Microfi bres alarm
46 CLASSIC BOAT JUNE 2016Extracts from the diary of Quartermaster
Bart Huijs onboard clipper ship Stad Amsterdam
PHOTOGRAPHS ANTHONY SMITH WORDS BART HUIJSCROSSING
THE PACIFICONBOARD22ND JANUARYAfter our twenty-day crossing from the Galapagos, PAPEETE, TAHITI
spending the last three days in Papeete harbour has felt a little strange. During such a long time at sea, you forget so
many of the sights and sounds of land, and it can be a bit overwhelming when you first step back ashore. But once you get used to it again it’s all very nice. There was plenty
of entertainment during the gangway watch — all night long, young people were out on the streets having fun,
trying to impress each other by doing wheelies on their scooters! Tomorrow we set sail on our four-thousand mile
trip to Sydney and another twenty-one days at sea.
23RD JANUARYBefore setting sail we topped up on water and fuel and brought aboard some fresh fruit and veg. As soon as LEAVING PAPEETE
everything was safely stowed, we brought in the gangway and set sail at 10:30am. The captain is expecting 40 knots
of wind during the next days, so we’re preparing the storm-sails. It could be an exciting start to the trip!96 CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2016LETTERS
At the risk of further beating Don Quixote’s poor
dead horse, I hope your readers will allow me to weigh
in on Theo Rye’s review on L Francis Herreshoff ’s
Rozinante design (Feb issue). I think it is a mistake to
put much emphasis on the Rozinante that appears in
The Compleat Cruiser. This boat was largely a concept
design, used to explore a branch of cruising
philosophy. The fruit of this seed was the fully
developed Design # 98 which came out as part of a
How-to-Build series in The Rudder magazine. This
series, which featured a potent combination of the
designer’s philosophy, writing and designs, was
intended to give American GIs something to dream
about during World War Two. It is in large part
responsible for Mr Herreshoff ’s god-like stature among
his disciples. I think it is helpful to think of LFH as
primarily an artist, and while his boats are almost
always fast and mannerly, aesthetics could sometimes
trump practicality. Lithe hulls and the evocative ketch
rig were irresistible to him, in spite of their functional
drawbacks. While certainly one of the most exquisitely
beautiful designs ever conceived, Rozinante’s narrow
and shallow hull lacks stability, and the mizzen mast
divides what is otherwise one of the most welcoming
and comfortable cockpits. We have designed and built
several Rozinante derivatives over the years, the intent
being to try to improve these two defi ciencies without
spoiling the elegance of the concept. In fact, the boat
that your correspondent Mr Cranwell (April issue) is
building in New Zealand has 5in of additional draft
and beam, as well as a yawl rig. Mr Rye posits that
easier rowing was the driving force behind Rozinante’s
narrow hull. However, LFH designed several other
similarly narrow and shallow hulls during this period,
all of them far too large to row. More likely he was
simply interested in making a case for simplicity, and
trying to combine the advantages of an easily driven
hull with the cruising opportunities that shallow draft
allows. These features are probably best realized in
multihulls, an idea LFH’s father pioneered in the 1870s.
Even with a 50% ballast ratio, Rozinante is a bit tender,
and rowing a 6600lb boat is not for the faint of heart.
Despite these drawbacks, her beauty alone justifi es
her a place among history’s most important designs.
Doug Hylan, DN Hylan & Associates, dhylanboats.comRozinante was a
concept design
27ft 9in or 28ft 24ft (7.31m)LWL LOA (8.46m or 8.53m)
3ft 6in or 3ft 9in (1.07 or 1.14m)6ft 4ins (1.93m)DRAUGHT BEAM
285sq ft or 348sq ft (26.5m or 32.3m )DISPLACEMENT (APPROX) SAIL AREA 2.95 tons
BALLAST KEEL 1.5 tonsHerreshoff L Francis described
Rozinante as a beautiful model56 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2016Few yachts have attracted more lavish praise, but is it deserved?
