We finally convinced Todd Brown, an amateur designer of several narrow beam US1Ms sailed locally, to take a shot at an IOM design. Early on I pushed him toward a moderate to wide beam hull despite his affinity for narrow boats. Over several months, we went back and forth many times over max beam, bow shape, rocker profile, max rocker, keel and mast positions, height of foredeck, position of deck fittings, mainsheet post, etc. He’d ask for a number, I’d give my best guess, and we’d compare against existing designs and the class rule to verify we weren’t nuts before we’d finalize anything. We started cutting and shaping in January and Todd pulled the first hull off the male plug early last month. The boat was a real collaboration right down to the shape of the openings in the foredeck. Todd has been full of surprises and had produced some great work, from the vacuum bagged foredeck and dished cockpit to the slick design of the internal structures. Last week the rig I built met up with Todd’s hull, and the boat hit the water for its maiden voyage last weekend.
We can’t wait to start sailing (and tuning) with the local IOM fleet to see if the boat’s sailing characteristics correlate with our design concept and expectations.
Here’s the first shot if it actually sailing…
(Bow bumper and paint job coming soon.)
If anyone wants to see the building log for this boat, from concept to completion, go to:
http://www.ourwalden.net/mmyc
Then click on [boat building] click on [boats in work] and then read up on the IOM "Phi"
Regards, John Whalen IOM USA 341 & IOM USA 238