Pocket Yacht Palooza 2013

Dont miss the second annual Pocket Yacht Palooza, the largest gathering of small-craft gunkholing designs held in the Northwest, scheduled for July 20-21 at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, WA.

The main focus of this event is on design...not on who has the most coats of varnish. While wooden boats tend to dominate the Palooza, fiberglass hulls are welcome and the whole idea is to share information, as well as time on the water, so that participants come away with a deeper understanding of different pocket-cruising designs, whether rowboats, sailboats or traditional motorboats.

The Palooza is organized by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters group, a loose-knit club with "no officers, no dues, no bylaws or other signs of organization." In other words, they just like to have fun on the water together. Co-sponsors of the Pocket Yacht Palooza include the Northwest Maritime Center, Small Craft Advisor magazine, Sage Marine, the Port Townsend School of Wooden Boatbuilding, the Puget Sound chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association and the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association.

Saturday, July 20, everyone is invited to the boat show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with many boats displayed on trailers at the Northwest Maritime Center, and others hauled up on the adjoining saltwater beach. At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Peter Guerrero (host of KPTZ-FMs "Boat Talk" program) will lead a waterside discussion of different traditional small-craft sailing rigs--their use, advantages and possible shortcomings. Participants with spritsails, gaff rigs, lugsails, sloop rigs, sliding gunters and others will pull their boats together on the beach to chat about their rigs and how they work. At 6 p.m., there will be a potluck on the beach, followed at 7 p.m. by slide talks in the Maritime Center by Dale McKinnon (who built her own dory and rowed the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Bellingham), and Kirk Gresham (talking about his years of trailer-sailing a Devlin Eider from California to the Puget Sound area and into the islands of British Columbia).

Sunday, July 21, participating boats will hit the water for a day of rowing, sailing and/or motoring together on Port Townsend Bay, with a picnic lunch on the beach of Rat Island, next to Fort Flagler State Park. The main emphasis of the day will be sharing boats--either boat rides or actual short-term trading of boats so that everyone can experience different designs and their sailing/rowing characteristics. The day of boating will begin at 10 a.m. and end in the late afternoon when many participants will rendezvous on Port Townsend Bay with Native paddlers as they arrive at Fort Worden State Park, their overnight stop, as part of their Tribal Canoe Journey to Quinault, on the outer coast of Washington.

The Palooza is absolutely free to participants and the public--no registration fees, complicated forms or other requirements. Just let organizer Marty Loken know youre coming and include a brief description of your boat when you email him: Norseboater22(at)gmail.com.

For updated details on the Palooza, check the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters website or follow postings on the Port Townsend Small Boats forum.

Hope to see you there!

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Sign Our Guest Book and or Register Your Yacht

We would like to hear from you. Please sign our new guest book, comment, discuss and/or register your Sparkman & Stephens Yacht. From this we will build a database of the yachts and their current locations.

Data will only be used to build our database. Numerous readers have introduced themselves as owners of S&S yachts through either the Comments field for a particular posting or through a direct email to us. We hope this is a simpler way to let us know where the S&S fleet is worldwide.

The database we will construct will be accessible by blog readers and will list yachts by LOA, design number, year, name and location. The database will not include the owners name nor contact information. For example:
Sailboats 40-60ft LOA
45-4", 125, Falcon, Castine, ME
47-9", 1976, Puffin, Thomaston, ME

And yachts that we know have been destroyed such as:
Sailboats 40-60ft LOA
50-3", 1534, Diogenes
55-8", 85, Avanti

Blog readers who wish to sign our guest book are welcome to do so. It is hoped this is a way blog readers can comment and respond to each other in a much easier format than using the Comments field within each blog posting.

All posts will be reviewed prior to going live. Please allow up to 24 hours to see your post. Thank you.

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MEGA YACHT NAMES

These Mega yacht owners have a real sense of humor when naming their yachts.

