40 years of monohull "evolution"

It's kind of interesting if you look at relative time. If someone was rigging their 1944 sailboat staring down at a brand new Ericson 35-3 in 1984, I wonder what they would have thought and the horrible thigs they were saying about the new boat. What would they have been rigging?

Fiberglass caused a shudder when boats first popped out of the mold in the '60s. Yick! This stuff smells bad! (and inside the early Pierson Tritons, it did) It's unproven! "I'll give it five years in a marine environment."

When wooden boats first began to be repaired with fiberglass, it was often a sloppy job and nobody seemed to want to grind it smooth or fair it. We covered a leaky dinghy bottom with it, but with guesswork as to procedure. Everybody who examined it said, "ah, frozen snot." Such derision!

Man, was everybody wrong, wrong, wrong.

Bill Baum said:

Folks are clearly prioritizing space and comfort over sailing ability.

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While many of us here probably see this as part of the "problem," I wonder what portion of the general sailing public thinks we have it wrong? I.e., "Of course [I'd] rather have a spacious and comfortable boat than a cramped boat that sails a little faster."

The average size of a "new" home in 1980 was 1740 sq ft. In 2022 it was 2522 sq ft. I think many today choose creature comforts over arriving in the Bahamas and hour or two earlier (and, perhaps with a little less wind and spray in their faces).

One good reason to buy a Catalina. Original factory spec "based on location, color, and year.", at Catalina Direct.
Apparently they do this every year. I would dearly love this for Ericson.

I wonder if any gelcoat doesn't change color after 30 years. Would factory color actually match?

Christian Williams said:

I wonder if any gelcoat doesn't change color after 30 years. Would factory color actually match?

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Yes it does, and usually within a decade. That's why even pro's have trouble matching repaired areas. I have seen a perfect match on a repair show up as an obvious color change in about 3 to 4 years. Since the vast bulk of Catalina's were built in the 70's thru the 90's, that limits the ones that could be matched by a simple color code number.
BTW, I used to do some pretty close matches (passing the ten foot test, anyhow) by following advice from a local ship wright. He looked at our gel color in a buffed out area and knew which several colors to tint with. It was an interesting process, and not all that intuitive to a beginner.

Loren Beach said:

Yes it does, and usually within a decade. That's why even pro's have trouble matching repaired areas. I have seen a perfect match on a repair show up as an obvious color change in about 3 to 4 years. Since the vast bulk of Catalina's were built in the 70's thru the 90's, that limits the ones that could be matched by a simple color code number.
BTW, I used to do some pretty close matches (passing the ten foot test, anyhow) by following advice from a local ship wright. He looked at our gel color in a buffed out area and knew which several colors to tint with. It was an interesting process, and not all that intuitive to a beginner.

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I'm sure it does change over time and exposure. And I was able to craft a mix that matched pretty well. But it was so time consuming that I'd gladly pay for something that was close enough.

I have to laugh at my own assumptions. To me, all boats are 40 years old. But I guess if you bought your brand new Catalina two years ago, and just scraped a piling, this stuff would be just the ticket.

38 vs. 40 feet. Definitely evolved.
Do you think twin rudders would make my butt look big?

Mike, it must be a trick of my mis perception, but your boat looks like it has triple spreaders. Really?

Yup. Triple spreader Sparcraft bendy mast. In line discontinuous rod rigging. I don't think the deck was ever pierced for fore and aft lowers. Oh - and those pesky running backs.

Mike_W. said:

Yup. Triple spreader Sparcraft bendy mast. In line discontinuous rod rigging. I don't think the deck was ever pierced for fore and aft lowers. Oh - and those pesky running backs.

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By Odin's mighty ax!

You make the rig on my Olson look simple....
(OTOH, some of the E-33RH's and some O-34's did have rod rigging, however. Not ours, tho. And our previous Niagara 26 fractional also had rod rigging.)

Here’s a sad commentary on the evolution of the America‘s Cup boats

southofvictor said:

Here’s a sad commentary on the evolution of the America‘s Cup boats

you call that sailing?

Would you contest the world’s most prestigious match-racing series when half the crew can’t sail, wouldn’t know a tack from a gybe, couldn’t tie a reef knot, and never lift

sailinganarchy.com

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Our personal interest and connection to the "AC" has hovered around zero for a number of years. This just pushed it into the negative integers.

