Our Boat Made It Into A Book!

If any of you haven't seen it already, our Cruising Sled Amati made into 'Yacht Design According To Perry"!!! So did Nightvision!!!

I'm stoked.

Paul

don't panic

 

Paul,

Congratulations ... but maybe some photos or links, please?

 

Awesome! Yup, hoping for a link, too.

 

that's somethin... congrat... maybe postin pic is in order...

 

great Paul, some pics please so we can drooool along side your personal drooooool rail.

 

westlawn5554X,

you sure are a young NA......great to see so much enthusiasm at such a young age.

 

Thanks guys- here are some pages to look at. The boat (40') was built in 1999, but has some features that still warrant some thought, like a forward swept keel, 10.5 beam, 8.5 draft, deep forward, flat aft, fairly light (9600 lbs).
We were kind of shooting for an Open 40 feel (she is a cruising boat), but that target has moved a bit since the design. Kind of interesting to compare Amati with the open 40's today, since they do lie in some of the same areas. Amati is geared towards upwind performance and light airs rather than offwind speed, although she'll do 15K, and that's under jib/reefed main reaching in 18-20 K, and almost dead downwind in 25K ish:

http://www.schoonercreek.com/new_const/modern_sail/Amati/2000_american_yacht_review.pdf

http://www.schoonercreek.com

(on this 2nd one, you'll have to go to new construction, then modern sail, and then scroll down to the Amati section, but you'll get some stuff that I can't address to- plus, some cool other stuff, like Rage and Ocean Planet)

http://www.schoonercreek.com/new_const/modern_sail/Amati/amati.jpg

http://www.schoonercreek.com/new_const/modern_sail/Amati/amati_launch.jpg

Paul

 

Paul,

Very nice, sounds like she is designed and built to a purpose and achieves it well. I like the way the interior seems to follow the "less is more" philosophy while looking warm and inviting.

Just curious; what are your impressions after 8 years, and have you ever had to handle especially rough seas?

 

Amati

Very nice ,Paul. Congratulations!

 

like it, zillerating sailing, but do not like to slam my way to weather, Charm, you are so polite)

 

Posed as an honest question; being light doesn't automatically mean being a pounder.

 

look at the bottom as she is rolled

 

She handles swells with grace, although HUGE GNARLY VERTICAL TUGBOAT WAKES require evasion. Oh hell, even 60er's avoid that. She likes swells. Upwind, or down. Nothing like doing 15K down a swell- the bow goes up and things get very stable.

Upwind; the only time she slams is when I blow a chop pattern- what she does when she does slam is (per wave)wave/rise,wave/rise,wave/rise, slam. This usually in our wonderful 5'-8' chop in anything from 16-24K. If I steer it right, like say a Finn upwind, I can stay in the valleys, or at least split a wave. It takes the three waves (like above) to get anything nasty going, mainly because of her speed to windward, and how high she points. In stuff above 10-12K upwind, with the 2nd reef in the main, which turns her into a 'masthead', we can break 8-8.2K, with the sternwave separating from the transome. Can you say 'velocity headers'. The main challenge is to balance the speed and pointing as she will launch herself off a wave upwind. With significant vee up front, this is not a problem, as long as she doesn't launch big, and people have seen our keel root when I have blown it in as little as 5' chop. But she doesn't get out of control. Only have done one 3/4 uncontrolled round up, and that was in 25 apparent, 35 degree veers, and 8 foot chop out by point no point, and I had my head down in the cockpit trying to control our terrier who was attacking my turkey sandwich. The trick is to keep the vee splitting waves instead of getting the flat sections aft the keel involved, which isn't hard, as she is very manouverable with the tiller and mainsheet system. I love a big roach. Have been caught in a couple of convergence zones, one which spawned a waterspout, and a tornado on land, wind speed measured at 50K, seas confused and big.
Dropped the main (we have an Antal system which makes it easy) and ran
downwind under blade jib, was actually easy, motion was smooth and gentle, never out of control. This is why I like skinny boats.

We have had some big reaches, but it is always relaxed and fun, as the faster we go, the more stable things get, and under less and less sail, so it's getting things reefed that matter, or dumping the main. We plane out of gusts, so it's like a dinghy, just dump the traveller about a foot or so, get her flat, and pump her up with the traveller or tiller. We can really sail aggresively under main alone, as the balance is good without the jib. Withe jib, I can get the helm nuetral.

We have had one big downwind sail in 25-35K from Vancouver to Nanoose Bay against the tide, and apart from the anxiety of sailing nearly by the lee for 5 hours, it was planing fun, in 6-8 dfoot chop, sometimes a bit bigger, but the bow never got close to going under, even though it looked like we were going down the mine a few times. Most of the time the bow was up enough because we were planing so the bow only kissed the top 1/2 to 1/3rd of each wave we were overtaking. The steering gets very stable at speed, so there is no hunting or darting at all. One sailmaker proclaimed her handling boring downwind in big stuff. "Not a challange" I believe were one of his quotes. I actually furled the jib, and just sailed under full main, with a lot of twist, and the running backs on. My wife read while sitting in the cockpit all the time. When we turned her into the wind to drop the main was when we realized how violent the conditions were. We avoid bad weather like the plague, but the boat is amazing when it gets ugly. It's not that I'm relaxed in bad stuff, but I'm alert, a bit tense, and confident. Kind of feels like a Finn on steroids, but so much smoother and controlled. Have never had an accidental jibe, because even with the big apparent wind shifts downwind, as the apparent wind speeds are not that great because of her speed and control the rudder and tiller afford. I suppose I shouldn't admit this, but riptides are a hoot. We sail through stuff like Samsung Narrows like she's a dinghy.

My project with her right now is to see if we can get rid of the upper shrouds, so I can exploit the twist of the main more, and get a little automatic gust response. We've loosened the uppers to see what the top acts like, and it really has helped the feel of the boat upwind, makes steering waves a lot more precise and more smooth.

Have gone to an assymetrical set at the jib hounds, which has made the main twist much more effective (power-wise),as we jibe angles downwind.

I hope this answers your question.

Amati makes me wonder about a minimal Open 40, rather than the maxi approach were seeing now.

If you have any other questions, please ask.

Pau

 

Wow, a lot more detailed answer than I expected. I guess that also answers the question, "Do you still like her a lot after 8 years?".

I suspected that she'd handle moderately rough stuff reasonably well; my own experience with skinny boats has been similar.

Thanks for sharing, Paul. Cool that the designer liked it enough to put it in a book.

 

Thanks, Charlie, We are both crazy about the boat. Between Bob (Perry) and Steve (Rander, at Schooner creek) it was a labour of love. But if you have a boat made by these two guys, it will be, because they listen. We asked for an Open 60 inflenced mix between a 30 sq metre and an IMS MK I, with a little Redwing of Bembridge thrown in, and We got it!

Paul