Dick Newick, a Pioneer in Sailing Multihulls, Continues to Deliver Designs Whose Simplicity and Grace, Even at Rest, Are Evocative of Seabirds

Home , ProA, Third Turtle, Trice (trimaran), Trimaran, Trine (trimaran)

The Following Article Is Provided Courtesy of Professional Boatbuilder magazine &

Steven Callahan

Permissions to reprint or otherwise reuse is required. For permissions, please contact the author; email at: [email protected] Or click on the email address on the bottom of the Home Page.

To return to Steven Callahan’s Home Page, click below: http://www.stevencallahan.net/schome.html

To return to Steven Callahan’s ProBoat Articles Page, which includes links to a number of articles on leading designers, click: http://www.stevencallahan.net/proboat.html

To return to Steven Callahan’s Publications Page which includes links to both articles and books, click: http://www.stevencallahan.net/publications.html

OR You can go directly to the Articles Page, which links to both the Professional Boatbuilder Articles Page and other sites containing articles by Steven Callahan, by clicking: http://www.stevencallahan.net/articles.html Or You can go directly to the Books Page, which links to books by Steven Callahan and his associates, plus descriptions and links to books recommended by Steven Callahan, by clicking: http://www.stevencallahan.net/books.html 122 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER -sitdMnfcuig DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 Newick Multihulls • Long-Term Layup Niche-Market Diesels We b-Assisted Manufacturing

The magazine for those working in design, construction, and repair

NEWICK MULTIHULLS NUMBER 122 DECEMBER/JANUARY LONG-TERM LAYUP 2010 NICHE-MARKET DIESELS $5.95 U.S. WEB-ASSISTED MANUFACTURING

1 Professional BoatBuilder

PBB122_Cover_EDFianl.indd 1 10/26/09 11:43 AM k ic k New ic y D s te cour Intuitive Dynamics

The venerable Dick Newick, a pioneer in sailing multihulls, continues to deliver designs whose simplicity and grace, even at rest, are evocative of seabirds. His fast, safe, ocean-proven multihulls can truly be said to have been “ahead of their time.”

by Steve Callahan ith circumnavigating sailboat At times, his trimarans’ simplicity, Wraces now capturing more structural reliability, and astounding press than the Super Bowl; with mul- speed seemed like grenades tossed tihull speedsters as plastered with into yacht clubs. One sailing maga- Above—The Newick-designed Ocean multinational corporate logos as any zine editorial, titled “Unsafe on Any Surfer, a 40' (12.1m) solo racer skip- Daytona 500 racecar; with multihull Sea,” took all multihulls to task, and pered by Mark Rudiger, placed second workboats proliferating like eels; featured a photo of Newick’s Trice — in class in the 1988 OSTAR single- and now, with 90' (27.4m) multihulls despite the fact she never suffered handed transatlantic race, completing lined up to race for the America’s a structural failure or other mishap the crossing in 18 days. She was the Cup—it’s hard to recall just how until destroyed by hurricane Hugo in first boat built in the U.S. with Durakore, reviled multihulls were as recently 1989. Indeed, many of the concepts a then-new material sandwiching end- as the 1980s. and design features that arose from grain balsa between mahogany skins to Like most art that has reconfigured Newick’s explorations have so shaped be sheathed with fiberglass and epoxy. the future, designer Richard “Dick” the norm of all sailboats over time, The boat’s maststep slides to leeward to Newick’s creations threatened some that we now might wonder why there heel the rig—itself another Newick first. as much as they enlightened others. was such a fuss in the first place.

40 Professional BoatBuilder ) h t bo e ( nl tz He ri F Left—Newick’s first trimaran, Trine, was designed and built by him for his and wife Pat’s day-charter business in the Caribbean. Trine remains active in that trade, under new owners, nearly 50 years later. The cockpit accommodates six guests comfortably; there’s a berth and WC forward. Construction is plywood, with cedar strip below the waterline, all glass-sheathed. Right—Lark, a 24' (7.3m) 1962 design, is believed to be the first tri to employ “dagger-foils”—angled daggerboards—in the amas (outriggers). The boat was bought by banker David Rockefeller for use at his St. Barth’s residence. Newick had not yet developed the signature sculptural shaping of his tris, which better integrated the amas and vaka (main hull). Note the Herreshoff and Alden sailing yachts in near background at left, in Christiansted Harbor.

