79pmooney

The rule took a series of measurement points and ran them through a formula. Kicked out a "length" The longer your "length" was, the faster your boat was assumed to be and the more highly it was penalized. So designers basically distorted the hull shape to have those points as small (for most, close to the centerline) as possible. This lead to boats with broad mid-sections and very narrow ends. Pumpkin seeds. But you look at any good high speed sailboat (or powerboat) and you will not fond one "pumpkin seed"!

I raced on a Carter 33. 33' long, 11' wide with severely pinched ends. Decently fast as handicap boats went in the day but downwind it was a real handful. We did a race with an all night run from Provincetown, Cape Cod to Portsmouth, Maine. Full spinnaker. By 11 pm it was blowing hard. I grew up sailing the small, very tippy English Firefly. It took all my Firefly skills to keep the boat under the spinnaker. (I did screw up once, early on and cleaned the dinner table for the other watch. They were a little upset because they had just sat down to eat. By midnight the wind was down a little. Watch change. The next few hours were a wild ride. Glad I was in a deep, narrow pilot berth! I heard no more complaints about my steering when I came back on deck.

The boat I love on the ocean in any wind is a fiberglass raceboat that was designed with no "rule"in mind. The Moore 24, built between the early '70s and mid '80s. Hull shape was a composite of a sweet LF Herreshoff forward half and the drawn out and full stern of a modern high speed craft but keeping the V-bottom and rounded bilge all the way aft. Deep fin keel of solid lead hung a foot below the hull and spade rudder. Light. 2000 lbs, 1000 lbs of lead. One of the sweetest steering boats ever. Secret was the classic Hesshoff bow with just enough bite to "tell" the boat where to go. IN one race, I sailed it with 2 fingers on the helm going upwind outside the Golden Gate in 25 knots of wind and 8' shortish, hard to steer, breaking waves, I spent the first hour at the helm trying to "drive' the boat fast through them. Tiring! Then I realized "this is a Moore 24. What if I just let it sail?" Went to two fingers and did nothing more. Just let the boat go where it wanted. Boat went faster and it was so easy I could have steered for many hours.

And the Moore downwind? A pure joy and downwind in enough wind (and guts and sail) very fast. Totally behaved. I was on the race committee boat once when I watched all the well sailed boats go downwind with the front of the keel out of water all the time. We heard after of speeds of 20 kts. No reason to question it.

The Moore 24, a fiberglass classic. Fully worthy of C & V. (I worked for Moore Brothers for a year. My next to last boat boat and the boat with my best workmanship --I knew it was my last and asked my co-laminaters to be patient with me - got named "Mercedes" Next week, last day, the big layup on a boat that would get named "Adios". That was 40 years ago. I believe both are still around.)

Ben