10 minute read
TOP TEN BOATS AT 30FT
ZINNIA The ultimate gaffer
LOA 30ft (9.15m) DRAUGHT 5ft 6in (1.7m) DISP 7.9 tonnes RIG Gaff cutter BUILD Strip plank PRICE £300-400,000 DESIGNER Ed Burnett
(edburnettyachts.co.uk) & Nigel Irens (nigelirens.com)
BUILDER Elephant
Boatyard (elephantboatyard. co.uk)
A nely-tuned gaffer from two top Designers
TOP 10 BOATS AROUND 30FT
A look at some of the new classics in the popular 30ft size range
WORDS NIC COMPTON
Afriend once told me that everyone has their ideal size of boat – his happened to be 45ft (13.7m) pilot cutters while mine were slightly smaller sailing yachts around the 30ft (9.1m) mark. Most of the boats I’ve owned have been in that range – partly because that’s all I could afford but also because it’s simply the perfect size: big enough to sail pretty much anywhere in the world but small enough not to break the bank doing so. Just look at the mast of a 30-footer compared to a 40-footer and you get an idea of the difference in scale – and therefore the maintenance bills. And, it turns out, there are plenty of new classic 30-footers to choose from.
At the traditional end of the spectrum is the 30ft Zinnia, designed by the late Ed Burnett in collaboration with Nigel Irens. Built in 1998, this is the boat that launched Ed’s career, and the principles she embodies were repeated in several bigger sizes. There are shades of Harrison Butler and Laurent Giles in her design – or you could just say she’s the ultimate development of a traditional (ie long-keel) gaff cutter built in modern materials. With her relatively high-aspect rig and well-balanced hull, she’s deceptively fast – as you might expect with that design pedigree – and will sail rings around most old gaffers. Several boats have been built to the design around the world, and any prospective owner will have no trouble finding a yard more than happy to build a Zinnia for them – not least Elephant Boatyard in Hampshire and MB Yachts in Dorset.
Another designer to try his hand at the classic gaff cutter configuration with considerable success is Paul Gartside – a former West Country boy who emigrated to British Columbia then Nova Scotia then, in 2016, New York State. Paul was behind the Oysterman 16 and 22 and countless other working boat-inspired designs. When up-and-coming boatbuilder Ben Harris came to build his first boat in 2011, he chose a Gartside design based on the Falmouth Quay Punt. The 30ft Alva is traditionally built of larch on pitch pine and oak frames and not only looks the part but is also surprisingly fast, consistently winning her class at the Falmouth Classics. Ben has just built another 34ft gaff cutter, his third boat,
ALVA The comfortable gaffer
LOA 30ft (9.15m) DRAUGHT 5ft 9in (1.8m) DISP c8 tonnes RIG Gaff cutter CONSTRUCTION Larch on
pitch pine and oak
PRICE £300,000 DESIGNER Paul Gartside
(gartsideboats.com)
BUILDER Ben Harris
(benharrisboats.co.uk)
A surprisingly fast gaffer for family sailing
Right: ‘UandI’ undersail in reflective conditions Right inset: Alastair Garland deep in concentration
HEARD 28 The bullet-proof gaffer
LOA 28ft (8.5m) DRAUGHT 5ft (1.5m) DISP 8.2 tonnes RIG Gaff cutter CONSTRUCTION Glass bre PRICE £160,000 DESIGNER Percy Dalton BUILDER Gaffers & Luggers (gaffer-
sandluggers.com)
An old workhorse with a proven record
designed by Jack Gifford and is clearly the man to talk to if you want a traditional, working boat-inspired yacht of that size.