THEO RYE
Fyou’ll find her lauded as “one the most beautiful and graceful vessels ever designed” and “hypnotically ew boats have earned such lavish praise as L Francis Herreshoff’s ‘canoe yawl’ Rozinante; L Francis himself wrote immodestly “you will find her a beautiful model” and elsewhere
beautiful”. At the risk of prompting outrage from her admirers, I’m not sure I’d go that far; certainly, the hull is very pretty (and better in photos than on
paper), but while the original rig with her club gaffs may be practical, to my eye it’s nothing very special in the aesthetic department. He evidently returned to the design later in life; the original version was published in
The Rudderpublished (posthumously) a prettier bermudan version (Design No. 98) in the 1973 ‘Sensible Cruising Designs’, and ‘The Compleat Cruiser’ (1956), but he
by which time the hull was a fraction longer and deeper and had a lot more sail area. a whaleboat type, ketch rigged cruiser, but in In ‘The Compleat Cruiser’ L Francis described her as The
Rudderdescribed as canoe yawls”. That canoe yawls are not canoes (or necessarily yawls) is a truism; the consensus he described her as “of a type that used to be
seems to be that they should be slim and small enough to row if necessary, double-ended, partly decked, have a mizzen, and if the accommodation is anything other than snug it won’t count. Albert Strange is often cited as the
inventor of the breed, but more prosaically they seem to have evolved during the 1870s; Strange did much to popularise them with his artistic drawings and articles
though, a tradition that L Francis followed. capsizeable” but I would suggest that potentially self-righting would be more accurate; no boat of this size Herreshoff also described Rozinante as “non-
is truly uncapsizeable, but she is very slim for her length and has a good ballast ratio (in most versions 50 per cent or more), so should come back up pretty readily one
would imagine, assuming she doesn’t down-flood. The original had a long (8ft) cockpit which looks a nice space, but it wasn’t self-draining; and that would suggest
her ideal milieu would be inshore or at best reasonably sheltered coastal or estuarial use rather than offshore. The cost of the decent cockpit with such a narrow boat is next to non-existent side decks, which with her lowsheer will bring her crew into regular and intimate proximity with the water; which again suggests relatively sheltered waters would be her forte. In the same vein, the sail area at 265sq ft was originally
pretty mean; with a sail area/displacement ratio of 129 she would often have been sluggish, despite her slim hull. Presumably reflecting that, the redrawn versions
have 348sq ft (32.3ma healthier 169 as a result; since nearly all the examples built follow the later rig plan it’s not surprising she has a reputation for scooting along pretty well.) and the SA/disp ratio jumps to
draughtsman as L Francis produced the published lines plan with some definite anomalies: have a look at where As an aside, it is surprising that such a renowned
the first buttock crosses waterline 1 near station 20, for example; (the later version is much fairer). The general form of the hull is delightful though; L Francis was a fine
proponent of double-enders and this is a sweet example. The very slim aft waterlines might cause a little tendency to hobby-horse in a chop, and make her sensitive to a cockpit full of crew, but then he designed her to be
rowable and hence gave her those slim quarters. Given a decent pair of oars she will probably move along OK, but at three tons it would take a pretty determined crew
to keep it up for any length of time or into breeze or tide.is comically snug (as Herreshoff demonstrates in the original illustration), but with her moderate draft and Following canoe yawl tradition, the accommodation
low coachroof that is inevitable; concentrate on enjoying the cockpit space. Her fixed keel makes her a potentially more capable pocket cruiser perhaps, but
she is not truly shallow draught as a result.of beam, a feature predominantly related to being row-able, which confirms that fitting an inboard The draught is necessary to compensate for the lack
(which Herreshoff was volubly against here) would be largely missing the point. There is a purity of intent about the design which is
nicely mirrored in L Francis’ general style. The hull shape is determined overwhelmingly by the need to be able to row her, which in a three-ton, 28ft boat places a hard compromise on most other aspects. Putting the
hyperbole on one side, Rozinante is clearly a highly focused design, which will suit a few people perfectly.ROZINANTE
L FRANCIS HERRESHOFFCLASSIC DESIGNSClassic
Boat’s
US tour
I see Classic Boat
has been sailing in
Newport Harbour.
Welcome to the
real home of
yachting, guys!
DC Bannister, via
email
Editor replies: Yes
indeed, we had a
great trip to New
England and we’ll
be reporting on it
in a series of
features over the
coming months.
My blog on sailing
in Newport is on
Classic Boat’s
website under
Editor’s Blog.Tall ships sanitised
I enjoyed the account by the mate of the
Stad Amsterdam tall ship, traversing the
Pacifi c in style (June issue). It did make me
laugh though, to compare his account with
the classic tall ship text by Frank
Brookesmith, who crossed the Pacifi c from
Australia to Peru on the William Mitchell in
the 1920s. In his book I Remember The Tall Ships he recounts a voyage of
hardship and toil that most of us couldn’t imagine in 2016. Brookesmith was a
fi ne author who deserves a greater place in nautical literature than he has. I hope
at least he’s staple reading for those lucky youngsters benefi ting from a
somewhat sanitised Tall Ships experience today.
Barry Sennert, via emailI was alarmed to learn from a Guardian article about the
issue of microfi bres entering our food chain from the grey
water of our washing machines. The research shows that
an average fl eece garment releases over 1g of microfi bres
each wash, of which 40% ends up in our oceans and
rivers. Older garments and cheaper fabrics are reported
to be the worst culprits. I’m certain this issue will be of
interest to all sailors on the grounds of preserving our
marine environment and ensuring food safety. I hope you
will see fi t to publish this letter so as to raise awareness
amongst the sailing community. I’d like to propose that
we wear and buy more natural fi bre garments, since they
look right anyway on our classic boats.
Thomas Board, via emailGETTY ASDGASR GASE