This is Linda Dashew. Welcome to the Dashew offshore YouTube channel 17 years ago
when Steve and I put this video together we were just trying to build ourselves a
good long distance cruising yacht we've updated the video that follows to show
how the FPB concept has evolved we will explain what Steve and I have learned
about this new form of cruising and give you a quick tour through some of the
other FPB models. Ok let's get underway
Hi, I'm Linda Dashew. For the past year Steven I've been hard at work on a new
boat design we've had numerous emails and phone calls requesting information
so we made this brief video to give you some background on the design and a
feeling for where we're headed with the boat. While this new ocean Voyager may
look radically different to you she's based on our design work of the past 25
years so perhaps a few historical comments are in order
all of the 50-some boats we've designed and built have had the same objective
safe and comfortable long-distance voyaging
we worked hard at maximizing hull and rig efficiency so that couples can handle
these boats in heavy as well as light airs the single most important
characteristic is steering control and these boats can be driven hard with
autopilot steering in heavy winds and big seas
if they handle well in heavy weather you know they're going to be a dream the 99%
of the time the weather is moderate the same characteristics which create
efficient sailboats able to be driven at relatively high
speeds with very small rigs also make for efficient powering
the small engines all of our designs power very nicely for long distances if
we slow it down to 10 knots Beowulf consumed just three gallons of
fuel per hour these sailboats have better powering characteristics than
modern trawlers because the new design which we've been calling a un-sailboat
does not have to create stability to offset sail forces it can be even more
efficient under power and more comfortable at sea than what we've
become accustomed to with our sailing designs what we'd like to do now is to
spend a few minutes going over some basic theory of naval architecture.
To begin with you can get a rough idea of hull efficiency by looking at the bow
and stern waves kicked up by any hull and comparing them to similar length
hulls moving at the same speed take a look at these sailing images first. These
boats are all moving at speed length ratios above 1.3
in other words faster than hull speed that might sound pretty fast compared to
most designs but it is quite normal for our boats. Study the size of the bow and
stern waves, in all cases they are very small and the stern wave doesn't really
get started until it has reached the end of the boat now let's look at some stern
wakes from video shot on board. The first video is on a 1980 design
Intermezzo 2, she's broad reaching at about 12 knots, 12 years later here is
Sundeer. This wake is over doing a steady 15 knots about the same speed in
relation to her waterline length as Intermezzo's 12 knots notice how
much flatter the wake looks this is the first time we're seeing the stern wave
forming behind the boat eight years later and we refined things even more
here's Beowulf cruising along at 17 to 18 knots notice how much flatter this
wake is than the previous boats and look how far aft of the boat the stern wake
starts there is a huge difference between the three boats obviously
Beowulf is a much more efficient design package let's switch to the bow we don't
have a lot of off the boat sailing shots of the older designs at speed but here
are a couple of Beowulf she's doing 14 to 15 knots in these the bow wave is
very small in fact except for a small there is almost no magnitude to the wave
it is mainly just a light spray. Back on board
Intermezzo 2 again running at a steady 12. Here's the 72 foot catch Lacura doing
14 knots and now Sundeer again at 15 and 16 Beowulf is averaging 17 knots at
this point once again the magnitude of the bow wave is getting smaller as our
designs have been refined you could consider these dolphins to be efficiency
indicators they love to ride the pressure wave ahead of the boat the
bigger the pressure wave and the slower the boat the less work they have to do
sunder is pretty sleek but she still has enough of her pressure wave that these
guys need only to flick their tails occasionally but with Beowulf the
situation is different she's faster has a much smaller pressure
wave and this group of visitors has to work hard to stay up with us. What Steve
and I are after with our new design is to adapt the same efficiency of our
sailing designs to this new power voyager the lean hull shape, steering
control, and soft ride of our sailboats will contribute to a significant
increase in comfort and speed not to mention security and heavy weather in
the new powerboat. We've got an office full of high speed computers and
sophisticated dragon velocity prediction software and have used these programs
for years to predict how our sailing designs would respond. We've used them
again for this project but for added insurance oceanic consulting in St.
