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—Any sailor who motors upwind instead of tacking to windward is a lazy, grobian landlubber.
—The square sail is an archaic way to run downwind and has no place on a modern sailing vessel.
—Likewise, a wooden deadeye has no place on a modern sailing vessel.
—Don’t even consider buying a ‘free’ 50-year old sailboat off Craigslist
—Boats are always referred to using feminine names and pronouns.
—“I need a bigger boat”
— Get a boat first, then worry about a dinghy
I disagree with all of the above, so yes, I definitely have unconventional (some would say ‘blasphemous’ or even ‘heretical’) ideas about sailing. I also willingly label myself a “heretic” because my spiritual views are contrary to those of the orthodox Christian community; to learn more, see the <BIO> page, or just click HERE.
My previous boat was a Laguna 26, which I re-rigged and renovated to sail downwind using a square sail [Sqoop sailboat]. She was a wonderful little sloop with standup headroom in the salon, low displacement and an easily driven hull; she’d do four knots with an 8 hp outboard purring along at mid-range RPM, burning only half a gallon an hour. After that project was complete, I found myself dreaming about downsizing, which wasn’t surprising since in earlier years I adopted minimalism as a lifestyle choice, sold my 1000sf home with its attached garage, donated & trashed a bunch of stuff (aka “junk”), moved into a small condo and began living a simpler, more uncluttered life.
For anyone unfamiliar with the boating fraternity, admitting you want to get a smaller boat is nearly akin to apostasy! Not only was I interested in a smaller boat, but also felt pulled to the dark side — I wanted a powerboat, gasp! — a pocket trawler powered by both petrol and electricity that had the ability to sail downwind when the breeze allowed. The term “tri-hybrid” in this instance refers to the three means of propulsion: gas engine, electric motor and wind sail. The gas engine may eventually be replaced by a yuloh sculling oar.
As my vision evolved, I came up with these design goals:
>>Displacement hull, easily driven to four knots with a four-stroke, 6-8 hp outboard engine, and/or a 1.5kW electric motor; safe and stable enough to explore coastal, protected waters.
>>Configured to allow hoisting a square sail capable of driving the boat downwind at 4 knots in 10-15 knots of true wind.
>>Hinged mast, easily raised and lowered with height sufficient to hoist a square sail.
>>Bimini cover, big enough to keep the cockpit and companionway shady & dry, and large enough to mount 1000W of flexible solar panels; also, able to store the mast horizontally without shading the PV panels
>>Electrical system capable of powering 1.5kW electric motor for 6 hours cruising during daylight, and allowing a week away from any shore power charging.
>>Interior cabin equipped to provide comfortable glamping on the Salish Sea during spring, summer and fall (sink, alcohol stove, berths, hammock, table & seating, lighting, device charging, etc.) and conducive to serenity, solitude and meditation, characterized by simplicity, order and cleanliness (Go Quakers!)
From my previous experience designing and implementing the changes for Sqoop, I knew the first, and most essential step was to find the smallest, lightest vessel with a displacement hull that I’d be comfortable sailing solo and living aboard. This minimizes hull drag, which reduces the power required to drive the boat through the water, whether you’re using a sail, a motor or an engine for propulsion. The displacement hull is most efficient for slow speed cruising and that likely means I’ll be looking for a sailboat and converting her into a trawler; if I can keep an unloved, beat-up sloop from ending up in a landfill, all the better.
Sailboats have ballast, which is quite useful when the wind in the sails is trying to blow the boat over on her beam, but it’s dead weight to haul around when you are just motoring towards your destination. Since I only require enough ballast to allow downwind sailing in protected waters with a moderate margin of static stability, the boat can have less ballast than you’d normally find on a fixed keel sailboat. This video really demonstrates how little ballast you need to have positive roll stability with a well designed hull:
This is a Precision 18, it only has 350 pounds of ballast carried pretty high up, close to the hull, and as you can see she has a very strong righting moment, even with the mast in the water. Many trailerable sailboats with centerboards or swing keels have ballast ratios approaching 20% and still have positive roll stability up to 90 degrees. Since I’ll only be sailing downwind, I feel quite comfortable finding a boat that most sailing enthusiasts would consider “a dinghy pretending to be a keelboat” or perhaps “a slug on a bowline that sags to leeward like a drunken crab”. 😀⛵️😀
Link to design document: Design doc
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