rom an early age, Newick discov- Holland, Germany, and Denmark, Fered the joy of crossing water in decades before kayaking would slim, lightweight craft. He embraced become a global middle-class sport. the simple life that required keeping a Newick’s design philosophy is firmly vessel light, and the close touch with rooted in that trip. He reveled in living the sea it provides, leading him to simply, sleeping under bridges or in explore cruising frontiers long before haylofts or a small tent or youth their value became obvious. hostels. Sailing a third of the way, Newick’s first boat was a kayak he paddling a third, and riding on work- built at age 10 with his father and ing canal craft a third, he became brothers in the family’s garage in Ruth- increasingly conscious of how every erford, New Jersey. “I was a skinny pound of gear added drag to the kayak. kid who was lousy at team sports,” he Wintering over in Denmark, living recalls. His father, a skilled craftsman, in a minesweeper’s discarded wheel- rightly thought the project would also house lit by kerosene lamps, Newick build young Dick’s self-confidence. At fed a woodstove with bits of beached, 11, Newick built another kayak with dead commercial-fishing boats and, he family. At 12 he thought, “I can do recalls, “learned how to build a strong this,” so designed and built two, one boat by attacking nearby hulks with an for a friend. At 14, he sold his first eight-pound [3.6-kg] maul and axe.” plans to a schoolmate for five bucks. Once things thawed, he bought sev- In the early 1950s—after a hitch in eral Folkboats, the most expensive of the U.S. Navy, after earning a college them for $2,300, and shipped the sail- n

degree, after running a boatshop in boats to San Francisco for resale. w

Eureka, California, and then work- Hitching rides down Europe’s coast ro B im ing with Quakers in Mexico to help and across the Atlantic on a variety J prison inmates and schoolchildren— of watercraft, Newick extended his Dick Newick 30 years ago, cruising the he loaded an 18' (5.4m) kayak on a cruise to 22 months and 10,000 miles Gulf Stream at the helm of Rogue Wave ship and headed for postwar Europe. through 11 countries. He noted the (see page 46). Now in his 80s, Newick There, Newick cruised 600 miles sparkling performance of Uffa Fox’s runs his design practice in Sebastopol, through the canals of Belgium, Flying Fifteen and other small, fast California.

December/January 2010 41 English sailboats. He admired the 16 of them under Newick’s ownership. its enormous righting moment and practical arrangements of the numerous Soon, though, he turned to trimarans. power to carry sail. But Newick him- working sailing craft he encountered Caribbean-based designer-builder self didn’t hesitate to employ substan- throughout. Peter Spronk (see Professional Boat- tial beam structures that made up a Along the way, he met surprising Builder No. 119, page 30) worked large percentage of the boat’s weight. numbers of early long-distance cruis- with Newick and went on to create At a time when conventional boat ers and singlehanded sailors follow- some of the world’s most beautiful design was substantially oriented ing the lead of Tom Crichton, “whose catamarans, primarily because, as around stock hydrostatic formulas, book Sailboat Tramp had helped to Newick observes, Spronk never tried Newick established himself as a wiz- start my wanderings,” Newick wrote to cram too much accommodation ard of intuitive dynamics. in a series of articles for The Rudder and other “modern inconveniences” magazine in 1956. Crichton voyaged into them. Spronk’s low wing-decks ewick’s structurally reliable from Sweden to Israel in a 25-footer slammed a good deal, though. Nboats, unrestrained by conven- (7.6m). Newick’s trimarans seemed more tional hull speeds, were racing and Notably, many of the sailors Newick complex, provided a stiffer staying winning—routinely, locally. But, says met also sailed quite small craft. Arne platform for the rig, greater wing Newick, “I was living in the boon- Christiansen, for example, sailed a clearance, and better maneuverability docks and had no real competition. I 23-footer (7m); John Goodwin’s boat and upwind performance. Newick wanted to see how my boats stacked in Barbados was 25' ; and Tom Follett started out with 24' and 32' (7.3m and up against the big boys.” sailed a 23-footer to the United States 9.7m) daysailers, then created the 36', So in 1964 and 1965 he set off on from the United Kingdom, accom- 2-ton (10.9m, 1,814-kg) Trice, a boat Trice, with her spartan accommoda- panied by Newick for the last 1,200 that signaled future developments. tions, and sailed round-trips of 3,200 miles. The size of the boat seemed So-called “first generation” mod- miles to New England. “Newick gave to be in inverse proportion to the ern multihulls, such as Piver-designed the impression it was all in a day’s adventure one could capture with it. trimarans, had capitalized on rela- work,” later wrote designer Robert “New friendships and ideas could not tively new plywood; the results, how- Harris. Eager for a performance yard- be numbered, much less evaluated, in ever, were boxy cabins, hard angles, stick, Newick sailed Trice alongside ordinary terms,” Newick wrote. And and flat-sided V hulls. By contrast, the 1964 Newport–Bermuda Race, all for a couple of thousand dollars. Newick’s strip-planked bottoms and with a crew of four. She was beaten After joining Follett on his passage tortured plywood yielded hullforms only by the big monohull racers in to the mainland, Newick headed back with more curved V-sections. Also, the the fleet, Niña and Stormvogel. to the Caribbean for St. Croix, in the rounded edges on the bottoms of his To the small cadre of multihull affi- Virgin Islands, where he met and sub- connective platforms began to suggest cionados, Dick Newick was already sequently married Pat, whom he now gull wings. In addition, Newick raised regarded as an innovative designer, refers to affectionately as “that girl I the amas (known then as “floats” or builder, and sailor. But it took the used to go with.” Together they built “outriggers”) until they danced lightly 1968 Observer Singlehanded Trans- a day-charter business over the next 17 on the sea with the boat at rest. When atlantic Race, or OSTAR—at the time years with a native sloop and, signifi- sailing, the weather hull lifted well the premier event for singlehanded cantly, multihulls Newick designed and clear of the water, reducing drag. The sailors and their no-holds-barred built. “I had only one design customer, centers of volume on the amas also boats—to telegraph Newick’s talent and he was easy to please,” he moved forward, in order to counteract around the world. recalls, though others soon followed. the real direction of sail forces, espe- In 1968, it was impossible to put Crossing the Atlantic in a narrow 40' cially downwind. the Newick-designed Cheers into (12.1m) monohull racer with long over- Subsequently, designers would strug- context, except that she’d finished hangs had the effect of literally rolling gle for decades to really appreciate the third. She looked extracted from a catamarans into Dick’s considerations. huge loads on a multihull—owing to sci-fi novel. Curvaceous hulls and the So he built the 40' catamaran Ay-Ay for $8,000, which proved to be an ideal charter platform for the next 42 years,

