Regular readers probably know that years ago Mark Mills was an intern in my office. He was fun to have around and really knew sailing. I would listen to him talking to my clients on the phone with his nice Irish accent and I knew he could sell my work better than I could. 

But that was years ago when Mark had a long ponytail. Today Mark has very short hair and his own thriving design office. In fact Mark is on top of the world with the dynamite success of his Cape 31 one-design class that has also proven to be very effective racing under a variety of rating rules. It’s just a fast boat no matter how you measure its rated speed. It wins. One-design fleets are popping up all over the world and by the end of the summer I suspect they’ll have 100 of these South African-built boats racing. I have really enjoyed watching Mark’s career develop.

But that’s not what I came here today to talk about. Mark has designed a “gentleman’s skiff”—the Cayman 28—for a client in the Cayman Islands. The boatyard is in Hungary. This is an all carbon fiber, very simple one-design that will appeal to sailors who want to go very fast in comfort.

 

To address the comfort issue, retractable racks are used to get the 1,086 pounds of maximum allowable crew weight well outboard for righting moment. This is a lot more comfortable than using a trapeze. The boat can be sailed with the racks retracted if you are feeling lazy. The beam with racks deployed is 12 feet 10 inches for a L/B of 2.18. The L/B with racks in is 3.37. 

The D/L is 52.23 with 880 pounds of lead in the keel bulb. Mark says the boat feels very stable even at the dock so they are considering reducing bulb weight. If you add the maximum crew weight to the displacement of the boat you get a D/L of 75.55. 

Once again Mark has sent me a crackerjack set of drawings including full hull lines. There is a single chine running in a straight line about 12 inches above the DWL. The flared-out section changes to a slightly concave shape above the chine presumably to reduce drag. Then there is a line that drops as it runs forward from the transom. I’d probably consider this line the sheer. Above this, the section turns hard inboard to produce a low windage sectional shape at the deck edge to help with windage interference with the foot of the jib. If there is any hollow to the DWL forward I can’t see it. All in all this is a very sexy shape. Maximum beam is at the corner of the transom.

 

The rig is pulled well aft in the boat. Mast location appears to be around 50% of the DWL aft of the cutwater. The center of gravity for the rack deployed crew is as far aft as possible. The SA/D, using the displacement without crew is 44.38. The SA/D with the spinnaker and main is 105.98. Initially there were no winches on the boat but now they are using the smallest single-speed winches for the spinnaker sheets. Mark says crewing from the deployed racks is very comfortable.

 

With one quick test sail under its belt, the Cayman builder in Hungary decided to enter the Blue Ribbon race. It’s the largest event of the year in that region with around  600 entrants on Lake Balaton. The Cayman 28 finished with the 42-footers flying code 0s. Mark reports a very memorable sail.

How much fun is that? Watching Mark’s progress in this delicate world of  designing racing yachts makes me happy. I’ve had plenty of interns that leave my office and I never hear from them again. Mark is the exception.

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LOA 28’; LWL 27’5”;  Beam racks in 8’4”, racks out 12’10”; Displ. 2,425 lb.; Sail area 600 sq. ft.; L/B racks out 2.18, racks in 3.37; D/L 75.55; SA/D 44.38

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Code Yachts

email: tamaskereny@codeyachts.com

www.cayman28.com