To provide a sailing yacht suitable for long range cruising for a couple, built for the less money possible and in the fastest time possible. Very much following the Wharam philosophy of extreme simplicity, this boat will enable those who thought long range cruising was going to stay a dream for them (no time to build, buying new too expensive...) to realize it.

The method

The boat is designed to use a mix of low tech materials (wood, cast iron) and high tech ones (epoxy resins, fiberglass) to achieve an easily built and safe yacht, certified in the CE A conception category, that will take you as far as you dare. All the boat systems (rig, keel, rudder, etc...) will be sensible, simple, time-proven and low-tech, again to reduce total cost, including maintenance and to reduce the time spent building and reparing. The hull shape will be simple in the extreme, with just a flat bottom and sides, with possibly a gunter or gaff rig.

The project

This project is still very much at the preliminary stages, but some particulars can already be defined:

 Length : 8m
 Beam : 2.8m
 Displacement(full load) : 3 tonnes
 Sail area : about 40 mē

All these are of course subject to change.

Stay tuned or contact us for more details.

Some preliminary plans (in french) are available below.

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Content syndication

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<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.marinetechs.com/distrib.php3?lang=en&num=5"></script>

Replace ’5’ by the number of articles you want to show to obtain something like this:

Prismatic coefficient

This coefficient is calculated by dividing the displacement by the product of the waterline length by the maximum cross sectionnal area. It is represented by the formula Cp=D / (L x A_max)

Block coefficient

This coefficient is calculated by dividing the displacement by the product of the waterline length, the waterline breadth and the hull depth. It is represented by the formula Cb=D / (L x B x T)

Waterplane area coefficient

This coefficient is calculated by dividing the waterplane area by the product of the waterline length and the waterline breadth. The waterplane area is the area enclosed in the waterline on a plan view. It is represented by the formula C_wa=A_wp / (L x B)

Transverse and longitudinal GM

This is a measure of the small angle stability of a particular hull form. The higher the GM, the more stable the boat will be at small angles of heel / trim.

Righting arm curve

The righting arm curve shows a plot of righting arm against angle of heel. The righting arm is the amount of righting moment the boat has i.e. how much wind will cause it to heel (lean over) at a given angle. It is from this curve that you can see at which angle capsize will become unavoidable. In the case of the example, this occurs at 133 degrees of heel.

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This software is being developped in PHP so that it can be web based, and therefore available to the internet community. The source code is available as well.

This being an open source project, it is provided without warranty of any kind, and requires the support of users and developpers to progress further, so if you can help in any way, you are welcome to contact us.

Current version is 0.02, which is to say that the features are still very limited. The next step will be to import data directly from some types of files, making it MUCH esaier to use. The data file format is quite simple. For the moment, it is as follows:

Station 1
Xpoint1 Ypoint1 Zpoint1
Xpoint2 Ypoint2 Zpoint2
.
.
.
Xpointn Ypointn Zpointn
Station 2
Xpoint1 Ypoint1 Zpoint1
etc...

View the sample

Key Benefits

 Very small and simple software.
 Much faster than hand calculations.
 Free and Open Source
 Try it!

This design is a fast cruiser, and is fully customizable according to the client’s wishes.

It will sleep up to four, and facilities are provided to live aboard for quite extensive periods of time.

Main Characteristics

Here are a few 3D views of this project.

This small yacht is definitely not a dinghy, although its size might be confusing. It is suitable for two to three adults during a day sail, and can accommodate two persons overnight. A unique feature of this sailboat, however, is the possibility of changing the daggerboard to suit the conditions. One of them is made of solid plywood and is intended for use with a full crew aboard. However, a second optional daggerboard is provided, containing 60 kg of lead, thus providing the necessary stability when sailing single handed.

A second feature of this design is the sail reducing mechanism, which is utterly simple: it acts as a furling genoa, which means that the manoeuvre is completed in a matter of seconds, and the sail area is always exactly right for the conditions.

It is fitted with a bulb keel to lower the center of gravity. In the original version, the mast is in aluminum as the advantages obtained with a carbon mast are not significant compared to the extra price for it.

Accommodation, as well as everything else can be customized to meet specific requirements.

Main Characteristics