Light Brigade
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LIGHT BRIGADE the New Zealand school of yacht design light displacement and multihull yacht evolution in the Southern Antipodes -19 th to 21 st Century Gary Baigent light brigade – the New Zealand school of yacht design - July 2006 - copyright Gary Baigent - copyright lines drawings rest with the designers Greg Elliott designed light displacement Pig Hunter at speed near Rangitoto Island Gray Hudson 1. destroying the old order 4. origins and influences 12. considered freakish 16. vicious rulecheater 18. Western prejudices 19. first New Zealand multihull 19. butter boxes 21. against the grain 26. first native? 30. fall to bits 35. iconoclasts 40. Count Martinengo 44. canoe hulls 47. kitty cat 49. southern influence 53. work of art 56, Farr’s big dinghy 61. an affront to challenge 65. Chance revolution 66. Auckland school 68. Whiting and Ross 70. midnight builders 73. Joe Louis knockout 74. open wing deck designs 79. hot property 85. a class above 88. lay over on its side 89. the last hurrah 90. after work racers 102. more than a yacht 105. light extremists 108. greatest influence 109. hothouse development 114. the best luxury 119. intense brief life 123. monster versus multihull 124. yachts that fly 132. dragonfly 134. red dinghy on steroids 136. Wednesday night racer theme 142. quod erat demonstandum 142. wing mast schooner 144 the pirate Sayer 147. Maximum Elliott 152. strange machines 157. folding Farrier’s light brigade – the New Zealand school of yacht design 19 t –21 st Century Gary Baigent 1. destroying the old order HEAVILY BALLASTED keel yachts are too weighty to be fast even in winds just short of a gale - but even then they are not fast - and are therefore justifiably ridiculed because in such conditions the yacht, sails and gear become very difficult for the crew and helmsman to handle. But this knowledge was not always so – in fact heavy boats almost without exception, have been considered the norm in the history of pleasure yacht sailing. The exceptions when light displacement boats gained a short period of acceptance with yachting people were rare and could be considered almost aberrations of normal yachting behaviour. But although heavy boats in heavy winds are almost uncontrollable, rolling, broaching, burying their bows or getting pooped by overtaking following seas, light displacement boats and the even lighter multihulls handle such sea conditions well and sail faster with less effort and with reduced loads on hull, sails and gear. They also require less sail area for their high performance and they steer far more easily than their heavyweight counterparts. This heavy boat struggle is well illustrated by the grimacing image of Chris Bouzaid (below) struggling at the helm of a famous champion, but often broaching, US designed, heavy displacement Sparkman and Stephens Rainbow 11 . Heavy yachts adhere to Froude’s Rule where speed is limited by the waves created by the yacht – as they go faster, they sink lower and lower into the wave troughs they have built for themselves – and to go beyond this limiting theoretical hull speed, heavy boats require either huge seas from astern to push them along or an overpowering amount of extra wind force on their distorted sails to provide power for speed - which, invariably places dangerously high loads upon their rigs. The breakthrough from this heavy boat approach that created an impression worldwide began when New Zealand light displacement boats appeared in the 1970’s, particularly the IOR (International Offshore Rule) centreboarders (actually daggerboarders to be correct) from Bruce Farr, Laurie Davidson, Paul Whiting and Jim Young. Horrified traditionalists comparing these lightweight designs with classical heavy displacement boats from the USA like those from Dick Carter or Sparkman and Stephens, found the New Zealand big dinghy 1 Bruce Farr’s centreboard One Ton design Mr. Jumpa Jenny Farrell boats to have about as much beauty as military weapons – to them they looked ugly, austere and threatening - and especially so when they were aggressively sailed by crews who were seemingly intent on destroying the old order. Downwind surfing had special appeal to these new “Mulleties” (a derogatory, traditional term suggesting loud, hard crews from fishing Mullet boats) – but upwind performance was also depressing to owners of outmoded, outpaced heavier designs. But although these iconoclasts had the appearance of something dangerously new, they were in reality, an evolution of 1960’s designs from Bob Stewart, John Spencer, Jim Young and Des Townson. So although avant garde light boats were admired by only a few, they were hated by the majority of conservatives – however it was in this controversial period that light, fast yachts became known world-wide as synonymous with New Zealand. It would be difficult to find any activity more bound by restrictions than yachting. Rules in the past were set by wealthy traditionalists who were determined to keep yachting a rich man’s