Scott wrote:
Having talked with the seller/owner/builder a bit, I'm seriously considering this boat. I do have a few concerns, though, and I know this community is pretty knowledgeable with direct experience of Jay Benford's designs.
1) The boat has the low draft keel and flat sails, the and the owner admits that it just doesn't go to windward. He just uses the motor whenever he has to go upwind. I really don't like motors. How much of this can be remedied with cambered sails and modifications below the waterline? Rudder improvement? If it's doable and beneficial enough, I'm not even against swapping the keel for the fin version.
2) He built the hull, deck, and cabinetry with keruing plywood, which is almost twice as dense as okoume. The boat weighs 20,000 - 22,000 lbs on the travel lift. Benford's site says that this version, the 37.5 foot one, should be 13,425 in "cruising trim", which includes full fuel and water. That's a tremendous difference. How concerning is this?
I'd appreciate any thoughts the collective has about these concerns, plus any tips on Benford Dory-specific things I should look out for when/if I go look at it. Are there common mistakes a builder makes on these, or design changes that might not have been incorporated?
1) Alan (
Zebedee) and I were talking about this boat last night.
Zeb has 4ft 1in draught, so that fits in with the shoal draught of this boat and, indeed, the boats are very similar underwater. Since fitting cambered sails and rebuilding the rudder,
Zebedee goes like a train. We did, after all, win the Tall Ships this year. However, he will never compare with a Swan 36 or something of that ilk, going to windward. Don't forget that the dory hull is a very simple form and can never perform like a boat whose hull and rig have been optimised for windward sailing. So, if I were to buy the boat, I would most certainly borrow Alan's sail plans (suitably enlarged) and rudder design. You could always add extra draught if you really felt it necessary, at a later date. I would still say that the rudder we put on
Badger was better, but Benford doesn't show it in his plans. With this draught, I'd fit endplates, too.
2) Benford, like most designers, woefully underestimates how heavy his boats will end up in reality. Keruing is certainly heavy stuff, and of course Benford thought that the boat would be built in standard USAnian pine plywood. But Badger was supposedly well overweight, too, and sailed just fine. You certainly don't need to carry anywhere near the diesel that this boat has on board, particularly if you are reluctant to use an engine. From the photos it looks over-complex to me, considering what the ethos of these dories is. As David says, remove some of this complexity and flog it off. I'd pull out the shore power stuff, too - wire is heavy!
The major difference between Badger and Zebedee is that the former was much more carefully epoxied inside and out. To do the job properly is a slow and painstaking job, difficult to justify in a professional environment, if building to a price. As far as I know, Badger has never had any issues with rot, although any wooden boat that gets little use is likely to deteriorate, however carefully built. Alan has had to deal with some rot. So if you want to pursue this boat, I would suggest poking around very carefully in the darkest recesses. The good news is that plywood is easy to work on.
Dare I ask what has happened to the Pearson?