|
|
| Big
Pimpin' BC Boatworks I grew up in the Annapolis area and have been sailing since before I can remember, both cruising and racing, from dinghys to keel boats. I've always had an interest in design and still have a portfolio of drawings from my teen years, many on the back of my junior high school work sheets. As a kid I had a 420, then a Laser. My first "big" boat was a Creekmore 22 with which I raced MORC. As we progressed in our sailing skills, it became frustrating that we never seemed to be able to crack the top end of our class and I started studying the MORC rule. Modifications by a previous owner had ruined the boat for a competitive MORC rating so I took a sawzall to it and reduced the rating by 37 sec./mi. (article published in American Sailor, December 1990). The next year more work added another 16 sec./mi. credit for a total of 53 sec./mi. Needless to say, we were a bit more competitive after that. I learned a lot with the Creekmore but became quite familiar with its weak points. More and more my thoughts turned to achieving my childhood dream of designing and building my own boat. "Problem Child" was developed to excel in the light air and chop that prevail here in Annapolis. It was constructed in my back yard and launched in November of 1992. In hindsight, any concessions to the MORC rule have been ultimately been a mistake, but subsequent modifications have greatly improved performance over a range of conditions. As the boat and our sailing abilities improved, we moved up in the results every year until in 1998 we won our seasonal high point championship in MORC, repeating in 2000. Although Annapolis has been one of the strongest MORC fleets, our competition was evolving toward larger boats that owed us up to 90 sec./mi. Once we weren't crossing tacks with people, we moved to PHRF B, winning high point in 2002, 2003, and 2004. 2004 was an amazing year for the Problem Children, winning our class in the Screwpile Regatta with straight firsts and winning our class at Annapolis Race Week with a 1,1,2,1. This was enough to be awarded the City of Annapolis Trophy, given to the boat with the best overall performance of all 194 boats. What we particularly felt good about was that 2 of the 3 days were sailed in breezy conditions where we have traditionally not done as well. That fall I finally upgraded my software and began playing with it in earnest this spring. The new BC 27 is the boat I plan to build for myself at some point but I decided the time was right to see what interest this design might develop. It is a much lighter boat than "Problem Child" and in certain ways more conservative. The unusual hull shape of "Problem Child" works for a heavier design but not for the lighter displacements that people now look for in a racing boat. That being said, the new design will be much faster and more exciting than "Problem Child". I plan to offer the boat as a set of plans or constructed by BC Boatworks on a custom/ semi-production basis. Should enough interest develop, I am also looking into an overseas builder. Frankly, I have little idea where this project will take me but I am quite confident in my ability to design and build a competitive, quality racing boat. http://bcboatworks.com/ 6/27/05 |