Staghound...Extreme clipper 1850 by rwiederrich 1/96

In the early 1900’s experiments began to break this barrier. The solution was to lift the hull above the waves that it created. This would allow the boat to travel faster than its wave train. The result was the “Planing hull” that was shaped to provide hydrodynamic lift. Flying boat aircraft and racing hydroplanes utilize planing hulls to achieve high speeds. In the 1930’s the US Navy used British planing hull technology to develop the famous PT Boats. And of course, after the war the recreational power boat industry also adopted the technology for the boats that we see everywhere today.

Sailboats also can plane. In the 1920’s or 1930’s British designer Uffa Fox designed a revolutionary International 14 class racing dingy that could plane. I owned two sailboats capable of planing under the right conditions; a Sunfish and a17ft Thistle. These planing sailboat hulls typically feature wide flat hulls aft to provide lift.

And yes, hydrofoils defeat this barrier by using wings in the water to lift the wave producing hull completely out of the water. Since water is so much more dense than air much smaller wing surfaces are required.

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
In the early 1900’s experiments began to break this barrier. The solution was to lift the hull above the waves that it created. This would allow the boat to travel faster than its wave train. The result was the “Planing hull” that was shaped to provide hydrodynamic lift. Flying boat aircraft and racing hydroplanes utilize planing hulls to achieve high speeds. In the 1930’s the US Navy used British planing hull technology to develop the famous PT Boats. And of course, after the war the recreational power boat industry also adopted the technology for the boats that we see everywhere today.

Sailboats also can plane. In the 1920’s or 1930’s British designer Uffa Fox designed a revolutionary International 14 class racing dingy that could plane. I owned two sailboats capable of planing under the right conditions; a Sunfish and a17ft Thistle. These planing sailboat hulls typically feature wide flat hulls aft to provide lift.

And yes, hydrofoils defeat this barrier by using wings in the water to lift the wave producing hull completely out of the water. Since water is so much more dense than air much smaller wing surfaces are required.

Roger
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Roger,
Decades ago a friend and I rented a Sunfish for a couple hours pleasure sailing. The lake was a very long one with single bend. It was a beautifully windy day. We had an absolute blast flying with the wind a'beam. That little 2 seater could really fly and we left quite a wake! Both of us were standing out over the gunnels as the vessel sailed at a 45 degree angle on her side. In about 20 minutes, we were about 3/4ths a way down the long end of the lake. Then, it suddenly dawned on me that we had to sail into the teeth of that same blustery wind to return to the dock. We spent hours, much longer than our original rental time tacking and tacking again to get that ornery boat back home. We were in irons constantly. Sometimes even being blown backwards. Twice we capsized and I even lost my glasses. We gamely stood on her beam ends to reraise her. More than once we were blown onto the shore but still too far to stay there. At one point, Emergency Patrol offered us a tow. But by then, we were so close to the marina that we declined. Finally, when we returned the owner was furious with us for tying up his rental all day! Settling up with him mollified him but he said he would never rent to the two of us again. That was the best sail of my life and it was in a nonassuming little red sunfish.
 
Sunfish are great boats and are raced very competitively. There is a great book written by a well known author of nonfiction histories; Nathanial Philbrick who in middle age decided to try to win the National Sunfish title with a boat that had been laying in the weeds alongside his Nantucket home. He did compete in the Nationals but I don’t remember if he won.

Few people realize that the original Sunfish were wooden. My father and I built one of the very first from a kit that we bought from Alcort Marine. It was a 1:1 POB kit with plywood deck and bottom panels and mahogany sides. I sailed it for a couple of summers and then sold it to a friend. My dad and I then built a Thistle Class sailboat also from a kit. I sailed it for 10 years.

Roger
 
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Roger Pellett said:
Sunfish are great boats and are raced very competitively. There is a great book written by a well known author of nonfiction histories; Nathanial Philbrick who in middle age decided to try to win the National Sunfish title with a boat that had been laying in the weeds alongside his Nantucket home. He did compete in the Nationals but I don’t remember if he won.

Few people realize that the original Sunfish were wooden. My father and I built one of the very first from a kit that we bought from Alcort Marine. It was a 1:1 POB kit with plywood deck and bottom panels and mahogany sides. I sailed it for a couple of summers and then sold it to a friend. My dad and I then built a Thistle Class sailboat also from a kit. I sailed it for 10 years.