Staying in the West Country, one of the most popular gaffers in this size range is the Heard 28. It’s based on a wooden boat designed by the legendary Percy Dalton for local boatbuilder Terry Heard in 1968. Moulds were taken off that boat and used to build working boats to dredge the oyster beds on the Carrick Road. She was eventually fitted out with a cruising interior and marketed as the Heard 28. Dozens of boats were built in this way from the 1980s onwards, first by Terry and then his son Martin at their Gaffers & Luggers yard in Tregatreath. Although heavily built, they set a goodly amount of sail (630sqft) and are reputedly quite fast. No boats have been built recently, but Martin’s son Sam assures us he is ready to dust off the moulds and start work on a new order.
A slightly more yachty take on the gaff cutter concept is the Pilot Cutter 30 built by Cornish Crabbers. She’s a development of the yawl-rigged Cornish Trader, designed by Roger Dongray in the 1980s, reconfigured as a gaff cutter. Despite its name, the boat isn’t based on any actual boat type, never mind a pilot cutter. Instead, it’s a shallow-draught (3ft 6in with the centreboard up), traditionally-styled glassfibre cruising yacht, with good performance and a lightweight, modern gaff rig. With four sails, including a jackyard topsail, giving you 600sqft of sail area, there’s plenty of string to keep the crew busy. Shrimpers may come and Shrimpers may go,
PILOT CUTTER 30 The easy gaffer
LOA 30ft (9.14m) DRAUGHT 3ft 6in/5ft 3in
(1.1-1.6m)
DISP 6.4 tonnes RIG Gaff cutter CONSTRUCTION Glass bre PRICE £184,950 DESIGNER Roger Dongray BUILDER Cornish Crabbers
(cornishcrabbers.co.uk) A manageable family cruiser
TIKI 30 The innovator
LOA 30ft (9.2m) DRAUGHT 2ft 1in (0.7m) DISP 1 tonne RIG Soft wing sail CONSTRUCTION Plywood PRICE $78,800 DESIGNER James Wharram & Hanneke
Boon (wharram.com)
BUILDER Andy Smith (andyqqsmithboat-
works@yahoo.com)
CONTESSA 32 Fastnet survivor
LOA 32ft (9.8m) DRAUGHT 5ft 6in (1.7m) DISP 4.3 tonnes RIG Bermudan sloop CONSTRUCTION Glass bre PRICE £275,000 DESIGNER Jeremy Rogers & David Sadler BUILDER Jeremy Rogers (jeremyrogers.co.uk)
The ultimate capable cruiser for all weathers
but the Pilot Cutter 30 is still the flagship of the Cornish Crabber fleet.
The last gaffer in this selection is arguably not a gaffer at all. When James Wharram and Hanneke Boon designed the Tiki 21 in the 1980s, they came up with what they called a ‘soft wing sail’, with a luff that wrapped around the mast to reduce turbulence and a short ‘Dutch’ gaff at its head. This principle was applied to the Tiki range, including the Tiki 30, originally designed as a fleet of charter yachts for Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe. Either way, the result is a low-aspect, low-tech rig ideally suited to the minimalist style of all their boats. Andy Smith builds the Tiki 30 in the Philippines, so there will no doubt be interesting conversations about transport to be had – or you can buy the plans and build her yourself.
The next boat is the oldest in this selection, yet the most mainstream so far: it has a modern bermudan rig set on a traditional, long-keel hull and it set the standard for survival during the 1979 Fastnet Race. I am of course talking about the Contessa 32, designed by Jeremy Rogers and David Sadler in 1971 and, apart from a brief lull in the 1980s and 90s, has been in continuous production ever since. A more seaworthy yet speedy traditional cruising yacht it would be hard to find, and the class has a devoted following. Accommodation is tight compared to most modern boats – or even some of the other boats on this list – and you don’t get full standing headroom if you’re 6ft (1.82m) tall, as I am, but on every other point, this boat is hard to beat.
