American yachts

Wansworth said:
Deck moldings are obviously much more difficult to extract and corners are not the best in grp.It was the French who started all this streamlining twaddle as if a thirty footer is going to race along with a silly flush deck faster than a good upright coachroof
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You have never seen Tradewind yachts then? Pretty, flush deck and British
 
Wansworth said:
I don’t remember🙄……….all I was saying was the material used to some extent was responsible for the shape.Prior to grp there were corners which grp did away with.
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Lots of curved wooden mouldings on some Nicholson's but yes I take the point lots of square sectioned coach roofs and dog houses.
 
Wansworth said:
Yes but

yes I know but could it not be said that whilst small yacht design epitomized by saytheMacwester the French were into curves and flush cabin tops.Certainlythe selection of second hand boats here in Galicia,all French with streamlined coachroofs
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Yep, the Macwester 26 design was inspired by American yacht designs of the time. A bloody awful sailing boat. My Dad had one. I sailed as a young kid on it. Slow and huge weather helm. Crap windward performance due to the need to pop those bilge keels out of the mould. Its only saving grace was a bigger heads than a Boeing 747😅
We see a lot of very traditional designed American boats here. There are some really nice designs. The problem with many is that they are very shallow draft. Florida and the Bahamas are cruising grounds that the designer has to consider. Very shallow water. Some have shallow keels then centre plates in the keel.
Totally opposite end of the spectrum to the Pogo style skimming dishes favoured in France. Lots of the American designs are mini cruisers with a high level of comfort onboard. Good head room gives the raised coachroof.
One of the negatives are many American owned yacht we see here is their sprayhood. Americans like to be able to stand up under the sprayhood. They don't care about aesthetics or windage. It doesn't matter how small the boat is. It will often have a horrendous almost vertical window sprayhood. Often they have an enclosed cockpit tent made from window material so the whole thing looks like a greenhouse. They also love scaffolding. Bimini frames with solar panel arches and lots and lots of reinforcement. We have had drinks of American friends yachts and really struggled to work out how to climb in to the cockpit because of the amount of metal work. The plus side was it would be almost impossible to fall overboard 😄
 
Fr J Hackett said:
Lots of curved wooden mouldings on some Nicholson's but yes I take the point lots of square sectioned coach roofs and dog house
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geem said:
Yep, the Macwester 26 design was inspired by American yacht designs of the time. A bloody awful sailing boat. My Dad had one. I sailed as a young kid on it. Slow and huge weather helm. Crap windward performance due to the need to pop those bilge keels out of the mould. Its only saving grace was a bigger heads than a Boeing 747😅
We see a lot of very traditional designed American boats here. There are some really nice designs. The problem with many is that they are very shallow draft. Florida and the Bahamas are cruising grounds that the designer has to consider. Very shallow water. Some have shallow keels then centre plates in the keel.
Totally opposite end of the spectrum to the Pogo style skimming dishes favoured in France. Lots of the American designs are mini cruisers with a high level of comfort onboard. Good head room gives the raised coachroof.
One of the negatives are many American owned yacht we see here is their sprayhood. Americans like to be able to stand up under the sprayhood. They don't care about aesthetics or windage. It doesn't matter how small the boat is. It will often have a horrendous almost vertical window sprayhood. Often they have an enclosed cockpit tent made from window material so the whole thing looks like a greenhouse. They also love scaffolding. Bimini frames with solar panel arches and lots and lots of reinforcement. We have had drinks of American friends yachts and really struggled to work out how to climb in to the cockpit because of the amount of metal work. The plus side was it would be almost impossible to fall overboard 😄
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Yes and I am sure designes after crafting a design would turn in their grave,it dead,to see fenders lashed to the pulpit😏
 
In defense of American designs, not all are chubby. I chose American for sleek lines and good sailing; J-boats
 
Stemar said:
I very much favour boats with low freeboard and higher cabins because of the ease of getting on board and moving around. Wide open spaces on deck are a hazard when it gets bumpy. Yes, I get that they give space for young, fit crew to move around when handling sails, so advantageous for racing, but for elderly cruisers, something to hang on to or lean against is what I want.
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Why would flush decks be a hazard when it gets bumpy?
Nothing to trip over, nothing to bang toes or legs against, ...
 
Wansworth said:
Yes but

yes I know but could it not be said that whilst small yacht design epitomized by saytheMacwester the French were into curves and flush cabin tops.Certainlythe selection of second hand boats here in Galicia,all French with streamlined coachroofs
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The Macwester 26 came,out in the 1960s. What were the French doing then?
The Americans had the Cal40. Fin and spade rudder. About a million years ahead of its time.
 
geem said:
The Macwester 26 came,out in the 1960s. What were the French doing then?
The Americans had the Cal40. Fin and spade rudder. About a million years ahead of its time.
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One of the big French builders started off inthe 1960 with querky little day oats and small motor sailers,then there wasthe Golif that was in the Ostar buy then theywere mounding curves and going away from traditional restrictions of wood.
 
Wansworth said:
One of the big French builders started off inthe 1960 with querky little day oats and small motor sailers,then there wasthe Golif that was in the Ostar buy then theywere mounding curves and going away from traditional restrictions of wood.
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And now they are all back to chines. A full turn around as if they were building in plywood! Oh, they are😅 RM
 
Wansworth said:
Look at the new Ovni400……back to coachroofs🙂
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I just did. Thst is a seriously ugly boat! What's going on in boat design? It's all volume, volume volume. If you want a bigger boat, buy a longer boat. Putting a 50ft interior into a 40ft long hull doesn't make a great sailing boat, regardless of the sailing magazine reviews (that get paid to say how nice they are). Let's face it, they have never done a damming review on any boat ever launched!
There is a head to head review with an Allures on Yachting monthy that makes the Allures look pretty. And thst isn't true when you put it next to a pretty boat
 
Wansworth said:
Look at the new Ovni400……back to coachroofs🙂
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Have a look at the thread about the use of an I pad to control the electrics :eek: It's quite a nice boat but I have my reservations about the quality of some of the internal fit out, use of unsealed ply for the cabin sole.
 
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