The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Volume—And Its Effects

The first thing you notice about some of the latest generation yachts is freeboard—and plenty of it. This is especially true of sub-40 footers, but once again, it’s creeping up the size ladder. And it’s all about maximising headroom and internal volume, making the interior as habitable as possible for in-harbour living.

It’s also a reflection of the very shallow canoe body of the more recent boats, which, with their almost flat bilges have very little actual boat below the waterline. So in order to compensate, and to achieve standing headroom (throughout, if possible), the only way to go is up. And in the very latest boats, the coachroof is also spreading, leading to boats with narrow side decks, which are a pain in the neck to negotiate.

The boat we had was cavernous inside, with enormous space for people to move around, as a result of her high freeboard, wide coachroof, and beam drawn well aft. Fine for two weeks with six people living aboard and stopping off each night, but what are the implications for sailing performance and general boat handling?

Out On The Water

Well, when we left the mooring, we had the bottom end of F6 on the beam, for a quick scoot to a sheltered loch for the night. And it was quick, the boat going well, and not too much weather helm, but that was no surprise as we had three reefs in the main, and only half the genoa out. Another few knots and we’d have been deciding whether to drop the main or roll up the genoa. There was no question that we were running out of options in not an awful lot of wind, and I’ve no doubt that the high freeboard played a major part, allied to a shoal draft keel and shallow underbody.

At anchor that night we were in a sheltered but open roadstead where there was no sea running, but the wind (c. 20 knots) could still get to us. And so we encountered the next dubious benefit of high freeboard, as the boat hunted around constantly in the wind, like a dog looking for a lamppost, even though we were lying to a good piece of chain. I’m sure we’ve all noticed this in busy anchorages, where it can be a real nuisance, with boats swinging around in an entirely chaotic manner, with the usual bumps and arguments that go with it. But in a small, secure spot offering shelter but little room to swing it would be really worrying.

What Can Be Done?

Now I’ve seen various ways to try and reduce this—lying to two anchors being one of them, but that’s not always the best idea if everyone else around you is lying to one. You don’t swing so much, but they still do, and sooner or later they’ll make contact. Another idea is to hoist a storm jib up the backstay and sheet it home amidships. I watched a couple try this in Spain recently and the thing flogged away like mad—maybe they had it wrong, but it looked to me like it made matters worse. A few years ago a very experienced guy called Keith Stanley kindly showed me his custom made riding sail and sent me the dimensions of this simple V form sail. Having seen some video of him riding out a really stiff blow using it with very little sheering around, maybe it’s all in the execution (it usually is!). And someone recently told me about the idea of attaching a small drogue to the anchor chain where it would at all times be below surface level, and claimed it worked really well for them. We have a drogue of about the right size to try this, but so far we haven’t had enough wind to really give it a fair trial, but as and when we do we’ll let you know how we get on.

What About The Crew?

We didn’t have much opportunity to sail the boat in more than F5 for the rest of our time aboard, but on the one occasion we had a stiff beat, she did OK, although with some slamming against her flat bilges and a very lively motion it was hard to keep her in the groove. And with her wide stern lifting the rudder as she heeled hard in the gusts, the helmsman needed to be alert to keep her on her feet. Hard work for the crew over time, and not what you’d want on a long passage. And again I was left wondering ‘what next?’ if the wind got up. A friend who has delivered a lot of these boats shrugged and said ‘start the engine’.

High freeboard, light weight and a shallow underbody doesn’t necessarily make life easier under power, either, especially in crosswinds in today’s space constrained marinas, and it’s not uncommon to see even fairly small boats having bow thrusters installed these days—at great expense and additional complexity. And maybe marina living also affects modern design in that weekend cruisers want big volume in a short package owing to the extortionate cost of berthing (and its lack of availability) in many of the world’s busiest sailing areas.

Once again, none of this mattered that much for what ‘our’ boat was designed for, and she met her design brief very well. But the ‘boat on steroids’ look is appearing across the spectrum of yacht design, including in boats sold as ocean cruisers, and I’m not at all sure that’s the direction we should be heading in, for many of the reasons I’ve outlined above. And that’s just the exterior…

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Pete & Kareen Worrell

Oh my gosh, can we identify these characteristics with a charter boat we had in the Hebrides last summer! It was a Bavaria 39, and with her light displacement, high freeboard, and very little of the vessel under the water, we swear her best point of sail was on an anchor!!! With her three cabins and two heads she has one more cabin than our Hood Pilothouse 51. Maybe that’s what people think will make them happy today…? A good friend always says “racing yachts should sit on top of the water, good cruising yachts should sit in it”. We agree!

Pete & Kareen Worrell
S/V Patience

Colin Speedie

Hi Pete & Kareen

Well that’s indeed the case – of course, on your boat, you need plenty of stowage space for all of the other things needed for proper living aboard – on a charter boat the space is simply for people. But if your horizons are limited, and so is your time, and you sail with lots of family or friends then a boat with lots of cabins starts to look more attractive – but in turn, less so for offshore.

Best wishes

Colin

conny harlin

I totally agree!!! Sit in the water for smooth sailing in open water…my 35 footer weighs 8 metric tons…but rides the North Sea swells perfect.

