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Bruckmann 480

2002 January 6
By Robert H. Perry

Motorsailer

The yachting fraternity lost an icon recently, Bob Derecktor, builder/designer and tough individualist. I never met Mr. Derecktor. But I did hear a story once that I doubt is true, but is such a good story. Mr. Derecktor's yard was building a Britton Chance-designed 12-meter. The workers were putting the finishing touches on the trailing edge of the rudder and they needed to know how to radius off the aft, lower corner of the rudder blade. According to legend, as builder and designer pondered the feature, Chance pulled out his pocket slide rule and began calculating (calculating what, I have no idea). After a few minutes of Chance's slide ruling Mr. Derecktor grew impatient and pulled off his ever present cloth cap, laid the bill down on the aluminum, traced a line around the bill and said "Cut here!" It's a good story. It's hard to manufacture originals.

Mark Ellis draws nice boats, always has. This new motorsailer combines Mark's eye with the building skills of another near legendary yard, Bruckmann's of Mississauga, Ontario. This design is a development of another smaller Ellis motorsailer, the Northeast 400. There is nothing wrong or derogatory about calling a boat a motorsailer. It just means that parameters affecting performance under sail and performance under power have been almost equally balanced. We have come a long way from the old days of 50/50s when it was 50 percent powerboat and 50 percent sailboat. The modern motorsailer will usually sail quite well while allowing the owner to motor at hull speed in comfort all day long.

The hull is full in the ends with a broad transom. Canoe-body rocker is minimal, and the transom is immersed about 9 inches to help boost hull speed under power. True this will not be a light-air rocket, but that's what the 140-horsepower Yanmar diesel is for. Under power you can expect cruising speeds in the 10-knot range. Now that's light-air performance. With an L/B of 2.99 this can be considered a beamy boat. The large, semibalanced rudder extends beyond the hull aft. I like the swim platform that will hit the dock before the rudder blade. The D/L is a moderate 262. The ballast-to-displacement ratio is a sensible 36 percent.

There's a lot going on in this interior. There are three staterooms, and the two heads share a shower stall. The galley is down, nicely laid-out and open to the pilothouse. The pilothouse features an inside steering station and a large dinette. Two reading chairs are on the starboard side. I suspect that the Bruckmann yard would be willing to do a custom layout if you don't like this one.

The cockpit is huge. A permanently mounted table with stowage lockers is on centerline and the bench seats are well over 6 feet long. There is a transom door to access the swim platform. One of the benefits of beam on a design like this is that while preserving interior volume in the pilothouse you still have the luxury of designing adequate side decks. Narrow side decks are not fun.

If you accept the fact that designing a motorsailer means forgoing light-air speed under sail you can easily live with an SA/D of 13.86. In fact, despite the astronomically high SA/Ds we see these days, this rig will be just fine in all but ghosting conditions. I'm not keen on in-the-mast mainsail furling. I have yet to see a boat rigged this way that has what I would call an acceptable mainsail shape. But there is no denying the convenience. Maybe a Leisure Furl system with the main rolling up in the boom would be better. The spreaders are swept, and the short bowsprit allows you to carry a big genoa.

I've got to go sailing this afternoon. It's 52 degrees and sprinkling with vigor. The forecast calls for drizzle turning to showers turning to rain by tonight. It's Seattle. The boat I'm going to sail doesn't even have a dodger. Mark's Bruckmann 480 is looking pretty good to me right now.