Less is More

Or..... more with less?

 

It's incredible that we've been going like mules around two fuxxx axes (Pitch and Yaw) since 1880

 

Yes

I see three main families of solutions:

1) As you rightly point out: the long, narrow yacht, for example, Eric Sponberg's spectacular "Bagatelle"

2) The classic solution (British and Swedish, to name two) which is suitable for heavy yachts, and which, as Andrew Claughton discovered in the Southampton wave tank, surf wonderfully in a controlled manner; and

3) My proposed solution for a small Windsurf board with "heavy quarters" and very wide Stern, returning to the issue before (ca. 1979-1989) the Mini Transat, like all regattas, went down the path of seeing 'who could pee the farthest'

 

I am completely in line with the « more with less » approach, aiming more displacement speed with less sails area.
It was the ULDB philosophy, unfortunately over shadow by the open classes based on hull length which led to beamy and over canvassed sailing machines. At the end, moreover now with foils, a world based on brutal speed. And nostalgia of a way of sailing/racing more subtil and pleasant in my opinion.

 

Sundeer 57-60

SUNDEER 60 - sailboatdata https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/sundeer-60/

The funny thing is that Steve Dashew thinks the smallest possible yacht for a couple is 57-60 feet long

And I think the smallest yacht for a single person is 5.7-5.99 meters long.

 

My proposal is to redefine cruising

One person sails on an efficient, powerful, and lightweight sports machine—a true mountain bike—while the other travels by bus, train, or plane, sparing them the trouble of putting up with our antics.

 

Note

Note that the Sundeer 57-60 (depending on the stern 'skirt') has two cabins for 1 couple to sleep in

(A) while sailing and
(B) at anchor

 

Jordi Corominas

2024 "Piolet d'Or", he reached the summit of K2 solo via the breathtaking "Magic Line," a route no one else takes. A member of the expedition, the much-loved Manel de la Matta, died, and after summiting K2, Jordi Corominas descended at night through "the Bottleneck"

I mean, there are extraordinary athletes.

But if the choice is between a million-dollar yacht and being an elite athlete... well, we'll just stay home.

seen from the other end

 

In other words:

yachts and sailboats are rooted in a tradition that is, on the one hand, of Victorian-era billionaires, and on the other hand, a heroic and brutal tradition: "whip, sodomy, and rum", to quote a classic saying, "wooden ships and iron men", to quote another classic.

 

This boat

around 300* kg Ballast;
buuut at Hull bottom

Ballast equivalent @ 1 m depth / light Displacement = maybe 8% (!?)

My proposal: 1 Ton WindSurf Board Plywood Epoxy

Ballast equivalent @ 1 m depth = 405 kg = 270 kg x 1.5 m

46% light Displacement

And ... 1.1 m Freeboard

The (High or Low) Vertical Position of the Sailboat Center of Gravity ... give the big boat or small boat feelings

Feelings and Reality

And why does a dinghy have stainless steel and cables on the deck?

It's absurd to climb on the deck of a dinghy.

--

*: 270 kg

 

Fitting one of the two cabin entrance hatches: 8mm thick methacrilate, 55 x 55 cm, and a 50 x 50 cm opening in a cut 60 x 57 in the bulkhead separating the cabin from the deep Deep Deep cockpit

A monster-sized dinghy: 55 cm backrest, 1.11 m freeboard

Almost 50% of the light displacement @ 1 meter depth:

VCG - 7 cm
VCG +/- 0 LWL with 75 kg sailor

 

Obviously, such a large hull, and on top of that—Achtung !—listed high, creates considerable aerodynamic drag in a fresh breeze (25 knots TWS at 10 meter high)

With the push of a button, an electric pump removes 220 liters of seawater, and a Y-shaped valve directs it to the appropriate ballast tank (port or starboard)

The ballast tanks drain through simple plugs on the cockpit floor. No whipping or sodomy, and maybe a little rum.

 

A efficient SLK machine, Sporty, Lightweight, "Kurz" (small) floating in half a meter of water

The rudder blades aren't drawn well, but this sketch gives the idea

Yesterday I saw a hotel on a beautiful beach and decided to check the price: $1,000 a night in the off-season, omfg

A small boat -Achtung !- with the complete logic of a dinghy ...

is magnificent for 1 sailor, and once at the destination, it's a good hut for a couple to stay for a few days.

 

30 knots True Wind Speed (TWS) @ 10 meters High

49° True Wind Angle (TWA)
35° Windex (34.88)

Beating Upwind
2 reef Mainsail

The seawater ballast tank transforms a 400 Newtons boat into an 800 Newtons boat, a +100% gear when needed uphill

The ballast tank:

1) Increases Displacement

2) Shifts the center of gravity to windward

... and aft, allowing the boat to:

3) withstand the strong pull of the sails and avoid dipping the bow into the waves, and

4) reduce impact when passing waves thanks to a center of gravity aft of the Center of Flotation

---

I tighten the mainsail sheet a little:

Sail Trim: 0.64
900 Newtons

 

(I need to reorganize the full battens of the mainsail because they look a bit odd)

This morning, with Frank Bethwaite's help, I'm thinking that in rough seas, the fine-tuning will be done not on the mainsail sheet or the spectacular 2-meter traveller, but on the outhaul.