Colin Speedie

Hi Conny

Comfort at sea = safety to me. If you can’t rest, you can’t play at the top of your game when it’s needed, usually at 3 am with the water tipping down your neck…

Best wishes

Colin

Martin Colberg

Same philosophy with us. We have a Najad 34S that weighs in at 8 tonnes with empty tanks. She isn’t the fastet boat on the water, but she is safe, handles well in rough seas and is just as steady as Johnny Cash picking the guitar 😉 I would sail a modern High freeboard boat if it was given to me!

Eric Schlesinger

Dear Collin,
Thanks for a timely discussion. We have been looking at new and newish boats and wondering what was going on. They do look very inviting at anchor ( when not swinging like crazy, as our neighbor does on a Hanse 43). Thought we might be old fuddy duddies, well we are, but…our Gilllmer ketch rarely scares the bejeezus out of us.
Looking forward to more info on the new designs.
cheers, Eric and Sue
S/V Star of India

Colin Speedie

Hi Eric and Sue

Please don’t get me wrong – there are modern designs that have successfully bridged the gap between traditional and ultra, usually by avoiding the extremes of either. My beef is simply that the ‘extremes’ don’t belong on boats portrayed as ‘ocean passagemakers’ or some other advertising jingle – and for a good evocation of how things are going, see Brendan’s timely response below.

Best wishes

Colin

Dick Stevenson

Dear Colin et al,
There is volume that sits on the water vs in the water, there is volume vs length and there is also how the volume is distributed. The distribution has important repercussions in seaworthiness. Distribution of volume determines what happens when going to windward in 15 knots and you get a bump to 20 knots. Happens all the time. The boats being talked about (wide beam carried well aft) generally will want to go bow down and round up. The form stability of the beamy stern will lift the rudder out of the water when heeling, undermining its efficiency when it is most needed. The helm will get a real workout. Good sea boats, on the other hand, will just heel over a little further, but will go over in more balanced fashion putting much less strain on the helm. The rudder will stay in the water allowing it to counteract the imbalance of the sails resultant from the wind increase.
Make that a 25 knot gust with the wide beamed sterns being discussed and you have a boat that is borderline out of control, heeled over enough so the rudder is ventilating as the bow digs in and the stern kicks up and the helm is hard over to counter-react. (I suspect the recent trend in production cruiser/racers towards dual rudders is to solve this problem with the added risk of more exposure, less beef in construction, making the rudders more vulnerable to a stray log or something.) On a boat with lots of experienced crew ready at hand this can be fast and fun, well coordinated and safe for all. On a cruising boat, most often with 2 people on board and one on watch, this boat response to the gust can be dangerous. People get thrown as the boat heels and turns and the main needs to be dumped quickly to regain control so lines are running quickly and the boom is moving. At its worst the boat tacks itself.
In pursuing your wish, Colin, to explore the parameters of a seaworthy vessel, it seems to me to be fairly easy to ask of naval architects to have some way of assessing how symmetrically a hull/rig will go over if hit from the side by wind. (I read fairly widely and I do not remember much written.) I suspect one wants a few degrees of rounding up (similar to wanting a bit of weather helm) but I would be curious what the figures actually are for various designs. More of us should be asking these questions of designers, builders, brokers, etc.
Best to All, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy, St Helliers, Jersey, The Channel Islands

Colin Speedie

Hi Dick

Ah, the ‘nodding dog’ effect upwind – I remember it well. I totally agree with your analysis of over wide sterns, and yes, twin rudders seem to be the preferred way around this. But as you say, more risk, more complexity, and with these boats, you need a smart crew not only to get the best out of them, but to sail them in strong winds. They generally demand a high level of skill, and are not conducive to relaxing. Boats that you have to look after, if they are to look after you.

And I agree that designers should (and almost certainly do) know what makes a sweet boat to steer and handle, but my concern is that designers only get to draw the boats that the yards think they can sell. And if that’s the modern idiom that you so accurately describe, then that’s it. If we want boats that are designed for longer spells at sea, we need to articulate what it is we need, and there will (hopefully) still be builders and designers who will oblige – and enjoy doing so.

Best wishes

Colin

Brendan Budd

Hi Colin,

Very interested to read these comments. Over the last ten years of doing deliveries I have noticed the trend for greater internal volume and racier underbodies even in highly regarded cruising marques. More than once have I been left with the motoring-only option, albeit with the least possible amount of main to hold the ship’s head up into the wind.

My best sail this year was bringing Bellanti (sister to your Dufour 39 Forever Changes) back from Greece in March. We had plenty of heavy weather but with three good reefs in the main and a hanked on blade sail on the detachable inner forestay we were able to point much higher foot faster and stay more upright than many modern boats with inadequate reefing on the main and only a furling headsail.

Other boats of that vintage (early 1980’s) have deeper forefoots, more underwater body and decent long fin keels. Internal volume is quite adequate for comfortable living at anchor or in a marina, but not so large as to be dangerous in a rough sea when easily reachable handholds are so essential.

Best of all, they are relatively cheap to acquire, well built and still in reasonable cosmetic condition. You can buy one for less than the VAT on a new similarly sized premium cruising boat.

Of course, this opinion is completely unbiased. Interestingly, I have a trip coming up in October on an Ovni 385 across the Med.