Dick Newick, a Pioneer in Sailing Multihulls, Continues to Deliver Designs Whose Simplicity and Grace, Even at Rest, Are Evocative of Seabirds
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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 Newick Multihulls • Long-Term Layup Niche-Market Diesels We b-Assisted Manufacturing DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010 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.