Stephens, Waring & White Yacht Design - Blog

Great ERR Photos

swwyacht — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:05:17 +0000

I just looked at our friend Alison Langley’s website, and found a slideshow of fantastic photos shot during the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta. These are well worth a look, even if you don’t care a whit about boats– they are just beautiful examples of the photographer’s art. Full of life, action, glittering water, and brilliant spinnakers. Check it out: http://www.langleyphoto.com/view/slideshow/27

Bob

ERR Action Photos

swwyacht — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:52:57 +0000

Fellow yacht designer John Brooks http://www.brooksboatsdesigns.com/ was on the water spectating for the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, and captured these great images of several of our boats.

At the Mark

Here are three of our designs at the mark where we hardened up to return into the Reach, about 2 miles from the finish. To windward is White Wings, a W-76– she raced shorthanded, and non-spinnaker. Our 50′ day-racer, Ginger, is peeling from her kite to blade jib. Race Horse, the new W-37, is carrying her Code Zero, as she did down the reaching leg.

Race Horse

Here’s Race Horse captured just before the mark, still reaching deeply under Code Zero. While not as powerful as her asymmetrical spinnaker, it’s more easily handled. In this breeze, she would benefit from a few more crew-members to hold her rail down and her nose up, to break away and plane!

Race Horse Jib-reaching

After the mark, Race Horse simply rolled up her Code sail, unrolled her jib, and took off. Here she is reaching under main and jib at 10+ knots. I know because I was aboard Ginger, and we were keeping ahead of her–just! What a fun day, and great to see photos from another angle. Thanks, John!

Bob Stephens

Spirit of Tradition Racing Update

swwyacht — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:44:08 +0000

We’re well into the regatta season here in the Northeast, and it’s been a fantastic season so far! The weather gods have smiled on us this summer, and the last two weekends have given us some sailing that’s been hard to beat. We’ll hope to have some great images for you soon from the three races around the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta in Downeast Maine, and from the Opera House Cup in Nantucket, but meanwhile here are a couple of teasers and a quick report.

Old meets new: the W-37 and Vela: photo by Chris Burstein

The long ERR weekend kicked off with a dock talk at the Castine Yacht Club featuring a comparison of our new W-37, a “21st century sandbagger”, with the lovely traditional sloop Vela, designed and built by Capt. Havilah Hawkins. A panel consisting of yours truly, Donald Tofias of W-Class Yacht Company, and Capt. Hawkins, discussed the different approaches emobdied in the two vessels, which Hawkins classified as “leading edge vs. trailing edge technologies”.

Thursday morning dawned damp and still, and a foggy, slow race ensued from Castine to Camden. The 27-boat fleet included some beautiful classics like Joyant, a Herreshoff gaff rigged P-boat; Lady M, a Herreshoff BB30 recently completely restored by French and Webb; and three New York 32’s, grand old ladies of S&S/Nevins lineage. In the 7-boat Spirit of Tradition fleet, four boats were from the boards of Stephens, Waring, and White, including two W-class yachts (White Wings, a 76, and Race Horse, the 37), our elegant 50′ daysailer Ginger, and Marjorie, a serious cruising ketch. Despite the challenging conditions, SWW boats managed to garner 2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th positions, giving up 5th place to Vortex, Steve White’s Knud Reimers-designed Swede 55, celebrating her 20th birthday as one of the first Spirit of Tradition yachts, and sailed by two of the three principles of SWW.

Joyant off Camden; Chris Burstein photo

Friday’s race from Camden through the Deer Isle Thorofare to Brooklin was graced with clear skies and a crisp west wind that led to a rollicking spinnaker reach through the gorgeous but tight waters off Stonington. Vortex was able by tremendous crew work to hold off the faster newer yachts from SWW to emerge victorious. Ginger nipped Race Horse in an exciting last few hundred yards to finish 12 seconds ahead, but slipped to 6th in SOT as she paid for her succes in 2009 with a big penalty applied to her rating. Race Horse, with a clean record due to her newness, garnered 3d in SOT, behind the S&S-designed Anna.

