I was very flattered to be asked to work with
the owners in designing this boat, because large wood boats like
her are rarely built today and even less rarely are they built
from a new design.
The boat will be used both for pleasure as well as research. Walter
& Karen are a pair of those “renaissance” folks
you read about; he’s a research scientist interested in marine
things like reefs and “growths.” She among other things
produces documentaries about everything. In their “spare”
time they run an 80 acre oak tree and organic farm on the shores
of Virginia; the experience of meeting them and seeing their place
still makes me tired when I think about it and I couldn’t
help but think about Jefferson, also of that state. Where do these
sort of folks get the energy? But maybe I’ve been on the
West coast to long; here we are notorious worldwide for taking
things easy. Except in LA of course, but THAT is a world of its
own.....
The idea was a big solid fairly traditional motorsailor that could
go wherever you wanted. It would comfortably house the owners,
have adequate accommodations for a couple guests, and have a small
research lab in the stern for work.
She’s rigged as a 3 masted marconi schooner because she looks
good that way and is big enough where the idea is actually “practical.”
Everything except the jib is self tending and there are many reef
rows so she should always be able to be kept manageable. A guy
who knew his stuff could single hand her OK but with two people
she’ll be easy to handle. Her rig has enough area to pull
her along OK in moderate winds which is all that we want; short
tacking up channels isn’t an issue for this kind of boat!
She has a 6 cylinder diesel and carries 1,066 gallons of fuel
which should give her a calm condition range of over 4,000 miles
at 9 knots; considerably more when off wind motorsailing.
Her hull is a well proven type; sort of “lifeboaty,”
double ended with moderate draft and beam, symmetrical ends, and
a round bilge moderate deadrise mid-section.
She is quite stoutly built of solid white oak; laminated oak keel
and stems, double sawed oak frames, and 2 3/8” x 2 1/2”
strip oak planking. The exception are the decks, which are 2 1/2”
fir plywood. The entire structure will be coated with epoxy.
Walter claims to be about 70 but looks 50. He’s been busily
felling his own oaks, dragging them out of the woods and milling
them, and building the boat. Just a few months after the Lines
were drawn he had the keel set up. All this while working his
job and doing research on the side....
I like the boat a lot. And so, while it almost seems like heresy,
I’m doing a single chine steel version too, something us
more “normal” mortals can conceive of building.
LOD: 63’ LWL: 59’ 6” Beam: 16’ 6” Draft: 6’ Displacement: 94,443 pounds. Outside ballast: 29.94 ft.3; about 11,000 pounds. Sail Area: 1328 sq. ft. Power; 6 cyl. diesel Fuel: 1066 gallons. Water: 100 gallons plus watermaker.
This is a serious construction project. A single chine version is also available. It to is a big project but simpler, but can be plywood or steel . Here's how those Lines ended up. It looks fine to me and would be a hell of a lot simpler to build. By the way, if you look at the "What's New" section (unless the plans are finished and they're listed on the Plans Page and I've forgotten to remove this sentence from here...!) of this site you'll see some sketches of another version of ALCA, but at 70 feet.
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