Cheers, a radical design in its day (1968), shown dockside in Port Saint Louis in the south of France, in August 2008. The 40' (12.1m) boat, which Newick calls an “Atlantic proa,” was raced transatlantic by skipper Tom Follett. He became the first American to finish an OSTAR, and Cheers the first multihull ever to place. Cheers, recently rebuilt by n her French owners, has been designated e iv

a “historical monument” by the multihull- G on

conscious French government. R

42 Professional BoatBuilder occasional rounded form on deck OSTAR, and Cheers the first multihull n 1972, Newick would offer similar might beautify other boats, but on to place. Iinnovation in a 46' (14m) trimaran Cheers there was nary a straight line Newick boats would finish in called Three Cheers, also to be raced or angle in sight. Two needle-thin the top five in all three of the next by Follett and also commissioned 40' canoe hulls, with spoon bows OSTAR races as well, including a by Cheers’ original owners, Jim and and rounded decks, were spanned win in 1980, thereby launching not “Tootie” Morris—the first in a series by highly arched beams. On the only Newick’s career as a preeminent of multiple-boat clients. Freed of con- weather hull, a reserve-buoyancy pod multihull raceboat designer, but also ventional forms, thanks to laminated bulged from the streamlined cabintop. the golden age of multihulls generally. wood veneers (and later, compos- Amidships and to leeward, the ama’s “The Cheers project will stand as a ites), Newick created an entirely new freeboard rested just inches above perfect example of the sort of thing aesthetic. the water. The boat didn’t tack; she the OSTAR was designed to encour- A “wing aka” spanned Three changed ends, like Pacific proas with age. I don’t know which to admire Cheers’ now-trademark Newick which islanders had explored the most: the extreme unorthodoxy of canoe hulls; with ends aimed Pacific basin centuries before Euro the boat’s conception; or the strength upward, the vaka bow was elegantly peans found the nerve to sail monohulls and simplicity of her construction; flared to shed water. Previously, to the Americas. or perhaps her wild good looks; or even other multihulls had largely Prior to Newick, proas had been Tom Follett’s impeccable seaman- clung to a traditional monohull for- nearly forgotten, even in parts of the ship,” wrote Blondie Hasler, famed mat, wearing angular cabin trunks Pacific, and were virtually unknown adventurer and one of the OSTAR’s spread onto flat-topped wing decks; to Western eyes. Furthermore, his originators. or installed trussed or cantilevered Cheers was abnormal even for a proa. “Carry substantial liability insurance beams bolted to amas. What he referred to as an “Atlantic with you when you take Cheers out By contrast, Newick’s aka smoothly proa” kept the vaka (main hull), with for a sail,” wrote Follett the follow- bent its wings over the whole struc- accommodations, to weather, rather ing winter. “This goes for anything ture. He had effectively eliminated than to leeward as in the Pacific tra- like her at the present (experimental) angles where stresses might concen- dition, giving her even more stabil- stage of the design,” he added—a trate, and added generous fairings to ity per pound than a catamaran of sentiment echoed by Newick, who corner joints forward. In so doing, the equal beam. She had no keel or cen- attributes much of the boat’s success deck and wing-bottom became widely terboard as such; instead, there was to Follett. Though Newick and oth- separated webs for a large, super-stiff, a pair of dagger-rudders. The crew ers later created other Atlantic proas, yet lightweight beam spanning a third would lower the aft rudder to steer none ever achieved Cheers ’ success. of the boat’s length, integrating and while swinging the mainsails around Ironically, this American boat, after stiffening the entire boat’s structure on their unstayed masts. decades in a museum, was bought while providing headroom and vol- Such a departure from all traditions by doctors Vincent and Nélie Besin in ume below. Though primarily stream- usually is destined to face scores of France, where she has been made a lined for reducing wave resistance, fundamental problems. But after get- French national monument. And sails the wing aka also reduced wind ting caught aback and knocked down again. resistance. Three Cheers’ wing aka to weather in trials, and then gaining her pod, Cheers went on to be sailed by the capable Tom Follett across the Atlantic twice. In an upwind race in conditions so foul that half the fleet retired and two badly conceived trimarans fell apart, Cheers finished right behind purpose-built 57' and 50' (17.3m and 15.2m) monohulls honed to race to weather. Avoiding the worst storms by sailing a course nearly a thousand miles longer, Follett became the first American to finish the