Roger
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Roger,
My friend and I were quite amused to see all these other couples lazily drifting around in small cirlces as their craft basically drifted, close-hauled. Not until we sailed though this crowd did we get a chance to test our mettle with this unassuming little sailboat with a sunfish on the sail. Then we both discovered an amazing thoroughbred which just loved to fly with the wind! Against the wind, well that was a different story. I attribute that to our both being novice sailors. Not a fault of the little craft at all.
If you have any pics of your mahogany trimmed sunfish or your handmade Thistle, I'd love to see them.
 
Roger Pellett said:
All of these ships were designed prior to knowledge of William Froude’s work to understand the hydrodynamics of ship hull resistance. In fact there were some widely publicized theories at that time that were completely wrong; Russel’s Waveline theory, a case in point. Design of these vessels was, therefore largely intuitive. Chapelle also makes the point that successful Clipper Ship designers adapted low deadrise Packet Ship hull forms instead of the high deadrise Baltimore Clipper designs.

Experimental tank testing using Froude’s system of separating frictional and wave making resistance has been the standard for designing ship hulls into the present day. There has been progress to utilize finite element analysis techniques for making hydrodynamic calculations but tank testing is by no means obsolete.

Froude also discovered a “brick wall.” When a ship reached a speed equal to somewhere between 1 and 1.5 times the square root of its waterline length it became trapped by the wave train created by the hull. Tweaking hull lines might move the multiplier slightly but top speed was dominated by waterline length. A 250 ft ship, therefore, had a higher possible top speed than a 200ft vessel. Glory Of The Seas by virtue of her huge size could reach higher speeds than smaller Clippers provided there was wind to push her and a rig to handle it. This also casts some doubt on paintings showing Clippers in heavy air with all sails set. At this point, the ship would just be pushing water, and at risk of broaching.

Of course these ships also had to deal with light air during their voyages. In this case hull resistance would be dominated by frictional resistance which is dependent on hull area x a drag factor squared. A sleek hull would be important to reduce the drag factor. Nowhere near as dramatic as a Clipper Crashing through heavy seas with all sails set but just as important to making fast voyages.

Roger
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Roger,
Confirming your assertation that a flatter hull would enable a clipper ship to carry more sail in more robust condirions.q AQ
Roger Pellett said:
All of these ships were designed prior to knowledge of William Froude’s work to understand the hydrodynamics of ship hull resistance. In fact there were some widely publicized theories at that time that were completely wrong; Russel’s Waveline theory, a case in point. Design of these vessels was, therefore largely intuitive. Chapelle also makes the point that successful Clipper Ship designers adapted low deadrise Packet Ship hull forms instead of the high deadrise Baltimore Clipper designs.

Experimental tank testing using Froude’s system of separating frictional and wave making resistance has been the standard for designing ship hulls into the present day. There has been progress to utilize finite element analysis techniques for making hydrodynamic calculations but tank testing is by no means obsolete.

Froude also discovered a “brick wall.” When a ship reached a speed equal to somewhere between 1 and 1.5 times the square root of its waterline length it became trapped by the wave train created by the hull. Tweaking hull lines might move the multiplier slightly but top speed was dominated by waterline length. A 250 ft ship, therefore, had a higher possible top speed than a 200ft vessel. Glory Of The Seas by virtue of her huge size could reach higher speeds than smaller Clippers provided there was wind to push her and a rig to handle it. This also casts some doubt on paintings showing Clippers in heavy air with all sails set. At this point, the ship would just be pushing water, and at risk of broaching.

Of course these ships also had to deal with light air during their voyages. In this case hull resistance would be dominated by frictional resistance which is dependent on hull area x a drag factor squared. A sleek hull would be important to reduce the drag factor. Nowhere near as dramatic as a Clipper Crashing through heavy seas with all sails set but just as important to making fast voyages.

Roger
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Roger,
Here's a contemporary June, 1923 New York Times Magazine article. It laments recent destruction by fire of McKay's last clipper Glory of the Seas. It also lists a few fast passages she had which match or in some cases betters those of earlier extreme clippers. Beginning in October 1873 the sailed around the Horn and arrive 94 days later at San Franciso, she reached the San Francisco Bar in 95 days and set anchor in 96 days. This very respectable journey matched those of extreme clippers  Surprise 1851 that of another crack McKay clipper Romance of the Sea 1854 and 1866 Seminole. She still holds the record of 35 days from San Francisco to Sydney in 1875.
This supports your scientific statement about flatter hulls being able to support a press of sail.

