Devoted to the enjoyment of building, using and admiring wooden boats.

ONE IS NOT ENOUGH Penguin, the next development

I 've sold a lot of plans for my Penguin trailer yacht over the years, never spectacular in numbers the enquiries have been steady and the letters coming back from those sailing her have been pretty uniform in the positive commentary. As a gaff rigged glued plywood clinker cruiser she looks very traditional but with a high sail area to weight ratio and a modem underbody shape she is a lot quicker than her spacious accommodation and comfortable, old fashioned looks would suggest.

To see the proper yawl rig go to here

But something was missing. A pretty boat, steady sales of plans, satisfied customers yes, but I felt that there was somehow something more to be had from the design and it was when Derek Bates down in NSW phoned and asked for a two masted yawl rigged version, " like you do for that Navigator sailing dinghy" that the penny dropped. There are over 300 Navigators building or sailing, and almost all of them are rigged with a versatile and stylish two masted rig. Giving endless options for reefing, balance so good the boat can be made to self steer, a lot of sail area low down so she performs startlingly well but still stands up and goes when it blows, the Navigators Yawl rig is so popular that few people realise that she was originally drawn with a bendy 3/4 sloop rig and her target market was race training for teenagers at the local yacht club! Now she is one of the most popular cruising sailing dinghies in the Southern Hemi sphere.
So I took the drawings for Penguin, double bed forward, separate toilet, good sized saloon with two big quarter berths, self draining cockpit and motor in a well inboard. Worked them over carefully and have come up with a rig of similar characteristics.
Unlike many small "trad" yachts there is solid reasoning behind this layout, the second mast is not just decoration, it is there to really work for its living! Her mizzen is large enough to really contribute to the driving force that pulls her along, big enough to make her heave to head to wind by simply letting the jib and main fly with the mizzen sheet hard in and large enough to have her balanced under jib and mizzen only if battling home in some really serious stuff.
Gaff mainsails can be quite close winded if made from modem materials, and this ones high aspect ratio main along with the long luff length of the gaff itself makes it particularly efficient, the battened leech helps give more projected area on all points of sail but is especially good downwind, if you want race a conventional sloop just tell the skipper you'll have a go if it is to be no spinnakers!
And the long footed low aspect ratio jib has a low sheet load, low centre of effort and a tremendous pull when reaching and running without affecting the windward performance.
I like these split rigs, for years unfashionable in small boats they are versatile, safe, perform much better than many would give them credit for and, using the low tech approach to rigging that I draw in my plans, very cheap to set up.
The mast right aft makes setting up the cockpit tent a treat too! Well, some of us have different priorities don't we,
Derek started something here, I drew the new sailplan for him, have mentioned the "new " version of Penguin to those enquiring and have lately been sending out two yawl rigged versions for every sloop, it seems that for a lot of people I have hit the jackpot, "one is not enough" masts that is!

JOHN WELSFORD

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