Impulse 21 BEAM DRAFT 3,5', DSF'l 1300 Lbs
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DESIGN FORUM LOA 21'O" LWL 1810" Impulse 21 BEAM DRAFT 3,5', DSF'L 1300 lbs. HAL 600 lbs. Relaxed Racing at Last SA 208 sq. ft. aybe you grew up racing 470s or ported by a belowdeck strut, is plenty Thistles and you really loved powerful, as it carries 208 square feet of M dinghies. But the toils of family sail—in the same ball park as the J-22 and job have taken you away from the (230 sq. ft.), and Holder 20 (198 sq. ft.). planing hull scene in favor of crewing on She is also lighter than the J and Holder. friends' "bigger boats." Now you're ready On the other hand, she does not have any for your own boat, and doublehanders pocket-cruising aspirations. She is strict- and triplehanders are calling you back. ly a daysailer, with only enough room in Perhaps a Soling? Can your back take it? the cuddy for a cooler and a lot of gear. A 505? Might your heart give out? As a daysailer, the 21 has many Hera a new happy medium between dinghy-like attributes. The lack of stan- high performance and general chions on deck and the rolled cockpit sailability—a 21-footer from Impulse. lend to the dinghy feel; visually one gets First they came out with a high-tech, Bill the impression of sailing an overgrown Cook-designed 26-footer that got high 470, without the trapeze or hiking. The marks as a sport boat. Now they have feel is so dinghy-like, the temptation is another Bill Cook design with less em- there to roll-tack. But most dinghy-like phasis on the physical, and more on the is the 21's ability to ramp-launch. Though practical. The new design can be sailed she draws 3'5' she will slide off a slight- by two or three people without putting ly modified trailer with ease. Undinghy- a strain on anyone. The non-overlapping like is the small platform on the stern. Impulse 21 is nearly ideal for sailors at jib is self-tacking, on a Harken traveler It's there for those who want to cool off either end of the spectrum—both up-and- track mounted on a lip that doubles as after a hot light-air race. eomingjuniors, and those stepping down a spray deflector. The jib tacks so easily Also undinghy-like is the absence of from larger boats. —John A. Glynn that an adequately directed beginner hiking straps in the cockpit. The could manage the front end of the boat. 600-pound keel takes care of stability for Impulse Marine Inc., 12860 Hillcrest Virtually all control lines are led under you. With the emphasis taken off the Rd., Suite 224, Dallas TX 75230 the deck to a center-mounted panel sport- grueling aspects of smailboat racing, the 214/980-2438. to ho ing a sharp-looking battery of Harken p controls. The deck is extremely simple ton and clean; no spaghetti here. The spin- naker is launched from a below-deck Middle e tube, "Fireball style?' The fractional deck-stepped rig, sup- Georg • to ho p nn Gly A. hii h, A trunk-like control pod houses most of the sailtrim functions, and the stern platform makes life easy for swimmers. The spinnaker con- trols mount next to the mast, and the chute comes out of a bow tube. 28 SAILING WORLD Ib.nnnId frnm c.Allmnimnoin Reprinted from St magazine Impulse 21 Copyright 0 Sail Publications, Inc., 1987 lbo good to be true, the jaded reader might mutter about a boat that promis- es top-flight performance yet demands only a minimum of athletic effort. "The responsiveness of a dinghy, the stability of a swimming float, and the comfort of a lawn chair!" Right! However, in reality the Impulse 21 is sailboat enough to make claims like these seem almost modest. Bill Cook designed her. His International Off- shore Rule designs have been in and around major winner's circles during the past decade and have helped blaze a trail to the top for that lightweight, fractionally rigged, dinghy-hulled style of ocean racer that is today's boat to beat. It may not seem strange, then, that the key ingredients in the Impulse 21's performance under sail are light weight, a controllable fractional rig, and a shallow-rocker hull with a gradual run aft and a modulated fore- comfortable, too," Cook says. (as in the 21's no-rasp nonskid) char- and-aft distribution of waterline beam. And then Cook made her stable. He acterize the results. The tiny cuddy But the Impulse 21 is neither an IOR gave the 21 "something like twice" the might house a sleeper in a pinch, but racer nor a racing dinghy. She is the form stability of many boats her size, it is intended only to offer lockable answer to Impulse Marine president primarily by extending her waterline onboard stowage. Without sails the Harris Clark's commission: "fast and beam. He flared her topsides some- Impulse 21 costs $9,950.—RR. sophisticated, yet very stable and easy what to increase the holding power to sail." Cook's stab at turning that of crew weight from the weather rail. Designer: impossible dream into a boat began And he gave the boat a 600-pound BILL COOK "not by sitting in my office and being keel (40 percent of her total displace- 71 Lewis Street clever, but by talking with sailors, ment) and made it thicker at the Greenwich, Cr 06830 racers, builders, designers, and club bottom than at the top to get as much officials." From this quest came a lead as low as possible. Class rules Builder: smoothly self-tacking jib, a dinghy- prohibit hiking, but racing or not, the IMPULSE MARINE style spinnaker launcher, and some 21's great reserves of stability add a 12880 Hillcrest, Ste. 236 clever innovations like her cockpit great deal to the pleasure of sailing Dallas, TX 75320 console (which works beautifully to her. Still, she is far from being a centralize and simplify controlling "lead mine." LOA 21' sails), the back porch transom, plus a Four generations of Jot-mons have LWL 18' commitment to making her ramp built sailboats near the Johnson Boat Beam 8' lau.nchable from her trailer. "I made Works in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Draft 3'5" her weather deck as comfortable as and the craftiness and pride that have Displacement 1,300 lbs possible (with a radiused and clean helped them turn out blue ribbon Ballast 600 lbs curve for your legs), but I've found that scows are focused now on the Impulse Sail area 208 sq ft sitting on the cockpit sole is pretty 21. Nytex and Divinycell foam are the materials; remarkable uniformity, mir- ror fairness, and sailorly innovation .