Saturday’s Eggemoggin Reach Regatta was a fantastic spectacle, as over 90 boats collected at the starting line ahead of a perfect westerly of 12 knots building to 18 or so as the sea breeze kicked in.

the fleet's away on a spinnaker start: Chris Burstein photo

Race Horse on pace in the ERR: Glenn Cook photo

I jumped ship from Vortex to Ginger for the day, and had one of the memorable sails of my life. A spinnaker reach down Eggemoggin Reach to Egg Rock, crossing gybes with other boats of SWW design as well as overtaking some gorgeous classics, dueling with Race Horse all the way. At Egg Rock, the breeze had veered enough to fetch the next mark, Halibut Rock, on a tight close reach. From Halibut, we gybed downwind in a tightly packed fleet displaying the past 100 years of yachting. Ginger’s speed and maneuverability was a big help in avoiding some close calls near the marks, and we hardened up for a jib reach to the finish. The last 200 yards freed enough to allow us to unroll our Code Zero reacher and cross the line in style. Having seen speeds well into the double digits, we were among the first boats to finish, nipping Race Horse by about a minute. We had our conditions that day– we’ll see how the two compare in lighter breeze! Again, our penalty from the previous year’s victory pushed Ginger down the standings to 6th on corrected. The venerable and slippery Vortex took the bullet, followed by Race Horse in 2d and Marjorie in 3d, helped out by her powerful mizzen staysail and 49′ of waterline. It was the fastest Eggemoggin Reach Regatta on record, and all participants agreed it was an unmatched experience of great sailing, spirited competition, and spectacular boat-watching.

Similarly great weather, but much lighter wind, graced the Opera House Cup, run just yesterday in Nantucket, but early reports suggest that an equally great time was on hand for a similarly large fleet. The owner of our 90′ yawl Bequia sent us a nice greeting last night to let us know how much fun he had putting her through her paces in several days of racing culminating in the OHC, and congratulations are due to Harvey Jones, owner of Mustang, a W-46, for his victory in SOT class. Full results will be out in a day or so, and we’ll know more about how the rest of the fleet shaped up, and we’ll hope to be able to bring you some great photos of the event as well…

Keep sailing,

Bob Stephens

SWW Yacht Design W-Class 37 video footage

swwyacht — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:09:48 +0000

Bermuda Race Success: Hoi An excels!

swwyacht — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:13:38 +0000

Hoi An on launch day

Our 50′ sloop Hoi An had a great result in the 2010 Bermuda Race. In addition to fulfilling a lifelong dream for owner Marc Heilner by completing the course, she also bested all but a few other yachts in the 180+ boat fleet.

Hoi An was designed by SWW and built in cold-molded wood by Brooklin Boat Yard in 2003, as an exceptional example of the Spirit of Tradition style– she’s classic in appearance above the waterline, racily modern below, with a bulb-fin keel and high-aspect spade rudder. Her tall carbon rig and state-of-the-art sails give her surprising performance, which she has showcased in lots of inshore racing among the Downeast Maine fleet, often showing her heels to more race-inspired designs.

The Bermuda Race gave her a chance to prove that she can compete with cutting-edge racing machines, and look great while doing it! Marc’s crew included myself, the principle designer of the yacht; Rob Haile, sailmaker for Maine Sailing Partners, who built Hoi An’s entire inventory, and Rusty Duym, a marine electrician and excellent sailor. Because we work in marine fields, we are considered “professional sailors” in the eyes of the Bermuda race committee, and so Hoi An was committed to race in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse division, against the latest and greatest of purpose-built racing machines and truly professional crew. Also aboard were Marc’s college-age son Lincoln, who took charge of the primary duties of navigation, with me aiding and assisting; Lincoln’s friend Sam Miller-Little, providing much-needed foredeck expertise; and family friend John Richardson.

Through careful strategy, good boatspeed, help from the weather, and a modicum of good luck, Hoi An’s crew was able to drive her the 635 miles from Newport, RI, to Bermuda in just under 94 hours, securing a very creditable 3d in class, 3d in Gibbs Hill division, and 4th overall in the fleet on corrected time! and, probably to the fury of the crews who rode the rails on the racing sleds all the way to Bermuda, we did it with the dodger up!

Bob Stephens

spectators enjoying the day

a small portion of the fleet

The Trumpy Enticer, one of our restoration projects, out to watch the start

Bellamente--some of our competition

The last we saw of her

a brief interlude of doldrums

life at 20 degrees of heel

Bermuda on the horizon

At the (mostly empty) Royal Bermuda Yacht Club

the fleet is in

The W-37 Cockpit Layout

swwyacht — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:40:54 +0000

A recent follower asked for some more photos of the W-37 cockpit layout, and through the kindness of another follower, we can show you some fine photos. These were taken in the last few days, after Race Horse’s crew had had a chance to add some nice touches, like the life rings…

Race Horse ready for a sail

The business end

The forward winches are for halyards, reef lines, etc. The middle winches are the primaries, used for jib and spin sheets– carefully placed turning blocks allow sheeting both to the windward winch to keep crew on the rail. The aft winches are for mainsheet and trav lines.

A shapely tiller-- a wheel in a well could be an option...

