Singlehanded Racer

Every time a designer pushes on the edges of the envelope and pokes through a little, design offices like mine benefit. I would love to sail this boat ...on Puget Sound. I'd be very comfortable as long as I was in sight of land. Offshore, with an excellent and vigilant crew fully aware of this type of boat's idiosyncrasies, you would probably be safe.

This type of boat would most probably have a limit of positive stability of about 125 degrees. Theoretically, once the boat exceeds that angle, you are going to go over and perhaps find yourself on a boat that is more stable upside down. A 4,600-pound lead bulb 12 feet below the DWL on the Cray Valley sounds effective, but consider that it has the same righting effect as 9,200 pounds of lead 6 feet below the DWL.

With this ultralight displacement (D/L of 56) and exaggerated beam, the chances of getting the boat to right itself are minimal. This is a perfect example of form stability. In this case, the shape of the capsized boat itself is contributing more to the inverted stability than the overall vertical center of gravity. It's called "righting moment," but in this case my design associate Tim Kernan calls it "wronging moment." This aspect of radical boat design is fully understood and accepted by both the designers and the sailors involved.

Beam is often misunderstood. If you look at rating rules over the years, beam is always on the slow side of the equation. More beam means a slower boat, all else being equal. But, when you combine ultralight displacement with exaggerated beam and water ballast, you get a boat that when heeled presents a long sliver shape to the water, like a big C-scow. With 4,600 pounds of water ballast applied on top of that beam, this design also has immense sail-carrying power at moderate heeling angles. The record speaks for itself. This is a very fast shape. We will go into the stability subject in greater depth at a later date.

The SA/D of this design is 46. The chainplates are out at the sheer and the sweep angle is 20 degrees. All headsails will be of minimal overlap and will sheet inside the shrouds.

The hull is all carbon fiber and below the waterline the boat is solid carbon fiber. The boat was built by North End Composites using the SCRIMP method of infusing the resin into the laminate with a vacuum. This results in very high fiber-to-resin content and a very light structure. The keel fin is also carbon fiber.

Cray Valley has logged speeds in excess of 30 knots. This just may be the fastest 50-foot boat you can buy. I wonder what her PHRF rating is.