The 46' (14m) Three Cheers, shown leaving St. Croix for the U.K. in 1972 for the start of that year’s OSTAR, in k which skipper Tom Follett placed fifth. ic Newick notes, “The boat was very fast. k New

But before the appearance of electronic ic y D

autopilots, self-steering was a s problem: wind vanes were no good; the te

apparent wind angle varies too much.” cour

December/January 2010 43 presaged a continuing trend toward: was penalized for outside assistance. handicapped by what he called his monocoque construction, the elimina- Newick’s Val was a conventional “geriatric rig” (an in-mast roller-furling tion of point loadings, and streamlin- oceangoing trimaran in all respects, mainsail), Weld captured the first ing to reduce both wave and wind except she was designed as a day- American win. drag. Even today, few designers have sailer/camper, with canvas seats and For another quarter-century, multihulls exceeded the sublime form of Three cuddy cabins fore and aft just big would win all offshore shorthanded Cheers. enough to squeeze in a berth. Racers events in which they were allowed Three Cheers clocked 20 knots Walter Greene, placing eighth with a to enter. with a dozen people on board the modified Val, and Rory Nugent (46th) day of her launch, and later hit up reinforced a Val’s capabilities. Until o discipline the theoretical with to 27. Follett sailed her to fifth in the then, efforts to win had concentrated Tthe workable, Newick tried to OSTAR. Then Mike McMullen bought on facilitating the handling of ever- balance his time: a third of it sail- her, and helmed her to second in larger craft, leading to the absurdly ing, a third in the shop, and a third the doublehanded 1974 Round Brit- oversized Club Med. From now on, at the drafting board. This approach ain Race, 49 minutes behind the 70' designers would focus more on effi- led him to innovations in construc- (21.3m) cat British Oxygen and ahead ciency. Newick proved that small, tion that complemented those in of Phil Weld’s new Newick-designed simple boats are easier for skippers design. His shapes were far from easy 60' (18.2m) tri Gulfstreamer and the to handle and drive closer to speed to build, but conceptually, the extra French 70' OSTAR winner Manureva potential, more often. effort to build the basic package was (ex–Pen Duick IV), among many Ultimately, over 30 Vals would be well worth the reduction in com- other multihull entries. built whose evolved models (includ- plex and expensive gear and boat In 1976, Newick achieved a seem- ing a recent Val II) would enjoy size that were otherwise required to ingly unreachable pinnacle of racing- expanded cabins in wing akas. achieve speed. multihull design with a humble The year 1976, however, also ended To facilitate construction while 31-footer (9.4m): his stock Val-class tragically. En route to that edition of generating beautifully balanced hull trimaran. By then, the OSTAR had the OSTAR, a huge wave capsized shapes, Newick began drawing become carnage. Boats broke. Skip- Phil Weld’s 60' Gulfstreamer. Worse, boats using a “master curve” body- pers disappeared. Yet Newick’s Mike McMullen’s wife was electro- section pattern. Moving a point on diminutive Third Turtle, skippered by cuted prior to the start while prepar- the curve along a reference diagonal Mike Birch, beat three cats, 14 tri- ing Three Cheers. And in the race or waterline, he would join sheer to marans, and 106 monohulls, finish- itself, McMullen and the boat disap- fairbody at each station. By exploit- ing right behind Pen Duick VI —a peared without a trace, presumed vic- ing this technique, he could lay up uranium-ballasted monohull maxi, tims of a ship or iceberg collision. the amas for Gulfstreamer in the main skippered by one of the most success- Nevertheless, from those grim cir- hull mold, and for a later boat, ful singlehanded sailors and design cumstances arose another lasting and generate all hull parts by means of a innovators of all time, Eric Tabarly, productive relationship. Phil Weld—a half-hull mold. and ahead of the 236' (71.9m) four- blue-blooded publisher, writer, and Years later, multihull builder- masted schooner Club Med, which adventurer—soon employed the Gou- designer Jim Brown would be geon Brothers boatshop inspired by Newick’s master curve (Bay City, Michigan) to system to develop Brown’s Constant build a lighter sister Camber method of cold-molded con- to Gulfstreamer, which struction, which allows builders to Weld’s wife, Ann, sug- stack-cut veneers, rather than spiling gested he name Rogue them individually. Subsequently, Wave. When size lim- Brown would follow Newick’s lead its were imposed for of employing variable curves athwart- OSTAR 1980, Weld built ships to create more sophisticated a Newick 50-footer “Camberwood” molds that still allow n a m e d M o x i e . A t builders to efficiently cold-mold hulls age 65, even though with fine bows, but with fuller hull shapes and transom sterns. “Keep it simple, keep it light,” Dick and Pat Newick’s Newick advises. “You have to be own cruising boat, the pretty sure what you’ve drawn is 51' (15.5m) Pat’s, was going to work, to have faith in the launched in the late original concept and math, but don’t 1980s and is now in get beguiled by thinking: ‘If this k ic Europe under new owner- fails, the whole thing is going to fall ship. Auxiliary power is apart, so I’ll just make it 10% heavier.’ k New ic an 18-hp (13.4-kW) Volvo. Beginners think: ‘I don’t know what y D s Accommodations are spa- I’m doing, or maybe my designer te cious enough to permit a doesn’t know what he’s doing, so