Of course, not everyone wants a boat capable of sailing around the world, and there’s an increasing number of very elegant, fast dayboats and ‘weekenders’ on the market. One of the longest standing in this field is Alerion Yachts in the US, which started in 1988 with a replica of a daysailer designed by Nat Herreshoff for himself in 1912. Needless to say, the design has been modernised and reinvented for the modern era, while keeping the above water profile drawn by Herreshoff. The Alerion 30 is the latest version, with composite hull, carbonfibre spars and modest but comfortable accommodation. Upgrade to the 33, and you even get an enclosed head. This is a boat for easy, unpretentious sailing. No fuss, no glitz, just good, steady performance.
A similar approach was taken by Rustler Yachts in the UK with its Rustler 33. It too combines a modern underwater body with traditional above water lines – though the aesthetic is more 1950s than 1910s, with the retroussé counter stern and flat sheer. The boat has a pared-down, simple look, which makes it stand out from most boats in the Spirit of Tradition class. At just under three tonnes, it’s at the moderate-to-light end of the spectrum and is said to sail well above hull speed. Below decks, the accommodation is surprisingly spacious, though without standing headroom. That truncated stern doesn’t do it for me, but CB’s editor loves it and suggests the Rustler 33 is “one of the prettiest of all boats – a rare, different masterstroke”. Who am I to argue?
ALERION Spirit of Herreshoff
LOA 30ft 1in (9.2m) DRAUGHT 5ft (1.5m) DISP 2.9 tonnes RIG Bermudan sloop CONSTRUCTION Glass bre PRICE $289,760 DESIGNER Langan Design BUILDER Alerion Yachts (alerionyachts.com)
The wizard of Bristol on steroids
RUSTLER 33 Spirit of the 50s
LOA 34ft (10.4m) DRAUGHT 5ft 6in (1. 7m)
Weight 2.9 tonnes
RIG Bermudan sloop BUILD Resin infused glass bre PRICE £198,250 DESIGNER Stephen Jones BUILDER Rustler Yachts
(rustleryachts.com)
Spirit Yachts, the company that has an enviable reputation for building top-end wooden cruising yachts up to 111ft (33.8m) long, has recently got in on the act with its Spirit 30, their first open boat. Like her bigger sisters, the new boat combines a modern underwater shape with classic lines above, including a moderate counter stern and long spoon bow.
Spirit Yachts has never been afraid of a bit of bling, and the Spirit 30 is no exception, with exquisite joinery varnished to maximum effect and all the necessary hardware of a modern yacht. But perhaps most remarkable is the boat’s weight: just 1.7 tonnes, more than half of which is in the ballast keel. This is a high-performance flyer, which will out-perform most ‘modern’ yachts.
The most modern by far in this selection is the Tofinou 9.7, the latest incarnation of the Tofinou range. Built on the Ile de Ré on the west coast of France, Tofinou started in 1987 as a traditional dayboat built in glassfibre, which soon built up a cult following. More modern designs followed, including the dashing 9.5, which I sailed just after it came out in 2004. The 9.7 takes the concept a bit further, with an unashamedly modern hull shape – wide stern and skimming dish hull – tastefully adorned with wood and varnish to give it a classic ‘feel’.This is, in effect, a modern design with a traditional aesthetic, but it promises to be a lot of fun, with speeds of up to 10.5 knots.
Quite a range of boats, then, within the ‘around 30ft’ range. Next up? Pilot cutters (and others) ‘around 45ft’, of course!
TOFINOU 9.7 Wolf in sheep’s clothing
LOA 31ft 10in (9.7m) DRAUGHT 4ft / 6ft 6in (1.2/2m) DISP 2.3 tonnes RIG Bermudan sloop BUILD Composite PRICE €169,000 DESIGNER Peugeot Design BUILDER Latitude 46 (to nou.com)
A classic of the future SPIRIT 30 Lightweight speedster
LOA 30ft (9.2m) DRAUGHT 4ft 6in (1.4m) DISP 1.7 tonnes RIG Bermudan sloop BUILD Strip plank wood PRICE £250,000 DESIGNER Sean McMillan BUILDER Spirit Yachts (spirityachts.com)
