I don't think a lot of people realize what a
ground breaking design this was. With this in mind, and some other sporatic references to this vessel on the web, I thought it might be interesting to start a subject thread on this vessel specifically, and that might bring together some of the scattered information that might be found.
Olaf Harken of Harken products has to be given the ultimate praise for having conceived of the idea, and then putting the group of people together go forward with such a bold new combination of new ideas. I was fortunate enough to know Olaf personally, and to be very interested in his project, as it involved considerable alterations to the ‘conventional’ sailing rig, a subject I have dealt with for a long time. (
my mast aft, single-masted ketch concept)
From a few of their notes and materials I was able to gather on the subject;
THE PROCYON PROJECT
The PROCYON project was born out of a need to modernize sailing boats to meet the demands of today’s life-styles and help revitalize a slumping industry. The name comes from a bright star in the Spring sky that hovers over the sailing constellations.
The project was conceived four years ago and a set of criteria was established that the design must meet. The criteria are:
1) To increase the speed and performance of a typical cruising yacht between ten and twenty percent.
2) To increase the comfort of the typical yacht through less heeling and better creature comforts above and below.
3) To be able to rig the boat and have it ready to be underway in five minutes.
4) To be able to sail the boat under arduous conditions with a crew of two or three people.
5) To have a design that was futuristic but not outlandish.