cour pair of double berths. I should make it stronger.’ Before

44 Professional BoatBuilder One of the original 36' (10.9m) racer- cruisers built to Newick’s Echo model, shown racing in the New Zealand Coastal Classic. According to their designer, several of these boats were owner-built in that country; one, professionally built. Newick’s comment on this photo: “We like to sail to windward. In warm weather.”

since moved away from these amas because they require speed to work properly. To keep the noses up at slower speeds, especially downwind when hit with a gust, he’s reverted to fuller amas with almond-shaped sections. Early on, he also employed wing

ong masts, and even tried a canting rig on y F the 1988 OSTAR racer Ocean Surfer. rr e

T In recent years he’s put revolving unstayed rigs on cruisers like White you know it, the whole boat is 10% racers are designed and driven to the Wings and Damfino. Following hull- heavier—and not a success.” very edge. You win, or you crash design trends from the up-and-coming With Newick boats formalized in and burn—a philosophy engendered Nigel Irens, Adrian Thompson, et style and consistently winning races by what became a fully professional, al., Newick expanded his boats’ worldwide, other designers would high-stakes, mostly ocean-racing overall beams and ama volumes for naturally push the envelope and game in the late 1980s. his newer racer/cruisers like Echo II explore new concepts to win. Says and Traveler (his personal favorite, Newick, “Sitting with some of the ewick never stopped innovat- not to be confused with Traveller, world’s best designers looking at my Ning and adapting—within lim- the first of that model). Ama decks boats, I thought I could see inside its. In the early 1980s, in his amas also became routinely rounded to their heads: ‘How can I beat this guy’s near the forward beam, he employed facilitate reemergence when nosing boat?’ Lo and behold, they’d come out asymmetrical daggerboards (dagger- through a wave. Though the first a year later with something a half-ton foils), canted to provide dynamic Traveller ’s amas are notably flat in lighter with 20 square meters [215 sq lift and more stability with the boat profile, Newick typically chooses ft] more sail, and more beam to carry at speed, a feature that eventually more rocker and easier sections than the sail. If you start with my conserva- became the norm in racing trima- are found in today’s Open-class tive design, you might pull off that rans. He later introduced “new moon” multihull racers, to provide a softer iteration once, but then somebody amas, with convex outboard sides to ride in waves and more rounded else will try to do it again. Neptune produce similar dynamic lift, but has performance. and Aeolus are drinking buddies up in heaven, and they look down and say, ‘Let’s teach that S.O.B. a lesson.’ The world’s oceans are scattered with lessons.” Just as monohulls have become more specialized as pure racers or cruisers since the early 1980s, so have multihulls. Ever more highly engi- neered, wider and more powerful

The 51' (15.5m) Traveller is a Corecell/ ew E-glass/epoxy wing-mast sloop built in