Safety gear, nicely stowed

Thanks very much for the photos, mstrsail! Race Horse will hit the race course for the first time next week– we’ll await a report…

The W-37 Sails!

swwyacht — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:57:24 +0000

Race Horse graced the waters of Newport Harbor with her presence this weekend. Sailing trials left everyone aboard with big grins! Eight knots of boat speed in five knots of wind– what else needs to be said?

You'll be able to tell who's sailing past!

Donald Tofias appeases the sea gods

Yee Haw. Check out the bow wave.

The square top mainsail working

SWW Tour San Diego & Newport Beach California

swwyacht — Fri, 14 May 2010 19:42:56 +0000

Well, it has been a whirlwind of travel and work in the past two weeks and I have not been able to log onto our blog to talk about any of it! In some way that is a good thing, we need to be busy right now, after such a slow winter.

So, yes it is true, Steve White and myself (Paul Waring) made a bit of a tour out to sunny southern California to give talk presentations that introduce who we are and what we do as yacht designers and builders. Much to our surprise, we actually had audienes at three different events!

Looking out across San Diego Harbor

This Picture tells a story…I mean life is hard, here…I think someone told there were 60,000 boats in San Diego!

A local favorite, S & S designed "Pacifica"

Our gracious host in San Diego, Greg Stewart, a Naval Architect at Nelson/Marek Yacht Design, made sure that we had plenty to do and that we were not sitting idly sipping cocktails by the pool. Everyday was full, with visits to local yards, marinas, yacht clubs and special points of interest. The folks that we met along the way were all brilliant people with sharp interest in sailing and boating in general. We met San Diego Yacht Club Commodore, Bill Campbell, at a presentation we gave for the San Diego Yacht club luncheon that occurs every first Wednesday of each month. Bill is an energetic and charismatic guy, and he is playing a lead role in the heart of the sailing community in San Diego. San Diego Yacht Club is one of our countries’ finest–a club with an incredibly rich heritage of great sailors that come from the nearby comunities–including the famous Dennis Conner.

View from our hotel on Shelter Island

More to come on this, back to the drawing board!

Soundings Interview, Live at the Maine Boat Builder’s Show

swwyacht — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:50:02 +0000

Taken at Maine Boat Builders Show in March.

I am enjoying my new celebrity status!!—Paul Waring

The Bequia crew deals with disappointment

swwyacht — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:17:40 +0000

Well,yesterday was not a good day. Before the start, we managed to roll up the spinnaker halyard in the jib, and broke the forestay. The very expensive, carbon fiber forestay. So that’s the end of our racing.

Hydraulics are really powerful ,and you can’t tell how much things are loading up with your finger on the button. It made a hellacious bang and shook the whole boat. It happened before we started sailing– we had the main up but were still motoring slowly upwind. Everybody is fine– no injuries nor any danger. But these big boats have big loads, and things happen fast. Another wake-up call.

While it was an unfortunate accident with no-one (or everyone) to blame, I have a great alibi– I was at the extreme other end of the boat. I was readying the mizzen for hoisting, and I felt the entire stern jump underfoot.

After we got in to the dock, I got a great view of Falmouth Harbour from 100 feet up, when I went aloft to assess and photograph the damage.

The carbon stay is twisted off where it exits the top of the carbon furler headfoil. The foil is slightly damaged at the top, where it crashed against the mast when the stay let go, but this is well above the top swivel, and will pose no problems. The jib halyard is chafed through the cover, but the core is intact.

carnage aloft; English Harbour in the distance

Bird's eye view of Bequia

Today we’ll lower the forestay and furler down to the dock, and begin disassembling it, so the guys from Southern Spars can build a new stay. A good place to get service right here–the owner made a quick call when we hit the dock, and learned that Scott Vogel and Mark Hauser from Southern were sailing aboard Ranger; we had worked with both of them during Bequia’s build. As soon as Ranger was secured, they hustled right over, and confirmed our diagnosis– “Yep, it’s broken.” Scotty made a few calls, and a new stay is in the works already– not bad for a Saturday in the islands. Scotty will take the end fittings back with him to Newport when he leaves on Monday, so they can be re-used for the new stay.

This is particularly disappointing, as we got off the a great start in the regatta– Friday’s race had us corrected out to third overall in Spirit of Tradition, behind Rebecca and Velsheda. This positioned us really well, and it’s a shame not to be able to really put her though her paces.

There was quite a bit of other carnage out on the course yesterday– Galatea lost her mizzen mast (after suffering a collision the day before); Rebecca’s spinnaker halyard jammed, resulting in her cutting away the chute, and generally a hard and blustery day on the water from all reports. I really wish I were able to give yyou a first-hand account.

Bummer.