42' and 50' Cruising Boat Designs

            Wood Hull Editorial Summary

 

 

Drawbacks of sailboats over 25 ft designed for cruising and racing, and boats designed for racing that have received a coat of anti-fouling paint:

Ø      The surfaces of hull, keel and rudder painted with antifouling paint have lost the finish so essential to the hydrodynamic characteristics of these major components.

Ø      Such boats will not meet the performances of speed as specified in the brochures.

Ø      They cannot sail to weather as intended due to excessive drift.

Ø      Performance will deteriorate even more as the wind speed and thus boat speed go down.

Ø      Maneuverability, especially at low speed in a crowded harbor, is difficult.

Ø      Such boats are like horses sent into a race with a lame leg and are like bucking broncos in the paddock when in crowded spaces.  

 

Therefore, the qualities for speed and maneuverability have been undone or drastically reduced and very often, the sails and rigging, also, have been neglected or are worn so that these are worthless in competition. In addition, such boats are not as comfortable, roomy and spacious. Used racing, and hybrid racing boats that have or have had an anti-fouling paint coat are bad deals all around.

Having come to the conclusion that cruising sailboats ought to be over forty feet to be comfortable, I looked over the sailboats designs of the twentieth century and have become fascinated again by these designs and decided to recreate the style and grace of these yachts.

I  drew the lines of a hull slightly over forty two feet in length, increased the beam a bit of the earlier designs and placed it farther towards the stern. I kept the graceful forms while also keeping to the established design principles of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries that have been developed through patient research and that make sense to incorporate in any sailboat. I, then, added over a half-dozen other features, no one else thought of or did not incorporate in sailboat designs to culminate in the best hull designed for its class and length – The Lorac Class Hull.

The Lorac hull was designed on a CAD (computer) program and can thus easily be scaled to any proportions up to 50, or so, feet. I have done so by scaling a second hull to 50.5 feet in length and I have reduced the beam somewhat, proportionally, because the greater length affords the hull better stability. The hull comes in a standard full keel or in a radically new keel that makes the boat a cinch to sail and makes it point much steeper into the wind, anywhere - in any condition or weather. It has an easily-handled liquid-balance system that generally, and especially under cruising conditions, will keep the boat in a much more upright position. It has a system that will reduce wetted surface for a period of time and thus helps the boat maintain hull speed in light winds. It has a semi-flush deck that allows people of slightly over six feet in height to easily walk through-out the hull; that affords an enormous deck space that is even made larger by adding a grated metal deck over the bowsprit, and with an option to have a flying stern seat for three, that brings the over-all usable deck space for the 42 feet hull to about 47 feet and for the 50.5 feet hull to 57 feet. It has lots of storage cabinetry.

I strongly feel that anyone who has a family with a brood of children between 8 and 25 years in age, who has the means to purchase one of these classes of sail yachts, whether he or she be a sailor or not, ought to do so, rigged as a ketch preferably. The entire experience of sailing, with its duties towards each other and the boat, explorations by dinghy in a strange harbor or at anchor, fishing, swimming, navigation and allied activities such as the maintenance of the boat itself, is instructive, induces children and adults alike to become closer to each other and more responsible, trains children in rational thought and actions, make them alert and gives them an all-round sense of independent, alert, coordination of mind and body and a sense of duty that will be theirs for the duration of life. It is a marvelous way to keep the family unit together after the children have left the home, a great hobby and a means of travel for the entire family and is thus a all-round satisfying experience for all, especially because the children can invite their friends along. There simply cannot be any competition for preference between motorboats and cruising sailing yachts. The movement of cruising sail boats with dead rise in the hull is smooth as silk compared to the shocking bumpity-bump ride of a fast motorboat – even on inland waters. Women are extremely sensitive toward the shocking, bumpy, rides of fast motorboats.

Enter your search terms Submit search form