No Excuse to Pound (John, 2007)

Are voyaging sailors considered curmudgeons when many new boat designs start to worry and disgust them? If so, I guess I’m there; in fact, I guess I’ve been there for a while.

Some time ago I sailed on an expensive modern boat from the drawing table of a famous designer and the yard of a reputable builder. Now let’s see if I can put this kindly. She sailed like a barge, rooted (nose dived) like a pig and to top it off pounded so badly when going to windward, even in benign conditions, that we feared the electronics would jump off their mountings.

There is truly no excuse to launch a boat that bad for people to cruise in, but I think I know how it happened. It started with the marketing people who said "OK we need a nice wide stern to get a huge cabin into, and then we need a big salon, guest cabins, many heads… No don’t make the bow too pointy, we need to put stuff up there. Oh yes, make sure the sections are nice and U-shaped so we can get a lot of tankage and equipment under the floor boards."

So if you are in the market for an offshore sailboat, don’t end up with a rooting (you Australians, wipe that smirk off your faces) pounder. Put sailing comfort, speed and safety first and interior a long, long way last.

Now I’m no naval architect; in fact, I know very little about the art and science of boat design. Maybe you can design a boat that looks like a Winnebago (camper van) and still have it sail comfortably and safely, but I think that in most cases thinner finer boats with fairly symmetrical ends are better offshore. Remember, boats are priced by the pound (kg) not the foot (meter) so if the seller is boasting about how many amenities a boat has for a given length, run a mile and look at a longer thinner boat that probably won’t cost much more.