Bump's World

RACING WITH THE DOG

When SABRE Yachts announced that they were introducing a new 36 footer designed as a daysailer/weekender, I decided I need to learn more about this world. I quickly found a 1996 Alerion 28 for sale down on Cape Cod. The Alerion 28 was the yacht that started this whole new world of modern daysailers. I borrowed a friend's boat trailer and headed to the Cape to buy her. That afternoon I was the proud owner of an Alerion 28.

The bottom looked really bad, I suspected the sails would need replacing, but overall she was a beautiful yacht. I often thought of the sales literature calling her the prettiest girl at the dance. I decided that my racing plan for the summer would be to race the boat with my 1-year-old golden retriever "Brady"and my friend, John Collins. One of the attractions of the daysailer type yacht is ease of handling, so I wanted to test that theory to the extreme.

I had the yard strip the bottom and put on fresh paint. Wet sanding made the bottom even better. I rigged the spar and launched her. I named the boat "WOOF" after my dog.

The one cylinder Yanmar diesel fired right up and Brady and I headed out to sea. As I suspected, the older Dacron sails looked really bad. I could tell Brady was very uncomfortable as we heeled excessively and went sideways a lot. I thought to myself this boat does not sail well at all. A rush order went into Doyle sailmakers. They assured me the new sails would make all the difference.

The new sails did not come in time for the first race. Just as I feared we struggled to get around the race course. We were very lucky to finish in the top half of our class. I feared this could be a long summer. The next weekend was a local yacht club pursuit race. The new sails arrived an hour before the start. John Collins was replaced by my wife , kids and of course Brady. Off we went and immediately I noticed a huge difference. The boat stood up straight and charged ahead. The excessive helm, huge leeway, and tippy feelings were gone. We had our first win.

As the season went on I learned that the boat was very stiff. Luckily one of our new sails was a 155% genoa. "WOOF" really needed that genoa to be competitive. We carried this sail up to twenty knots of true breeze. The Alerion would heel to just below the rail and stop. With the huge cockpit and little cabin top it's very difficult to sit on the rail. We would sit on the windward side of the boat, but going to leeward to adjust a sail or look around seemed to make little difference with helm or boat speed. We did have the opportunity to race against other Alerion 28s. Done of them had a genoa and we quickly left them behind in all wind conditions.

When a designer makes a boat for short handed sailing and ease of handling, sail area is decreased and stability is increased. The boats tend to be very narrow, so they cut through the seas nicely and track well. On a very narrow boat loading the rail with bodies only sinks the boat further. Race boats are beamy so the rail meat flattens the boat. The narrowness also gives the hull have a deep vee shape. The deep vee makes the boat sink as it goes faster. Down wind in a breeze as the Alerion 28 tries to go faster it sinks into its own bow wave, unlike my old Melges 24 that would really get up and go.

"WOOF" was the prettiest girl at the dance and we won more than our share of races. I learned a lot about daysailers and got to talk to Jim Taylor the designer of the new SABRE Spirit a lot about this. We shared many of the same feelings and they are reflected in the new SABRE.

Hull #1 of the 36 foot SABRE Spirit will be launched in about a month. I am more than excited to see the new prettiest girl and dance with her.

Please mail comments to me at Bump@newwaveyachts.com
 
Bump Wilcox