, so I mustn't be too rude about them.

Keels with Bulbs or Wings

One way to reduce draft whilst minimising the effect on stability is to provide additional ballast
in the form of a lead bulb on the bottom of the keel.
Bulb and Wing Keels - Low centre of gravity, good stability and reduced draught
Variations on these types of sailboat keels include torpedoes, the Scheel keel and the wing keel.
Properly designed 'torpedoes' meet this requirement, and providing they don't project forward of
the keel's leading edge - where they'll collect pick-up lines, discarded fishing nets and other
assorted flotsam and jetsam - are a good solution for offshore yachts.

Fig 43: Wing Keel Fig 44: Bulb Keel Fig 45: Combined Wing & Bulb
Keel
The Scheel keel, invented by the American designer Henry Scheel, is said to create additional lift
through the converse sections on top of the bulb, and appears on several highly-regarded
offshore designs.
Wing keels develop this principle further, but share the same propensity for collecting unwanted
hangers-on as the forward projecting torpedo.
Wings increase wetted area, and hence drag, but as well as producing more hydrodynamic lift
they do provide a degree of 'damping' in a rolly anchorage.
You'll need to support the boat in slings to anti-foul the underside of the wing, or alternatively
employ a diver to scrub it clean at regular intervals.

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Rudders
There are three main varieties of rudders for sailboats:
1. the Spade rudder,
2. the Skeg-Hung Rudder, and
3. the Half-Skeg or Balanced Rudder.

Fig 46: Spade Rudder Fig 47: Skeg-Hung Rudder Fig 48: Half-Skeg, or Balanced
Rudder
From a hydrodynamic point of view, the Spade Rudder is most efficient and is the one you’ll see
on high-performance sailboats. But being a cantilever with no support along its leading edge, it’s
the least robust.
The Skeg-Hung Rudder is exactly the opposite – most robust, but least efficient and can be
somewhat heavy on the helm.
The Half-Skeg, or Balanced Rudder falls between the two and is the best compromise for
cruising sailboats.

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Appendix 17: Shaft Drive or Saildrive?
The Conventional Shaft Drive

Fig 49: The Shaft Drive. Note 3-bladed folding prop and the V-bracket.
The engine drives the propeller direct from the gearbox through a flexible coupling and a shaft-
seal via a stainless-steel shaft.
The V-bracket - which contains the cutless bearing and supports the shaft - is much more robust
than the more usual, single-strut P-bracket.
The bearing is water lubricated and will need changing from time to time. If you can detect any
movement in it at all, it’s time for a replacement.
Two sacrificial anodes are required – one on the propeller and another on the shaft. The
positioning of the shaft anode in this example prevents the shaft (and prop) vanishing into the
deep in the, albeit unlikely, event of a coupling failure.

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The Saildrive

Fig 50: The Saildrive. Note 2-bladed folding propeller.

Saildrives are supplied as a complete unit with the engine. The drive is turned through 90° at the
top of the drive leg and again at the bottom.
They’re a favourite with yacht manufacturers as they’re very simple to install, and there’s no issue
with shaft alignment.
In use they tend to be quieter with less vibration than a shaft drive, create less drag than a shaft
drive assembly.
The entire unit is usually located further forward in the boat, keeping weight out of the ends and
improving performance. The downside of this is that the propeller is a long way from the rudder,
so there’s no benefit from propwash – not good news when wriggling into a tight marina berth.
But…

• The drive-leg casing is made of aluminium, which creates a corrosion issue;

• If water gets inside the casing, repair is expensive;
• The drive leg projects through a hole in the bottom of the boat, sealed with a rubber
gasket. This requires regular inspection and maintenance, and if it fails consequences
could be catastrophic.

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Appendix 18: Wheel or Tiller Steering?
Centre cockpit boats have to be wheel steered owing to the distance between the helming
position and the rudder. And so do large heavy displacement designs where the tiller would need
to be inconveniently long. But for most modern aft cockpit designs under 45 feet (14m) or so a
tiller often makes more sense, and is much more fun to use.
Nothing beats sitting out on the coaming with a tiller extension helming the boat like a large
dinghy. Well for a while anyway - gone are the days when I'd do this for hour after hour.

Fig 51: Flying the flag for a tiller!

Comparison of Tillers and Wheels

Having confessed my preference, perhaps I should explain myself...
Well, in an aft-cockpit boat, a tiller:

• Through its direct attachment to the rudder, rewards the helmsman with ultimate feel
and feedback;
• by virtue of its mechanical simplicity ensures reliability and robustness;
• lets the helmsman, steering with the tiller between his legs, trim the jib, mainsheet and if
he's really brave the spinnaker without disturbing the offwatch crew;
• works well with both windvane servo-pendulum self-steering gears and electronic
autopilots;
• allows the helmsman to gain shelter from the sprayhood;

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• can be lifted up out of the way, leaving the cockpit clear when at anchor;
• can't be geared down to make high steering loads manageable.

Whereas a wheel:

• can be geared down to make high steering loads manageable;

• positions the helmsman right aft, denying him any protection from the sprayhood;
• in most cases, doesn't allow the helmsman to trim the sails on his own;
• is less precise than a tiller, and offers the helmsman little feedback;
• requires an expensive and complicated linkage arrangement of wires and blocks, which
without regular maintenance is prone to failure;
• is awkward to link to both windvane self-steering gears and electronic autopilots, and
• adds weight right aft, just where you need it least;
• clutters up the cockpit when at anchor;
• is expensive
A convincing case for a tiller? Well, that's really for you to decide, but pointedly, all wheel steered
boats have - or should have - an emergency tiller, which may tell us something.

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