I should say at the outset that I am a lazy sailor. Although I have the greatest admiration for the sight of a boat under a spectacular jackyard topsail, I can’t imagine mustering the gumption to put one up myself. That pretty much goes for a whole list of other sailing paraphernalia: spinnakers with poles, mizzen staysails, running bacstays, gaff headed sails, jibs out at the end of spidery bowsprits. I love to gaze upon these things, and am genuinely glad that someone is willing to put up with them; but for myself, I prefer to swish along in a boat that is simple and demands little exertion from me.
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James Gallarda says:
Great article Doug. I am wondering if an inboard electric motor can be mounted off center on a Rozinante. You drawing looks like a saildrive from Aquamot. Any engineering points to consider? Thx. Jim
Doug Hylan says:
Yes, in fact we put an Elco electric drive in a Rozinante we built several years ago. However, the owner had difficulty learning to attend to it’s care and feeding, and replaced it with a diesel. The Elco was an inboard unit that operated an off center shaft & prop. This kind of installation is considerably more involved and expensive that the pod drive shown on the SELKIE drawing (yes, it’s an Aquamot), as there is a shaft log, stern bearing, etc. that all must be purchased and carefully aligned.
The number one thing to keep in mind with this kind of installation: how are you going to charge the batteries? If run for more than a few minutes, a substantial number of electrons will need replacing. If the batteries aren’t charged promptly, their life will be short. Don’t delude yourself that small solar array will take care of this — shore power or a good sized generator are required. Do the calculations to get a realistic idea of range and charging times.
John Wujack says:
Hi Doug, Thanks for this and all of your work. I just want to make sure that readers are not left with the mistaken notion that Elco electric drives are complicated. I replaced my Stone Horse Sloop’s diesel with an Elco, 36v, 6hp, electric drive three years ago and couldn’t be happier. For daysailing, electric motors are the only way to go.
Doug Hylan says:
Hi John, I agree, and am sorry if I left that impression. Electric drives can be great, but it’s important that people are fully aware of the charging requirements and range limitations.
Stephen L. Clark says:
Doug, I am an Ensign sailor who has desired a LaLa, Fish, or Alerion. Selkie is particularly appealing to me. Would this end up costing Alerion money or substantially less? Thanks, Steve
Doug Hylan says:
Hi Steve, Should be substantially less than ALERION, more in line with a Fish class. If you email my partner, Ellery Brown, he can give you an accurate cost — ellery@dhylanboats.com. I can’t keep all these numbers in my head!
Shane O'Brien says:
Hello Mr Hylan,
I would appreciate some articles on your beautiful Siri. I have your plans but I think it is too big a project for me to attempt. I may find a professional to build her in Tasmania. Has anyone constructed her yet?
I am currently building your crabbing skiff and having lots of fun.
Siri would be the dream boat for me.
blue skies
Shane
David Young says:
Sweet, Doug. I’ll bet that with the board and a decent sized rig she’ll do well to windward…sometimes a weakness of her antecedents. “Life is too short to own an ugly boat”, they say, and Selkie will look so good ghosting along in the evening light that Ben will be Jonesing for a picture.
Gary Lukoski says:
Hi Doug. I’m late to this discussion but I can never pass up looking at a pretty boat like your Selkie. After many years of racing super fast and hard to sail boats, I started looking for a “retirement yacht”. I settled on the Joel White 23′ keel/centerboard double ender La La design. I thought about building one but life got in the way and I bought an Edey and Duff Sakonnet 23. In reading your blog post and all the attributes of your design it was like re-living the criteria I had for a boat. I bought my Sakonnet 23 in late 2006 and commissioned the boat in February 2007. This boat has been a never ending joy to sail for my wife, Joy and I over the ensuing years. Your Selkie would have been in the running if it had been around in 2006. We lack the cuddy cabin but have never overnighted as Joy is not much of a camper. We use this boat every weekend during the winter months (we live in Florida). It lives behind our house on Tampa Bay on a boat lift. I do boat maintenance on her during the summer. We’re retiring early next year and plan on summers in the north, maybe up in your area some day, and winters back here in Florida. We have a deck stepped mast that is pretty easy to step with me lifting and Joy off the bow pulling on a halyard. Trailer to water is about an hour. Good luck with Selkie and I hope you have even half as much fun with her as we’ve had with our “perfect daysailor”. The next big event for us will be the Washington’s Birthday Regatta at The Barnacle in late February.
malcolm kerstein says:
Doug your half model has pulled me back in!
At 75 years this may be the last of a long history of wonderful sailboats.
Have Your nice young associate ,Ellery get back in touch with me and let’s start the “build talk” again
Doug Hylan says:
Hi Malcolm,
Yes, given your circumstances, I think SELKIE would make a very good match, and of course, we would love to build her for you. Ellery is out straight trying to finish our winter’s projects and get our storage boats in the water (such a late spring in Maine this year) — he won’t be able to come up for air for nearly a month.
Our schedule for next winter is filling up, so we shouldn’t daly if you want the boat for the spring of 2015. Please call or e-mail at your convenience and I’ll see if I can remember how to do the paperwork.
Scott Lundin says:
Love the design. Being a tall man , and gaining on the years , being able to stretch out and take a cat nap on the seats while the first mate takes the tiller seems to be an idealic scenario.Plus, the forward cuddy cabin allows for the the shyer folks to retreat to the bucket head in privacy .Quick, easy to handle , and luxurious .Sign me up for the plans when you complete them.
Floyd Thompson says:
Designs like Selkie could be the future of sailing. If you are over sixty, Selkie should be one you dream about. I sail a Rhodes 19, and I find myself wishing the seat a littler higher and wider and the centerboard trunk out of my way. The back rest, the most important angle on the boat. Do you have dimensions for seat height, width and back rest angle?
Doug Hylan says:
The inboard edges of the seats are a bit over 15″ above the sole and slope downward at 6 degrees from there. The seat itself is about 17″ wide. The coaming slopes out at 10 degrees from the vertical.
Robert Hazard says:
She looks to me like a thoroughly modern Alerion, which is to say, one lovely boat! She’s the sort of boat I’d like to have if I had a mooring available, rather than depending on a trailer.
I notice you’ve given the leading edges of the keel and skeg enough rake to shed lobster pot warp.
I’m curious how the centerboard pendant enters the boat without leaking; is there some bit of plumbing that brings it in above the waterline?
My other question involves the auxiliary. Is it electric? Is it off-center under a seat?
Doug Hylan says:
There is a bronze pipe that comes up from the trunk area in the ballast keel into the cockpit. The pendant runs inside this pipe, around a turning sheave and then to a cam cleat just below the top of the pipe. The main sheet makes onto an eye on the top of this same pipe, and also belays via a cam cleat.
Doug Hylan says:
Hi Robert,
Somehow missed your question about the electric drive. It is made by a European company called Aquamot. The unit shown on the drawings is completely enclosed in the pod so there is nothing but the batteries and controls in the boat. It also has a nice folding prop to reduce drag under sail.
Several people have mentioned trailer sailing. As drawn, SELKIE’s mast would not be easy to step without some equipment. No boat can be all things, and I would not consider this one to be an ideal trailer sailer. It is certainly small and light enough to be trailered fairly easily, but I would see this happening mainly at the ends of the season or when a change of venue was desired.
Bob Thayer says:
I’ve admired Selkie since I came across the preliminary drawings on the “On the Drawing Board” page of your website. I’m sure there are others like me who have also been waiting to see her design fleshed out. So thanks for posting this. It’s clear why she’s your personal dreamboat, but don’t be surprised when she jumps to the top of other people’s lists as well.
I look forward to seeing more as you continue to develop the design since the preliminary drawings and the half-model look so good.
Now, about stepping that mast in a trailer sailing scenario…
Beautiful boat and thanks again for posting it here.
Bob
Dale Niemann says:
Very beautiful boat. However, a lot depends on where you sail. In Florida we have a lot of very shallow water and sailing it is the most delightful sailing. Sailing with the wading birds. Your draft is too much for me.
Also, if you really want a simple rig go with a cat/ketch like that on my Core Sound 17. I guess some of the difference in thought is lead vs no lead also. My preference is a nice quick stable daysailor that is easy to rig right from the trailer.
Another great example would be N. G. Herreshoff “Coquina”.
Dale
Ben Mendlowitz says:
Hi Doug, very nice boat and well thought out in every way. How about a bit in a comment about the aesthetics of her design, sheer, transom and cabin shapes, stem angle, etc. A description of what makes her beautiful as well easy to sail. Thanks.
Doug Hylan says:
Well, of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder! When I go to an event where there are lots of boats to look at, I try to see if there are generalizations about the boats I find most beautiful. As in recent studies on what physical features people find most attractive in other people, I think that the more “average” a boat is, the more likely it is to be beautiful.
Although many designers have produced beautiful boats, I think L. Francis Herreshoff’s designs are the most consistently lovely (although I don’t care for his rigs or arrangement plans). To my eye, the hulls of QUIET TUNE and ROZINANTE are both surpassingly beautiful, and so worthy of special study.
Although a beautiful hull is the coming together of a thousand different curves, there are a few that I feel are particularly important: stem profile, sheer, transom outline and the forward waterlines just above and below the floating waterline. Joel White used to tell me that a bow profile should have “character” but was never able to explain to me what the character should be. I like the LFH style bow profile with it’s knuckle that breaks right at the waterline. The knuckle also favors hollow forward waterlines, another feature I find attractive.
My formula for sailboat sheers is that they should be low and about 50% higher at the bow than at the stern. Some designers (Bill Luders comes to mind) have managed to draw very beautiful hulls with only the slightest sheer curvature, but for me this is dangerous territory: the surest way to ruin a boat is to give it not-quite-enough sheer.
Transoms for sailboats look best to me when they have a slight reverse just above the centerline. Of course, rake and curvature are de rigueur for a nice stern. Reversing curves in general can add a lot of interest to a hull, but not in a sheer or bow profile.
Beautiful sections are fun to draw and look great on paper, but in my experience there are lots of great looking boats that have rather boring sections.
I am sure to get lots of comments pointing out the flaws and many exceptions to my rules of thumb, but you know what they say about rules and exceptions.
Georg Hinteregger says:
Beauty is in the eyes of the beer holder. This is a beautiful boat with or without beer. Have you figured out how much she would cost to build?
Doug Hylan says:
We’re working on that and will put it on our web site, DHylanBoats.com, as soon as we get our spring launching work under control.
Hank Kennedy says:
That should read “aside from NOT weakening the bottom it prevents the bruised shins rom climbing over the box.”
Hank
David Tew says:
As you say, designer’s lean toward creating spare, simple boats for themselves. Philip Rhodes designed the 25′ NIXIE for himself. A hull shape reminiscent of the Rhodes 19 with a straightforward fin keel. Deep comfortable cockpit with seats for adults and a cabin for kids. Transom-hung rudder, fractional rig, big main. Elegant. I wonder if she was built and is still around somewhere?
Hank Kennedy says:
What a nice design! Have you actually built one yet? Having the centerboard contained in the ballast fin is a great idea. Aside from weakening the bottom, it prevents the bruised shins from climbing over the box.
Hank
jan labij says:
I have been shipmates with many centerboard boats. None of them had weak bottoms. Bruised shins are caused by efforts to lower the centerboard case in the boat. Make a virtue out of an annoyance – hang the folding leaf table on either side.