Big boats were everywhere we looked these past weeks, preparing for the Annapolis to Newport race (Maryland to Rhode Island, for those of you not up on your American geography -- around 450 offshore miles). Redoubtable, the big racing Swan berthed here, lost the distinction of "highest mast in Spa Creek" when Donnybrook, a Santa Cruz 70 with a distinctive black-and-green paint job, moved into Olde Towne Marina, on the other side of the channel. A few days before the race, an unusual-looking racing sailboat appeared just down the dock from us. Snow Leopard was a ketch (two masts) rather than a sloop (one mast), a rig we had not seen on a racing boat before, but what really stood out was the black pillar which stood between the masts. Britt guessed it was part of a movable keel, since it would be in the way while sailing.
One
day I saw a man working on the boat, and asked about the pillar.
Larry, who designed Snow Leopard, confirmed Britt's deduction,
and invited me aboard for a closer look. I'd never been on any race
boat before, let alone one this unusual, and it was neat to see how
different such a boat is from our liveaboard cruiser.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so you're just going to have to imagine the spacious interior, bare of everything but the essentials; the head is separated from the rest of the boat by a curtain, the engine is right out in the open,and there is nowhere to sit but the floor. Not a bit of teak, of course -- that would be extra weight. The ten bunks are sort of a cross between hammocks and cots; they are gimbaled so that the sleeper is always level no matter how far the boat is heeled, one of Larry's inventions. They race with ten crewmembers, but Larry swears "she can be sailed by just two -- me and my wife -- and my wife doesn't do much of the sailing work."
The bottom of the boat is extremely flat except for the huge movable fin keel. The machinery to lift and drop it takes up a big hunk of the center of the boat forward of the engine. Snow Leopard draws eight and a half feet with the keel up, and fourteen with the keel down. (We have just over five feet of draft, and our keel doesn't move an inch!) There is a viewport -- a window in the bottom -- just forward of the keel, so the crew can check for things which might be caught on it, and one just aft of the propeller, so they can make sure it's fixed in the position of least drag while sailing.
The deck is convex, a bit strange to walk across. The travelers (tracks across the boat with a moving car to position the end of the boom) look kind of like big arched bridges. Lots of big winches and lines leading everywhere. The masts are both carbon fiber, with angled spreaders.
The rudder includes another of Larry's innovations. In addition to moving from side to side, the rudder can be tilted such that it is vertical at any angle of heel. Keeping the rudder vertical should reduce drag and increase steering efficiency and boatspeed.
Larry thinks his boat could do as much as 19 knots under the right conditions. So far he's seen 15 knots on a reach and 8.5 upwind. They've entered a few races so far and "did pretty well." He sounded optimistic and excited about Annapolis - Newport.
This morning we watched as, one by one, the big boats headed out through the drawbridge and toward the start of the race. We wish them all luck!