Brisbane, Australia, in 2003, and cur- holom t

rently based in Auckland, New Zealand. ar

The owner, an experienced transatlantic ew B

sailor, cruises Polynesia shorthanded; ndr

300+ mile days are common. A sister- y A s

ship won the doublehanded Round te

Britain & Ireland Race, in 2006. cour

December/January 2010 45 The 60' (18.2m) Rogue monohulls. He most admires the Wave, designed for ocean design work of William Garden, Olin racer Phil Weld and built Stephens, Robert Harris, C. Raymond by Gougeon Brothers in Hunt, and others with distinctive 1978. Weld was the first styles and affable characters. He says, American to win the OSTAR “If I had to go to sea and stay out (in a smaller Newick tri). awhile, my favorite boat is Agantyr,” Eric Tabarly, the famed a hefty cruising monohull from French racer, declared MacLear & Harris’s diverse portfolio. Rogue Wave to be the boat “Speed is one thing we can live with- he’d like for himself when out when we go to sea. You can’t live he “retired.” without accommodation. You can’t live without safety. You don’t need to go 30 knots,” he confesses, adding, “but it’s fun to try.” Every man has his limits, how- was about the only race ever. Even as the racing world has k that allowed all kinds of turned toward new kids on the block, ic boats to race together. Newick’s clients still want to sail fast, k New We could quickly estab- but on reliable structures aboard ic lish what works and which one can live reasonably well y D s

te what doesn’t. That was a at sea. “The boats I have evolved fall great challenge. I really between hot racers and comfy cruis- cour enjoyed it,” he says. But ers,” he says. “I’m pushing 30 knots s must be evident by now, that was then. with my racers”; a Newick cruiser, on ANewick has never been one to While he respects the engineering the other hand, “may be a 20-knot follow any pack closely. “I admire the prowess and design skills of Irens, design, or even a 15-knot design. savvy that goes into the newest racing Morelli & Melvin, and others, Newick Below 15, I get antsy.… On Rogue machines, but it’s just not my way of rarely cites other multihull designers Wave, if we weren’t doing 15, I was doing things. I’m no longer involved as major influences. Instead, he peri- bored. with OSTAR, or its recent iterations, odically rereads The Common Sense of “I can give you 20 knots and a snug because I’m not interested in racing Yacht Design by L. Francis Herreshoff place to eat and sleep, but I can’t give against somebody who’s able to buy and applauds designer Dave Gerr’s you luxury and performance and low first place with an unlimited bud- The Nature of Boats, which provided cost at the same time; nobody can” is get. From 1960 into the 1980s, OSTAR him with essential aid designing a realistic axiom he relates to clients. k ic k New ic D Rogue Wave’s study plans: the fore-and-aft views strongly suggest Newick’s characteristic seabird-like shapes.

46 Professional BoatBuilder That is, you can have a fast, inexpensive for her owner, Jack Petith, for decades. not sure you do.’ I lose design work boat with limited accommodation; a At this writing, Naga is halfway that way, but I accept that. roomy, fast boat that is expensive; or through a world cruise. “Pat has been telling me for years an inexpensive, roomy boat that is Tremolino—a small camp-cruiser to stop telling people what they comparatively slow. that at first utilized Hobie Cat 16 want and give them what they want, “Forty years ago when I was start- (4.8m) hulls for amas—the Sum- or what they think they want. My ing out with multihulls, we finished mersault 26 (7.9m), and the Val response is: If they have enough faith an hour or two ahead of big, fancy, are models that have all been in in me to hire me, they should lis- well-sailed monohulls in ocean races,” limited production, but Newick has ten to me rather than tell me how to he recalls. Right now, the more com- not enjoyed the financial success of do my job, which is to make them petitive “60' [18.2m], twin-rudder, designers whose work is widely mass- happy and safe on the water. If I canting-keel, daggerboard monohulls produced. Still, he says, “I do what don’t do that, I’ve failed. My favorite are fine if you want to go fast, but interests me. Pearson and others have client comes with, say, a one-page they’re impossible to live aboard.” In already turned out 300 models of list of the attributes he wants in a contrast, Naga, a stock 38' (11.5m) Clorox-bottle sloops. I’m not going to boat. He may tell me the number of Native-model design of Newick’s has do that. I’d much rather find a small berths, but doesn’t tell me color or go not only raced competitively trans- vacuum to fill. I never give a pro- into great detail. Then I feel I have a oceanic and throughout the Caribbean, spective client a hard sell, but always free hand to give him my best work. she has also served as a liveaboard question: ‘Do you really want this? I’m If he tells me it has to look like a Newick on Vals I & III