sport. But the New Zealand- type yacht arose from working class origins, from people who were equally determined to be free of rules, one design restrictions and conformity. This latter attitude inhibited most US and English yachting designs because they were mostly boring production boats with no room for development. And in their stagnation the joy of pure (read fast) sailing had been forgotten, yachts had become merely status symbols. Conversely the New Zealand racing lightweights broke free from displacement hull speeds and tradition by outrageously planing like an overblown sailing dinghy. Under sail these dancing lightweights became alive – and they retained this almost magical force even when swinging on a mooring. And to the open minded the best design examples had a beauty that was more than the piecing together of lightweight yacht components into a radical form. Many disagreed. It took numbers of years before Northern Hemisphere yachtsmen (but not the French, Scandinavians and a few enlightened, but ostracized, Englishmen) to realize keel boats could exceed their theoretical hull speed, 2 Murray Ross designed lightweight R930 3 in fact they didn’t know this was possible until they were jolted awake by the first French single handed light displacement Open 60 yachts. But in the 1970’s the light brigade from New Zealand was seen as a major threat to yachting health by establishment legislators and like the US Sandbaggers a century before (the Sandbagger period was another of those times when lightweight design ran too fast for the “wise men” in power) legislation was introduced to suppress and ban this boat type. As a result of the 1970’s establishment reaction, lightweight advocates from the Southern Antipodeans scathingly viewed the people behind the Rule as reactionaries who were determined to ban all yacht design performance advancement. And that is why in the 1980’s New Zealand designers and sailors turned their backs on the IOR and stepped aboard indigenous high performers from Farr, Young, Davidson, Birdsall, Ross and Elliott. Young commented, “Specializing under rules produces horrible boats. Rule makers have done more harm to yachting than religion has done for mankind. Under a rule it is best to be just fast enough to beat the rest – something New Zealand designers found out the hard way under IOR. In reality everyone is trying to go slow. But that is what the majority want – they would like sports cars but invariably end up with family saloons. Also, under a rule, once someone designs a successful boat that fits the rule, suddenly all designs become the same, few are different. Looking at it objectively over a period of time, at first, like sprats, they all rush off, then most of them come back to the same spot.” Although they would like to think differently most yachting people are not experimentalists and when confronted with inventive types become frightened and confused – and can only handle them by making criticism. Consistently throughout the 175 odd years before the 1980’s the leaders of controlling yacht clubs have stopped any development that encouraged high performance – it has been suggested that in the early years this was probably because of dour religious upbringings. “The most innovative inventions,” wrote Garry Hoyt in the US publication Yacht Racing/Cruis ing, “that have brought major changes in the 20 th Century yachting, have come from two ex-surfers with absolutely no formal training in yacht design: Hobie Alter and Hoyle Schweitzer – who designed the breakthrough Hobie cat and the windsurfer.” Similarly in New Zealand autodidacts have been a major influence in changes of yacht design direction – “New Zealand’s shining light in self education is Bruce Farr,” said Young, “he has done his own thing all his life, left school at 17 and has never stolen any ideas from anyone.” However besides the damaging hierarchical restraints from overseas conservatives, the history of New Zealand light displacement yacht development has also been undermined by local anger and jealousies – perhaps this approach is inevitable and also necessary for progress. It is only in blatant suppression of movements that the situation loses control. The more unfair the umpire, the more determined the iconoclast becomes – so in the long run that is healthy too. Now with the emphasis and overwhelming acceptance throughout the yachting world of building lighter and lighter monohull and multihull designs, the circle has turned 180 degrees and the early New Zealand philosophy beginning with the light centreboarder IOR designs has now been carried much further and has become an unquestioned and established order in itself. 2. origins and influences IT IS ACCEPTED that this change occurred after the 1970’s but the movement of light boats did not originate from this country, as now some patriots would believe – instead it began with the North American 1836 Sneakbox and a little later the Sandbagger – the first Sandbagger appeared in 1852 and was derived from a fishing boat design.