Heres a few I think I saw,

- American Bailout $

-Wall Street Goodbyes

- Born Right

-Severance Package

-Did Well

-Insider

- Hali Brr Ton

-Buyout

- Entitellment Queen

- Theyell Nev Er No

- Exon Advantage

-Oilish

- Oliarks Pleasure

- FU Maximus  

- 1% Ter

-Hogfish Maximus

 

Kidding aside, what gives me great pleasure in seeing these incredible expressions of talented skilled designers and craftsmen is knowing that through great weath and success in how ever it was achieved  

 it takes everyday people to make these creations come to life. Having a floating testimony to your ability to make it happen weather you have paid the bills, designed the boat, or have the skills to get it built is what makes these Yachts so magnificent .

I still think the coolest thing to have is your own designed and built floating flying carpet.

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Design 2699 120 Expedition Yacht

This expedition yacht was designed with a steel hull and aluminum superstructure. Between 2004-2007 we seemed to have a whole lot of clients asking for expedition style boats. This is just one example. We have proposals between 68-154 length overall with various deckhouse configurations.

Power was to be provided by twin Caterpillar 3412E - B rated engines producing 720 hp each for a top speed of 14 knots. The main engines were to be close coupled to mechanical, fully rotational Schottel "Z"-drive propulsion units.

Here are the plans.

Principal Dimensions
LOA 120-0"
LWL 110-5"
Beam 27-10"
Draft 8-3"
Displacement 687,680 lbs (1/2 load)

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Explorer Yacht Development

 

Here is a line of explorer yachts that has developed over a few designs (and about 10 years) but I think theyre worth a study.  The 62-meter was developed in 2001, a classic looking split level boat with the capacity to carry large tenders.  This was commissioned for an existing client.

The 56-meter was an offshoot of this where our client really liked the general arrangement but the styling was modernized and the boat was made slightly more compact.  The boat still maintains a very commercial look.  Click here to access the blog posting about this boat and to see general arrangement plan.

And here is a much larger version at 82-meters.  The styling was developed into more of a luxury yacht look with bigger eyebrows and "Euro" transom.

 

Here are the designers comments.  Please double click for zoom.

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Pocket Yacht Palooza

Yesterday we had a great time at the first ever Pocket Yacht Palooza.  The Palooza was a one-day show celebrating smaller rowing and sailing boats, co-sponsored by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters, the Small Craft Skills Academy and Northwest Maritime Center. Id like to extend a special thanks to Marty Loken for organizing this event.

With over 50 boats signed up, there was quite a variety to see.  Here are some examples. My apologies for the brief descriptions and for all the ones I neglected to include.

This is  Rogers restoration project, the 16 Nooka Rose featuring a 55 sq ft sprit rig. A work in progress aquired 3 years ago, Rogers objective is to simply catch up on 15 years or so of deferred maintenance, then replace the rub rails and breasthook. The boat features an experimental and interesting Cullar inspired rudder fashioned from a salvaged door, but Roger hung on to the original higher aspect rudder just in case.

This is Bobs boat "Duck", a Jim Michalak designed Scram Pram, featuring 300 pounds of water ballast in 3 tanks which makes it very stiff in a breeze. The birdwatcher style cabin keeps the crew dry in a chop and makes the boat self righting.

Next is Michaels Iain Oughtred designed 14-6" Whilly Boat "L Hirondelle"

Toms 15-8" Jonesport Peapod has a 65 sq ft spritsail and gets its lines from Am. Small Sailing Craft. The original of this Peapod was built in 1975 in cold-molded cedar. This boat came from a mold of the original.

This is Rogers 11-2" Joel White designed dinghy built by Roger in 2010.

This 11 150 lb Rich Kolin designed Heidi Skiff was built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

This is Richards "SASe", a 12 B&B yacht Amanda.  SASe stands for Solar Assisted Sail and Electric. The bimini top is actually two Solar panels that provide 45watts at 44 volts to power two torqeedo outboards and charge three 680 watt lithium ion batteries giving the boat unlimited range possibilities. The boat is also equipped with sail and oars.

