Sutton Manor New Rochelle Americas Sailing Community

My hometown, Annapolis, has the slogan "Americas Sailing Capital" whereas Newport, Rhode Island, long-time home of the Americas Cup, about 640 km (400 miles) north of Annapolis, goes one better with their slogan "The Sailing Capital of the World". Notwithstanding the competing Chamber of Commerce hype of these two East Coast sailing towns, there is one community that, between the war years of WWI and WWII, could rightly maintain they were Americas Sailing Community.

Sutton Manor, of New Rochelle, New York was a 50 house bedroom community of New York City that began development in 1914. The community butted up to Long Island Sound and the harbor of Echo Bay that included Tank Island, Harrison Island and Echo Island. There were three active yacht clubs, all predating 1900, within several miles of the community; the Huguenot Yacht Club, The New Rochelle Yacht Club (now defunct, located in Echo Bay on Harrison Island) and the Larchmont Yacht Club. The names of some of Americas most distinguished yachtsmen made Sutton Manor home:

• Stan Ogilvy
• Cornelius Shields
• Bob Bavier
• Howard McMichael, winner of championships in the 210 Class, the International One-Design and Hipkins Trophy.
• Walter Coursen, a Commodore of the Larchmont Yacht Club and the New Rochelle Yacht Club.

Also, two prominent sailors featured in the Earwigoagin historical archives; Larry Huntington and Harry Hall, owned houses in Sutton Manor.

To take a stroll through Sutton Manor during the 1920s and 1930s, one could, every couple of hundred steps or so, have a very interesting conversation about boats and sailing.

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Trawler Fest Rivera Beach FL

Once again I am happy to announce I will be part of the boat buyers program at Trawler Fest in Rivera Beach, FL. http://www.passagemaker.com/events/trawlerfest-riviera-beach-2016/

I am looking forward to teaming up with yacht designer Stephen Seaton  on a seminar about buying and building custom yachts. We will cover what you will need to know about having a custom boat designed and built. We will also cover the purchasing of a used custom boat, most of which are one off built boats. We will mostly cover metal which is the most common in custom built trawler materials, but will also touch on wood and fiberglass.

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Seen at the 2015 Annapolis Sailboat Show The Small Cats

Foils, foils and more foils. Foils were the centerpiece of attention for two very interesting small catamarans on display at the 2015 Annapolis Sailboat Show.

The Nacra 15 junior catamaran was the first cat that I stumbled upon as I wandered the show, sitting next to the Melges 14. It had all the bells and whistles of the modern cat, double trapeze, square-top rig, assymetric spinnaker with tube launcher though what stood out were some nifty foils usually not seen on a production catamaran. The problem with the high aspect, tall rigs of the modern cats is that, when married to a short hull, they pitchpole spectacularly. To work around this problem the designers of the Nacra 15 have fitted curved daggerboards and anti-diving winglets on the rudder. The curved daggerboard provides upward lift when fully down. This unweights the leeward hull and keeps the bow out. The anti-diving winglets on the rudder take over when the pitch angle starts to go negative, applying force to hold the stern down. Despite just a couple of production prototypes sailing in the fall of 2015 the Nacra 15 impressed ISAF enough to be named their official junior catamaran in December, 2015.

If I was marketing director over at Nacra I wouldnt keep this platform only for junior sailing. What about offering a second, smaller rig with only a single trapeze and making a detuned Nacra 15 class targeted for couples?

More about the Nacra 15 here.

In this photo is one of the curved daggerboards. Also the entire deck between the beams is covered in SUP anti-slip foam.

The small rudder winglets.

Promotional video of the Nacra 15 at speed.

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The second catamaran to catch the eye was the spectacular, all carbon, foiling 5.4 meter/17.7 feet Whisper from England. The platform weighs just 78 kg. The moldings and fine detail work was exquisite. The foils are typical to what is used on the International Moth, T-foils up forward, controlled by a wand, and a T-foil on the rudder. I didnt hang around long enough to get an explanation on how it is all adjusted but I did have a short conversation with Robb White, the builder. He said the foils were designed for early lift-off (more area), and not ultimate speed.

Only $30,000 USD if you have a burning desire to be the fastest one on the river (and if you have the time and crew to learn how to sail her).

More info on Whisper by clicking here.

Yachting Worlds Matthew Sheehan put out this video on his sail test of the Whisper foiling cat. At the end of the video, Matthew, like many in the media, feel that foiling will take over the sport. I, on the other hand, feel foiling will always remain an enthusiasts niche - not one for the general sailing population.

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