hree of the original Val 31' Homewood, who did two more Nevertheless, Val III can provide T(9.4m) trimarans that I’d OSTARs in her, beating Birch’s 1976 good racing for people without designed were raced in the 1976 time. sponsorship or riches of their own. OSTAR. Mike Birch finished sec- By the year 2000, when the Val ond in his, behind Eric Tabarly sail- III was introduced, it became rare Construction: strip-planked ing a 73' (22.2m) monohull. Walter for an unsponsored boat to place cedar, or Corecell, glassed both Greene placed eighth in his modified well in this type of transoceanic sides. Hull halves joined on the Val, and Rory Nugent was 46th (he race. (Phil Weld’s 50'/15.2m Newick- centerline after fabrication over had equipment problems). Birch’s designed trimaran, Moxie, won the boat was subsequently sold to Bill 1980 OSTAR, the last “amateur” winner.) Continues on page 49 k ic k New ic D Plans defining the hullforms of a Val III model, at 30' (9.1m) overall. Newick’s mid-career-and-later vakas and amas appear deceptively simple: their shapes are in fact quite sophisticated. Space here does not permit the full measure of calculations that accompany the lines shown above, in which the designer enumerates separately for the Val III vaka and ama, their displacements (in both fresh and salt water), coefficients (prismatic, block, etc.), ratios (D/L, L/B, etc.), centers (VCG, LCG, etc.), areas (waterplane, lateral plane, etc.), and precise dimensions (including freeboard, and fairbody draft). Newick says of his tris: “High performance is an over-used and often purposely vague advertising term. As used by me, it means the ability to sail safely and comfortably, faster than winds up to about 14 knots, and to achieve over 20 knots in ideal conditions with a minimum of effort.”

December/January 2010 47 certain William Hand motorsailer, I planet’s bigger social issues. Dur- two-person car for $5,000.” tell him: ‘I’m not your guy.’ Phil Weld ing the first energy crisis in the early As for what people want in boats was the right mix. He was a great 1970s, Dick Newick and Jim Brown, coming out of the current recession, guy, the life of the party. He made coupled with Phil Weld’s bankroll and he says, “They’ll be cheap and because things happen, and he could afford enthusiasm, focused on working sail, of that, they’ll be simple.” He designed whatever he wanted—but he didn’t particularly for Third World countries. a slim monohull powerboat for the want much.” They built SIB (for Small Is Beautiful, original owner of Traveler, and now Vincent and Nellie Besin are Dick’s after E.F. Schumacher’s seminal book), has a model for a powercat runabout, most recent dedicated patrons, own- a working trimaran featuring unstayed which he estimates will weigh 600 ing Cheers and a Newick trimaran, masts, Constant Camber hull, and lbs (272 kg) and do 15 knots with as well as commissioning Newick to lashed beams. A subsequent design four people on board, driven by just a update Cheers by way of a new 56' of similar concept sailed to Guyana. 20-hp (15-kW) outboard. [See “Design (17m) proa with which to sail around Unfortunately, Third World politics Challenge,” page 24 in this issue —Ed.] the world. “It’s so big it scares me,” killed the project, but Brown would go Newick’s boats of all types will Newick admits. Although he is actu- on doing development work in what inevitably remain platforms with ally keen on the project, sorting out he more accurately calls the “Two- which sailors can approach becoming the proa’s technical problems—such Thirds World”; as for Newick, he never sea creatures in flight, as integrated as as creating reversible rudders so the forgot the wider needs that boats and nature and machine can get. forward one can be deployed as an creative design might address. “If you Looking back, Newick says, efficient foil—with simple solutions have so much money to throw at a “There’s not much I regret doing. remains a daunting assisgnment. problem—like current leading multi- What I regret is not doing some hull racers seem to—and it keeps things, not following through. That’s ewick’s aspirations were never you out of the bar, then I guess that’s one of my biggest mistakes: I’ve tried Nreally limited to such arcane all right. But it’s much better to spend something and moved on before per- interests as proas, or even ultimate that money developing a cure for fecting what was viable because there speed. Pat’s involvement with nutrition cancer or mass-produced electric hasn’t been anyone else’s R&D bud- and organic foods, decades before it automobiles,” he says, referring to a get to allow it.” Otherwise, “I’m cer- became popular, buttresses Newick’s design of his own he submitted to tainly happy to have had the wider practical concerns about the Ford. “We desperately need a 35-mph, boatshops in Eureka, St. Croix, and