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IMG_2398.jpegWhen Rob returns from his wedding anniversary trip he will discover that we hijacked his thread! Anyhow, to answer your questions. This boat building activity happened a long long time ago but had a decisive impact on my subsequent life. My father was a firm believer in keeping me involved with ambitious projects in part to keep me motivated to improve my math grades in school. He and I worked together and I still have and use his collection of tools. I think of him every time that I pick one up. His program gained me entrance into the selective Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program at the University of Michigan and as a reserve naval officer after graduation, assignment to Admiral Rickover’s Naval Reactors headquarters group in Washington DC. I also met my wife at Michigan and we were married in Washington.

The Sunfish was entirely painted; light blue. The Thistle was a different story. The entire boat was mahogany. The hull was moulded mahogany plywood laminated over a form and cured under pressure in an autoclave. The kit included the moulded hull shell and all of the other parts bandsawed to approximate shape. Some parts were easy to build and others were real boat building jobs. The centerboard trunk in particular was a massive structure requiring close fitting to the keel for a watertight joint. These old wooden Thistles if well maintained are still highly competitive racing against newer fiberglass boats. Thistle #1 won the Nationals several years ago.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of either boat to share. I was sailing the boats, and unable to take photos. The one or two pictures that I do have are slides that were digitized years ago and are on a CD. I can share a photo of me “supervising” my father building an L. Francis Herreshoff H-23 sailboat that he sailed on Lake Erie. I still have the builder’s drawings and correspondence between Herreshoff and my father. One of these letters was quoted in the second volume of the Herreshoff biography recently published by Mystic Seaport.

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
View attachment 475080When Rob returns from his wedding anniversary trip he will discover that we hijacked his thread! Anyhow, to answer your questions. This boat building activity happened a long long time ago but had a decisive impact on my subsequent life. My father was a firm believer in keeping me involved with ambitious projects in part to keep me motivated to improve my math grades in school. He and I worked together and I still have and use his collection of tools. I think of him every time that I pick one up. His program gained me entrance into the selective Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program at the University of Michigan and as a reserve naval officer after graduation, assignment to Admiral Rickover’s Naval Reactors headquarters group in Washington DC. I also met my wife at Michigan and we were married in Washington.

The Sunfish was entirely painted; light blue. The Thistle was a different story. The entire boat was mahogany. The hull was moulded mahogany plywood laminated over a form and cured under pressure in an autoclave. The kit included the moulded hull shell and all of the other parts bandsawed to approximate shape. Some parts were easy to build and others were real boat building jobs. The centerboard trunk in particular was a massive structure requiring close fitting to the keel for a watertight joint. These old wooden Thistles if well maintained are still highly competitive racing against newer fiberglass boats. Thistle #1 won the Nationals several years ago.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of either boat to share. I was sailing the boats, and unable to take photos. The one or two pictures that I do have are slides that were digitized years ago and are on a CD. I can share a photo of me “supervising” my father building an L. Francis Herreshoff H-23 sailboat that he sailed on Lake Erie. I still have the builder’s drawings and correspondence between Herreshoff and my father. One of these letters was quoted in the second volume of the Herreshoff biography recently published by Mystic Seaport.

Roger
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Roger,
After some digging, I found this fellow's H-23 sailboat Lilly. Is this what you and your dad built? If so, she looks to be a quite stable, seaworthy small craft.

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My Dad built it. I’m the little guy in the picture. He began it just after WWII when materials became available. That’s a 3000# lead keel sitting on the blocks! He launched it three years later. We sailed it on Lake Erie for several years. He sold it and used the money to help buy a run down 80 acre farm. We continued to live in town but spent weekends and vacations restoring the farm to working order where he went on to breed prizewinning Angus cattle. When I became a teenager my dad paid for the Sunfish and Thistle kits and I paid him back with farm work.

The boat in the pictures is similar but appears to be modified. As you can see from my picture the original Herreshoff design did not have a plumb bow. My dad’s boat was built per Herreshoff’s drawings. The hull was lofted on plywood sheets laid on the basement floor. I was too young to remember that part of the project but the plywood lofting sheets were stuck in the rafters of the basement long after the boat was sold. The boat was also known as a Herreshoff Prudence. I have one letter where my father asked Herreshoff about rigging the boat with a masthead rig. Herreshoff replied that if a masthead rig was better he would have designed it that way!