Loren Beach said:

Our personal interest and connection to the "AC" has hovered around zero for a number of years. This just pushed it into the negative integers.

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What, you don't like watching alien craft hover above water when "sailing?"

And then there is "SAIL GPT", which my TV is set to record. High tech cats competing around the world in exotic venues such as Monaco, with intended crowds and sponsorships. The US team cannot get out of its own way.

I have labored to enjoy this event, which is covered with extraordinary amounts of data, cameras everywhere, and announcers who react to unscheduled moments as if an aggressive hemorrhoid* has launched them from their chair.

Yawn, and I have tried not to. REset the TV so as not to record them anymore, as I would rather use the time to do my fingernails.

*three tries to spell it

Y'all I can't roll my eyes any harder than I am right now. The AC foiling boats vs displacement boats argument is one those obnoxious yacht club bar conversations that's so tired. SailGP was fun to watch during COVID but somehow is pretty stale now... maybe because I can actually go race now instead of watching sailboats race which is inherently boring to begin with. Everytime I'm ripping off downwind 15kts+ on my Melges 15 or my Nacra F18 I think man I wish sailboat designed just stopped in the 1980's that was peak fun.

Christian Williams said:

Fiberglass caused a shudder when boats first popped out of the mold in the '60s.

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Heh.

I'm friends with Bob Perry, and am amused (?) at all the crap he got - from the yachting journals, from the sailing communities - when the Valiant 40 came out.

A fin keel? On an offshore cruising boat?!?!? That's suicide! EVERYONE knows it is unsafe go offshore in a boat that doesn't have a full keel....

I think the evolution in fiberglass has left us with some very nice options. I am not sure if we buy particular boats to fit our planned activity or if our activity evolves around the boat we bought. I started out with a little Ranger 23 in 1977 because it had a big fleet here in SF Bay and it was a "racer/cruiser"--or advertised as such. I owned it for 14 years and raced and sailed it extensively on both coasts (it was trucked)---I was younger and had willing mates who actually "cruised" raced and camped in the thing, but it helped me experiment and develop a taste for what I wanted in a boat. After doing a few deliveries in others' boats I began to further the preferred characteristics--and these came to be sea kindly-no pounding like with the light flat bottom boats that surf better in racing situations, enough room for comfort, but with the option to comfortably single hand, and a proven designer and builder. The multihulls are great if you want to party in the Caribbean, but you do not intend to sail or sleep quietly on them. The Big Butt Berthas with the plumb bows also slap their flat bottoms all night even in a relatively calm anchorage--and the plumb bow will aggravate your hernia to retrieve the anchor--but this is the racing boat of the current monohull era and is superior for that in most ways. My delivery colleagues used to call the Bennetau boats "bendy toys" for their propensity to oil can and twist hull shape in a stiff breeze, but the accommodations were very nice and the engines and innards were generally more accessible and better organized than the 70s, 80s IOR cruiser racers. I have ended up, as in many things, not being sure of how much I chose my environment and how much it chose me through happenstance. I am not sure what will happen in the next generation--seems like the kids are going for high tech and eschewing the hands on, gritty wetness of sailing. I note that I am in a small group of stick and rudder folks who fly ancient tail dragger airplanes while the new pilots are much more adept at punching all the buttons and screens to make the new planes fly. Maybe that is the future of sailing.

Bellanca Decathlon here (an airplane). But I aged out. Not medical, just, well, age recognition. The comparison is apt though,, of flying hands on, with noise, vs. slippery new planes with GPS radar panels and rocket parachute.

I know the future of sailing isn't old sailboats, even of indestructible fiberglass. It's probably YouTube adventures vicariously enjoyed, video-game style. And like houses, new boats have priced themselves out of even the professional class, whereas any lawyer or GP could formerly afford to buy one. And dinghy racing? It's serious now, like club soccer or making a Division 2 Lacrosse team, and despite near desperate interest by clubs the pool has shrunk. Kids have many other options and if you're not good at something, you quit. I mean, the coach asks you to quit. .

Sailing is becoming even more of a niche. No magazines on the newstands anymore, no Popular Mechanics plans to build your own boat. Is that retreat? Nah, I figure it's just the way it is, fractionalization, everything is in retreat given the new radical limitation on ever meeting anybody who is interested in the same things you are, there being so many things to be interested in now.

You know how little we share as a society when even golf is in a slow decline.