John's Newfoundland has the most sophisticated tank test program in the
world it's where all the hottest race boat designs are tested so they have
good experience with long light canoe body type hull shapes here's the new
boat at moderate cruising load going 12 knots compare this bow wave to what
you've just seen it's a little smaller than even Beowulf which is what we'd
expect given the improvements we've made and overall efficiency this wake is at
12 knots look familiar let's speed up to 16 knots so we have a
direct comparison with Beowulf Stern wake the tank test and that of the video
shot onboard Beowulf are almost identical this is slightly cleaner which
is what we would expect to see what we've been trying to show you is the
evolution of this species each new series has benefited from the experience
of the previous designs and now in the present we've simply moved up another
rung of the evolutionary ladder we started out talking about the heavy
weather aspects of the design there are two characteristics which stand out
above all others first is steering control steering control determines
which tactics you can use in which you can't and in moderate conditions
steering characteristics are a chief determinant of cruising comfort
the more speed you can maintain the less chance there is of being caught by a
storm in the first place and if you are caught you have more heavy weather
tactical options at your disposal we know from past experience on a numbers
basis and from gut instinct based on more than two hundred and fifty thousand
miles of open ocean sailing that the new boat will be equal to or better than
Beowulf in heavy weather but in the 21st century we've got some incredible new
design tools to verify what our experience is telling us what we've been
looking at here is the whole running at 12 knots with quartering seas and
significant wave heights of 8 to 10 feet notice the motion or lack thereof this
is exactly what you would expect from Beowulf broad-reaching and similar
conditions now we're heading upwind this time with waves of 3 to 6 feet and the
boat moving at 10 knots there's little motion and with our interior close to
the pitch center of the boat the motion we feel will be negligible for a reality
check let's take a look again at that footage of Deerfoot 2 in similar
conditions here's son deer on the same day in British Columbia
if you sail enough miles on these boats after a while you become accustomed to
the comfort it becomes second nature we know that we and our clients have become
spoiled crossing oceans is not supposed to be this easy there are a whole series
of factors which make this possible on our sailing designs for one the hull
shapes are balanced with heel and have favorable length to beam ratios on the
new design we have maintained the same type of length to beam ratios and to
provide the stability of the rig we've added active stabilizers these are like
a pair of giant Spade rudders one on each side of the boat air of Skaggs at
the stern these protect the props from debris while cleaning up the water flow
the Skaggs also help with downwind control and heavy weather because we
don't have to worry about the whole shape when healed we've been able to
carefully carve away buoyancy that would be required in the bow and stern for
stability this makes for a knife like bow
and finer Stern when the wave reaches the stern it will find less hole in
which to exert its force the result is a very smooth ride while the emphasis of
what we've been talking about is comfort in adverse conditions the vast majority
of our time at sea has been spent in very nice weather it is time to admit
something from as far back as we can remember we hated power boats and as any
proper sailor will tell you with good reason and then a day after New Zealand
after a robust frontal passage when we sat in the great room looking at the
squalls blowing the tops off the waves as they pass we suddenly realize there
was nothing to do we were dry we were comfortable we did not have to go on
deck to deal with sails and there was no stress maybe this wasn't going to be so
bad the interior layout follows the approach that has worked so well on our
sailing yachts the engine room is aft behind a watertight bulkhead
you
the great room is located where motion is minimal
you
the galley has lots of storage and counter space a huge fridge and freezer
system and is designed to hold me in place when we're on passage the salon
and helm station are forward we can keep watch from the nav desk or seated feet
up on one of the SETI's the wraparound windows give us a good view on all
directions from anywhere in the great room I very much like the fact that the
Cook is not isolated and that we are together when we are on passage during
meals the master suite is next the bunk is freestanding which makes it a lot
easier to make up
there's a dressing room adjacent with a large vanity and separate head and
bathing areas I like to take a bath in the evening and while Steve prefers a
shower the guest Abrams are after the great room these each have had son suite
and are ideal as sea cabins nothing surprised us more than the
seagoing comfort that came along with Windhorse in most cases on passage there
was a little difference between being at sea or being at anchor
ease of handling comfort and boat speed entice us into 60,000 article miles of
part-time cruising in seven years these capabilities allowed us to make
spur-of-the-moment decisions take for example January in 2008 we did
not yet have a plan for the summer and I they began to speculate about the
British Isles or maybe the continent a couple of hours with the charts a few
phone calls and we knew that we could take in Greenland on the way with the
exception of twelve days from Southern California to Panama all the hops would
be relatively short deal
welcome to Greenland a land of ice rock and friendly people we're at 69 degrees
north latitude working our way into Yokohama the forepeak
except the forward 16 feet of the boat
those two large booms off the wing masts do a number of jobs first at anchor when
the wind is howling leaving them in their after position creates a writing
sail which will reduce swinging at anchor one or both of the booms can be
swung out and used with a flopper stopper in rolling Anchorage's on long
passages will swing the booms outboard to provide increased polar moments and
slow down our rate of roll they are also used to launch the dinghies dinghies are
in the critical gear category for us and we always look to maximize flexibility
in size and type I have the biggest surprises to us with wind horse was the
amount of time we spent on a flying bridge this area started out simple
gradually acquired more electronics and eventually was enclosed with roll-up
windows when we decided to transition from our ultimate sailing yacht Beowulf
to the first fpb wind horse it was looking ahead to maturity and the desire
to keep cruising as a couple without crew that gave us the incentive to
consider switching from sail a design and built cycle plus half a dozen
cruising seasons changing the definition of maturity and this time we were
getting to the point where it was prudent to think about having a
full-time crew member watching our haul interact with the ocean for 60,000
article miles and our experience with the fpb 64 and 97 led to an evolution in
our approach to the design trade-offs of this new generation out of this
came the matrix deck of the fpb 78 what you see in these photos is a result of
testing full-scale in the real world a variety of layouts the matrix deck is
our favorite area to hang out at sea and an anchor another result of this
evolution was more dinghy capacity Cochise carries a 16 foot a B rib and a
15 foot gig harbor sliding seat wrong dinghy both of which can be easily
launched or retrieved even a slow-moving old-timer like myself can get that
dinghy into the water in two minutes or less these are so easy to handle that we
rarely leave them in the water even if only for a few hours
originally we could rest some outboard on these tablets but now they just hang
it's simpler and lighter that's about it thanks for joining us we look forward to
seeing you out there cruising be sure and come by to say hi whoa hold on there
don't touch that dial we have a collection of our favorite cruising
photos after the credits and you might want to have a look