 

A coolidge centerboard daysailor built and for sale by the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

Nik & Elizabeths Ian Oughtred designed caledonia yawl "Sutil" built by Grapeview Point Boat Works in 2009. Glued lapstrake construction, sapele plywood, spruce spars, white oak floors and sales, Alaska yellow cedar floorboards and benches. Powered by oar, sail and Torqeedo electric outboard.

Chelcies charming 11-1" dinghy "Puff", inspired by George Holmes 1888 Ethel from Sail and Oar, scaled down to make her a shorter and lighter boat.

Randys Core Sound 17 should be familiar to many of you by now. Built by Jan Nikolaisen and featured in Small Craft Advisor magazine 2007-2008, issues 47, 49, 51-53.

Beautiful community-built Redfish Kayak (for sale - $5900)

John built this 17-6" adirondack guideboat in 2009, extended from the usual 15-16 for racing.  Strip built from patterns of a design that was built by William McCaffery, a hunting guide and hotel owner during the early 1900s in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.

Happy Scampers!

Andrews Bolger designed Bobcat "Bobs Cat", converted to a cruiser with a cabin and other modifications, recently purchased from Bob by Andrew to learn to sail.

Several others were on display on the beach and there for the Small Craft Skills Academy.

James McMullen demonstrating his new boom tent for Rowan

The first ever Pocket Yacht Palooza was a great success and Im sure it will become an annual event!

Update:  Many more nice photos from the Palooza can be found here.

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Design 77B J Class Racing Yacht Cheveyo

Graphics Courtesy Spirit Yachts, Ltd.

We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Spirit Yachts, Ltd. of Ipswich, England to build a new J-Class racing yacht. The boat will be named ‘Cheveyo’ (pronounced shu-Vay-o), a native American word meaning ‘spirit warrior’ and will carry sail number J1.

The yacht has been commissioned by a U.S. syndicate of investors and sailing enthusiasts. A driving force behind the project is the desire to experience the thrill and elegance of yesteryears yacht racing on a modern vessel steeped in the essence of tradition.

While the J-class Ranger design utilized lines 77C because it was found to have the best potential for racing in the sheltered waters off Newport, Rhode Island, Cheveyo will be built using the Ranger 77B hull design for the more exposed conditions of today’s classic regattas. If you recall in 1936 an original series of six hull designs was submitted by Starling Burgess and Sparkman & Stephens to Harold Vanderbilt for the 1937 America’s Cup defense. Each of the six Ranger designs was extensively tank tested by Burgess and S&S to select the optimum hull-form to defend the America’s Cup against the challenger Endeavour II, designed by Charles Nicholson. The ‘Super J’ Ranger was thus born, and went on to triumph decisively over Endeavour II in the 1937 series.

Cheveyo will marry the classic design of yachting’s golden era with modern build techniques of the 21st century. Spirit Yachts will use sophisticated wood/epoxy construction mated to laser cut stainless steel ring frames to create an exceptionally stiff yet lightweight hull.

On deck, this new ‘Super-J’ will remain true to the beauty and grace of the original design. The authentic low-profile deckhouse has been retained, resulting in a clean, unobstructed working deck. Complementing this will be high-modulus carbon spars, carbon rigging, state of the art sails and all the modern sophistication of a contemporary performance yacht that will allow her to be raced competitively against any modern yacht and, most importantly, in the spectacular growing J-Class fleet. Authenticity continues below deck with a beautiful 1930’s-inspired interior.

Here is a sail plan rendering and the general arrangement plan.

Principal Dimensions

LOA 139-0"
LWL 86-11"
Beam 21-0"
Draft 15-0"
Displacement 392,423 lbs
Sail Area 8,290 sq ft

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