Thanks Jack for the lead to those Pearson numbers.
The number of times Bill Shaw's name is on that list shows us that Alberg's designs were the transitional datum for boats changing from wood to frp. The Ariel could have been designed for wood but while the topsides might remain the same (except for that amazing eliptical cabin front), the underbody would have had to have much less sculpting than what we have in the Ariel. Alberg designed a beautyful hybrid shape for the in-the-water part of the Ariel that may not have been surpassed by anyone since.
But Alberg's easy driven slack bilge designs were over taken by the Shaw wider beam, harder bilge, fin keel, spade rudder designs. The engineers and the techs stepped in to make lighter less wetted surface structures suited to glass and oweing little to past wood boats except that their impetus obviously came from rowing dinghies.
If you could make the keel and rudder more pliable and bendable you'd maybe get more speed, like whale shark and dolphin tails. I feel that the hard planes of modern sail dinghys actually limit speed by creating eddies. Of course we now have new generation sleds that are not really boats, but water-surface speed machines. Surfboats.
I wouldn't know, but has anyone read of a Bill Shaw sailboat exceeding its W/L rating? Well, surfing a swell, maybe.
I don't know how it goes, but engineered shapes are linear shapes to me, boxes with curves. Now if you took an ideal marine speed shape like a great white and translated that to a hull, you might have something. Might have something that relates to what Alberg came up with. Alberg's form is the SOFTEST hard form imaginable. Know what I mean? I bet that a bendy rudder/tail on an Ariel would make them go even faster. A little bendy, OK?
A good comparison of Alberg and Shaw is the Pearson Ariel and the Pearson 26. Alberg was the transitional designer - he put Pearson in the frp boat business. Shaw designed marketable leisure products for them. Not knocking it, there just is no accounting for taste.
Alberg never forgot that a boat should look like a boat.
There is a story of a transAtlantic race in which an Alberg 35 in a raging storm ended up taking all its sails off. While other boats freaked and struggled and broke things, the crew on the Alberg 35 went below and played cards while the boat lay a-hull.
You've seen this picture. A mighty storm, the whole world's coming loose, it's all gone to hell... but there's a gull bobbing UP and DOWN in the waves, waiting, maybe a bent feather, no problem.
Ebb, I agree with you... in fact I think a few modern designers agree with you as well. I just went to the Newport boat show and a couple of the "new" designs look very Alberg-ish. Soft gradual curves, few to no hard edges. The biggest difference is their use of a fin keel and spade rudder.
I asked a few of the dealers about the benefits of their "new" design. I followed up their long winded answers by asking them if they felt their boat were very similar to classic Alberg designs. All I got were confused looks and a few stammers.
Das Boot is still alive and well - I'm glad to hear you like that picture of her last year. When we get waves in Chicago, she pitches excitedly, spraying crew plentiful at times. It's part of the fun.
You lucky people in the Bay area - your season never ends. We have to start worrying about winter storage here...
Ebb...that "storm" in the story you mentioned..."There is a story of a transAtlantic race in which an Alberg 35 in a raging storm ended up taking all its sails off. While other boats freaked and struggled and broke things, the crew on the Alberg 35 went below and played cards while the boat lay a-hull."....was the same storm that killed several sailors and sank several boats...in the infamous 'fastnet' race !! They simply waited it out and sailed on...unaware of what happened to others.
Ebb...ya gotta love/respect the guy! Alberg was a stubborn man of great pride and morals. This taken off an Alberg site speaking on design......... ."Carl's own assessment agrees:
"Contrasted to the modern IOR boats where you have six gorillas sitting on the weather rail with their feet hanging outside trying to keep the boat upright, my boats are strictly family-cruising boats. In all my designs I go for comfortable accomodations and a boat you can sail upright without scaring the life out of your family or friends. I gave them a good long keel, plenty of displacement and beam, and a fair amount of sail area so they can move."
In 1979, while those modern boats were capsizing and sinking, an Alberg 35 on it's way to England comfortably lay a-hull.
"It was really blowing and though they shortened sails and did everything else they could in order to keep going, they eventually took everything off, went below, battened down the hatches and just ate, drank and played cards. When it had blown over they hoisted sail and continued to England, where they were told they had just sailed through the same gale that had taken 16 lives in the Fastnet race. They had ridden out the storm by just sitting in the cabin while everyone else was capsizing."
"There are still some designers around who whare my ideas about glass boat design. Everyone else is trying to conform to the new rules. My boats are more designed to follow the waves and stay relatively dry and stable."
Carl passed away on August 31, 1986 at his home in Marblehead Massachusetts. His 56 designs resulted in over 10,000 boats.
Pa-shaw
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote