Building a Bluewater Yacht

Commissions for a bluewater yacht design are normally preceded by extended discussions with the client. But that didn’t apply in Shindig’s case since the designer and client were the same. For I was designing the boat for myself and my wife, Chele, and had the luxury of being free to tailor the various features around our exact requirements without regard to what others might think. Most importantly, I was unfettered by the constraints imposed by attempting to second-guess what the ‘market’ might find attractive – an influence which, in my view, has spoiled a number of potentially great designs.

The basic criteria were quickly defined:

• The boat had to be fast. If anything, speed is more important to cruisers than racers. Racing boats are handicapped to level out inequalities in their performance. The last boat across the line can ‘win’ the race on corrected time. On the other hand, cruising boats live in real time, covering real distances. For example, to arrive late at a tidal gate might mean you must wait till the next one. And, on a grander scale, the difference between 5 and 6 knots would knock nearly 4 days off a transatlantic trade wind crossing. It’s worth remembering that you can always sail a fast boat slowly but you can never sail a slow boat fast.
• Since the majority of the time there would be just the two of us on board, no space would be sacrificed to accommodate more. This is a bluewater yacht, so limitations on provisioning mean we couldn’t possibly cruise with more than four people on board – in our case typically another couple, and usually experienced sailors accustomed to the confines of shipboard life.
• Shindig has only three permanent berths – a double in the after cabin and a single stretching under the stand-up chart table. The mattress is covered in moisture resistant fabric and is used as a ‘sea berth’ for whoever is off-watch during night crossings. If it’s really foul, they needn’t even take off their oilskins, leaving them ready to return on deck in an instant if called. The forepeak is mainly used for stowage but fitted cushions, normally stowed in a canvas sling against the hull side when not needed, can be laid down to convert it into a spacious, if somewhat awkward to enter, double cabin. It might sound selfish but the comfort of guests is a secondary consideration.
  
• Forward visibility from below was essential. With Shindig almost always steered by either the magical Monitor pendulum-servo gear (under sail) or an electronic autopilot (motoring) long spells at the helm are mercifully a thing of the past. Having virtually all-round visibility from the navigation/galley area allows the watch-keeper to continue keeping a lookout while doing other things. 
• As can be seen from the sailplan, Shindig is cutter rigged with a staysail on a self-tacking boom. One downside of a flush foredeck is that there’s not a lot to hang onto when you go forward. This is no problem unless things are seriously rough, but both the inner forestay and the boom provide useful handholds. In really bad conditions, the storm headsail is hanked onto the inner forestay, allowing it to be controlled from the cockpit. This means that no-one need to go right to the bow in such circumstances.
• The interior is essentially open-plan and we were determined that the immediate impression on going below would be one of lightness. Accordingly, there’s no timber panelling or trim of any kind and all vertical surfaces and deckhead are painted white (with an exterior grade acrylic). Following the precedence adopted on our previous sailboat, Spook, there are no doors between compartments. Privacy below – as much as there ever can be on a sailboat – is maintained by curtains which have the benefit of being light in weight, colourful to look at, and don’t creak or slam about. They also allow air to circulate pretty freely around the interior, helping keep things fresh.
• Construction is a curious mixture of old and new techniques. The hull is of cedar strip. Since cedar is quite soft, the exterior surfaces were overlaid with a 3mm thick veneer of khaya (an African mahogany) to make the hull more resistant to minor impact damage. The hull shell was then sheathed both inside and out with biaxial glass rovings and epoxy, all vacuum bagged in situ. The temptation to make the timber a decorative feature was never even considered. It's simply a fantastic structural material, almost completely immune to fatigue. Apart from the companionway steps and some hatch trim, none of it is exposed.
• The deck moulding and almost all of the interior is of foam sandwich, using closed-cell PVC foam, vinylester resin and – again – vacuum bagging techniques. The result is an immensely strong and lightweight assembly, integrated in a way that makes nearly every component a contributor to the overall strength. Testament to her lightness is that, nine years after her launch Shindig still floats high on her marks – even when fully provisioned.

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