And now for something completely different.
Most of my recent videos and posts have featured my small boat sailing, in particular my Chat 18 catamaran and my dinghy racing and coaching. More videos on those to come, but I thought it was now time to post a video of my bigger boat sailing.
As you will see, none of these big boats are to my design. Having said that, I always think that a good designer should sail on as many different types of boats as possible. Because that way they can see different ways of doing things and thus improve their own designs.
I am also always amazed at how little sailing most designers actually do. It's akin to being a car designer but not driving one. Or a homeless house architect.
The monohull is Flica 2, a 70ft Giles designed 12 metre built in 1939, so the last of the prewar 12's and before they became the America Cup boats. See here for more [ Ссылка ], but shown here racing in Cowes in 1960 (I recall as a child watching the 12m's fleet race so probably saw Flica racing, of course never dreaming I'd race it myself 20 years later).
I sailed it for several months in the Caribbean in the late 1970s, after it had been converted to a ketch rig and was being used as a charter boat. Hard work for 2, sometimes 3, crew and up to 16 guests - especially as the engine was a converted London taxi engine with an offset, controllable pitch propeller, rather than a conventional gearbox.
With a draft of nearly 10ft we were always running aground, normally hard to do in the West Indies! But we did also race it, I was then the bowman and it was "exciting" going to windward at 9 knots with the bow going underwater and no lifelines or pulpit!
Next is the 54ft Great Britain 4 trimaran designed by Derek Kelsall for Chay Blyth. It won the 1978 Round Britain race. Seen here on its first sail. I sailed it for several months in 1980, mainly 2 handed with skipper Don Wood who, fortunately, is a very skilled sailor.
It was challenging picking up moorings under sail with two crew and a 38ft beam! I remember doing a lot of running around on that boat and it was incredibly wet to sail to windward. But also great fun overtaking unsuspecting powerboats. When launched it was almost certainly the fastest offshore boat in the world and was extremely quick in flat water.
Finally, a longer clip of me sailing on possibly the most famous west coast USA catamaran, the 63ft Profligate. Designed by Kurt Hughes for Richard Spindler, the founder and editor of Latitude 38, probably the worlds best free boating magazine. [ Ссылка ] Its a huge boat and still seemed empty despite the 15? crew (maybe more!)
We are seen here racing in the 80 mile Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race. Whenever I sail in S California I am always amazed by the calm, gentle swells, generally light winds and warm seas. No wonder its called the "Pacific" Ocean. Very different to the choppy, gloomy English Channel! The oil rigs were a surprise though, although the natural oil vents leaking up from the sea floor even more so.
I really like these mixed events where monohulls sail against multihulls. The Swiftsure and Cowichan Bay regattas in Canada, the 3 Bridge Fiasco in San Francisco, the Yachting Monthly Triangle and Round the Island race in the UK are all races where I've finished on the podium and as a result beaten, sometimes hundreds, monohulls. Too many cruisers think that multihulls don't sail well. The monohull sailors who race against multihulls in these events know different!