48 Professional BoatBuilder Continues from page 47 and depthsounder, plus whatever is with national or European Union temporary frames spaced 24" /61cm required by the race rules. regulations. Buyers should assure apart (full-sized patterns are supplied themselves that, as racers, they with the plans). Akas and wing mast No motor will be carried for rac- will be able to live with their own are similarly built, but with the addi- ing; a 5-hp (3.7-kW) four-stroke out- bureaucracies. tion of carbon fiber. To save weight board would serve well when not There are only three sails, all eas- and money, the rudder does not racing. Plans do not include elec- ily handled. The original Vals do 20 swing up if struck, as in most of my trical or cabin-ventilation details, knots occasionally. The latest ver- designs; rather, the board has the which will depend on the skipper’s sion will do more than that, and do usual Newick “crash box” to minim- needs. Two or more large photo- it more often. After the race, a Val III ize damage from grounding or col- voltaic panels with either a small can daysail several people and cruise lision with a whale. The board will wind generator or towed propeller one or two spartan types. usually be carried deep enough to will supply the autopilot and running Finally, Val III is for sailors who protect the rudder. lights. There is no room for a cap- would rather actually race a 30-footer Accommodations: a sheltered size escape-hatch; however, sealed (9.1m) than dream about racing a steering station, a dry place to sleep compartments would float her high 60-footer (18.2m). Plans cost $2,000. with sitting headroom, a single- enough to leave a large air bubble They are in English units, easily burner stove, and two buckets. in the main hull that would permit converted to their metric equivalents Electronics: autopilot, GPS, hand- a wet exit through the cockpit. No with an inexpensive calculator. held VHF radio, log, speedometer, thought has been given to complying —Dick Newick

Martha’s Vineyard, where I learned a Dane [Asker Kure]. And then, 17 years I think it would be harder for a young lot. I’m delighted to have spent two in St. Croix building up the charter guy starting out to do those things years bumming around Europe in lit- business and designing my own now.” tle boats. It was invaluable, especially boats, and starting to design a few for Despite Newick’s near-mythic status, sailing down the coast with the old others—that was a great opportunity. it was with some surprise that any

December/January 2010 49 multihull designer might be in the C. Raymond Hunt, and Jack Hargrave. adding that Newick’s boats “are very running for the North American Boat Each judge listed 10 names in order distinctive…instantly recognizable as Designers Hall of Fame, jointly spon- of preference. Dave Gerr, Westlawn’s Newick designs. I think the panelists sored by Westlawn Institute of Marine director, then put the lists on a liked the almost austere simplicity of Technology, The Landing School, spreadsheet, multiplying points for his design approach, which anyone Mystic Seaport Museum, and the position on each list. Newick had who is a serious designer really American Boat & Yacht Council— been on many panelists’ lists since the appreciates. Dick’s boats are pure and especially in only its fourth round. first selection for 2005, but in 2008, elegant. They work. They are unique. In 2008, Newick joined a very out of 35 nominees, “he ended up And they are incredibly successful select list of designers: Nathanael G. toward the top on quite a few lists as and influential. All these multihulls and L. Francis Herreshoff, Philip well as appearing on quite a few of racing around the world would not Rhodes, John Alden, Olin Stephens, the other panelists’ lists,” says Gerr, exist without the work Dick did.” [For more on this new hall of fame, see PBB No. 113, page 18.] It seems especially fitting that N.G. Herreshoff and Newick should book- end the 20th century. N.G. Herreshoff accompanied the birth of the techno- logical age with his brilliant catamaran Amaryllis challenging the yachting establishment; Newick has escorted the multihull into the 21st century, the once radical now embraced. Newick does not claim this role alone, but acknowledges the sponta- neous evolution of ideas: when many elements of technology and culture are ready, and the ideas are right, then someone will discover them. He notes that Elisha Gray and Alexander Gra- ham Bell both applied for patents for telephonic devices on the same day, just as Alfred Wallace and Charles Dar- win simultaneously developed theo- ries of natural selection. Perhaps the multihull revolution/evolution would have inevitably happened without Piver, Choy, Newick, Crowther, Kelsall, Brown, and many others on whose shoulders they stood; but as it happened, they dared to carry and reinvigorate the torch. Newick, a believer in reincarna- tion, says, “People ask me, ‘Where do I get these ideas?’ I can only say, I must have been a Polynesian canoe-builder.” Perhaps, someday, between the planets there will sail upon the solar winds a daring spacecraft designed by a guy who must have once been… Dick Newick. PBB

About the Author: Steve Callahan has designed and built several boats, authored two books, and written widely in the marine press on modern sailing design, designers, and technologies—including a series of designer profiles for this magazine, reflecting Steve’s special interest in multihulls, a genre in which he’s an accomplished sailor.

50 Professional BoatBuilder This Article Has Been Provided Courtesy of Professional Boatbuilder magazine &

Steven Callahan

Permissions to reprint or otherwise reuse is required. For permissions, please contact the author; email at: [email protected] Or click on the email address on the bottom of the Home Page.

To return to Steven Callahan’s Home Page, click: http://www.stevencallahan.net/schome.html

To return to Steven Callahan’s Pro-boat Articles Page, which includes links to a number of articles on leading designers, click: http://www.stevencallahan.net/proboat.html

To return to Steven Callahan’s Publications Page which includes links to both articles and books, click: http://www.stevencallahan.net/publications.html