In the late 1950’s my dad was sent by the company that he worked for to MIT’s advanced management program and while he was there took the opportunity to visit Herreshoff in nearby Marblehead. I have a signed copy of his Common Sense of Yacht Design from that visit.

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
My Dad built it. I’m the little guy in the picture. He began it just after WWII when materials became available. That’s a 3000# lead keel sitting on the blocks! He launched it three years later. We sailed it on Lake Erie for several years. He sold it and used the money to help buy a run down 80 acre farm. We continued to live in town but spent weekends and vacations restoring the farm to working order where he went on to breed prizewinning Angus cattle. When I became a teenager my dad paid for the Sunfish and Thistle kits and I paid him back with farm work.

The boat in the pictures is similar but appears to be modified. As you can see from my picture the original Herreshoff design did not have a plumb bow. My dad’s boat was built per Herreshoff’s drawings. The hull was lofted on plywood sheets laid on the basement floor. I was too young to remember that part of the project but the plywood lofting sheets were stuck in the rafters of the basement long after the boat was sold. The boat was also known as a Herreshoff Prudence. I have one letter where my father asked Herreshoff about rigging the boat with a masthead rig. Herreshoff replied that if a masthead rig was better he would have designed it that way!

In the late 1950’s my dad was sent by the company that he worked for to MIT’s advanced management program and while he was there took the opportunity to visit Herreshoff in nearby Marblehead. I have a signed copy of his Common Sense of Yacht Design from that visit.

Roger
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Roger,
Your dad's Prudence really began a whole other career for him, raising award winning Angus cattle. Amazing. He must have been quite an engineer too, to mount a 3,000 lb lead keel. That must have been some sight, possibly with well-rigged block & tackles.
I love Herreshoff's laconic sense of humor. "If a masthead rig were better he would have designed it that way!"
I found an image of a 21' Herreshoff Prudence in RI listed for $25,000. Pretty looking yacht.

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While doing this he managed the construction of tire plants worldwide for the BF Goodrich Co.

L Francis Herreshoff was an interesting guy. He was badly dyslexic. His more famous father sent him to agricultural school with the intent that he would manage a farm that the family owned. He had several very dedicated secretaries during his life who handled and corrected his voluminous correspondence.

Apparently there are now two distinct branches of the Herreshoff family one branch backs the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI with the collection focused on Nathaniel and nothing about L. Francis. Everything about Francis including his correspondence is at Mystic Seaport.

PS. If I were 20 years younger I would buy the boat ,that you posted to sail on Lake Superior.

Roger
 
Roger Pellett said:
While doing this he managed the construction of tire plants worldwide for the BF Goodrich Co.

L Francis Herreshoff was an interesting guy. He was badly dyslexic. His more famous father sent him to agricultural school with the intent that he would manage a farm that the family owned. He had several very dedicated secretaries during his life who handled and corrected his voluminous correspondence.

Apparently there are now two distinct branches of the Herreshoff family one branch backs the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI with the collection focused on Nathaniel and nothing about L. Francis. Everything about Francis including his correspondence is at Mystic Seaport.

PS. If I were 20 years younger I would buy the boat ,that you posted to sail on Lake Superior.

Roger
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Roger,
Until you described the boat your dad built, I never realized there even were two talented Herreshoff nautical architects. From Nathaniel's plans for his son, I get a distinct impression he didn't see much promise in his son's mariitime designing abilities. A shame too, as L Francis was really talented.
 
Interesting read gentlemen. What wonderful memories and reflections when we were young and fortunate to have such innovative fathers, who gave us profound examples.

We had a most amazing, wonderful time in Sedona Arizona. How beautiful and refreshing the time spent with my bride was. Our days were full and we enjoyed as much as one can see and eat in 10 days. Phoenix was 115 and Sedona and the Grand Canyon was 75-95 , depending on the time of day and location.

Didn’t get to the Lick Observatory in Flagstaff this go around, but we were busy with many other adventures.

Now what have the mice been up to?

Rob
 
And that is what I’m about to do.

Following my process on Glory of the Seas. I began to make the sheet blocks. I made 12 but one failed so I have to make one more.

As before, I used 2 tab file metal tabs. Bent it length wise……forming the block sheeve body…. Then I plotted out the number of blocks and drilled the mounting holes on the mill.

Then I cut the centers and separated them from each other. Now all that is left is to fine grind out any flashing….. sand and then mount them on the yards as I create them.

Rob

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Rob,
I know these sheet blocks end up black to mimic original iron fixtures. Do you paint these or stain them to get their black finish?
 
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