The following is a portion of a 1978 interview of Carl Alberg (77 at the time) where the discussion of boat design slides into a bit on mast tuning and sail trim. (A photocopy of the typewritten interview was provided by Peter Theis, A-82 SOLSKEN.)

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Q = Jim Priestly, Massachusetts Bay Typhoon Association
A = Carl Alberg, Navel Architect
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Q. I am not much of a mathematician, and I don't know all the particulars about designing but I think it is interesting that you chose that particular length and that particular shape and the fact that it has a 900 lb. keel and it is stiff. What happens when you sit down a drafting board and say "I want to make a boat for this man to do a certain job?" How do you come up with these ideas?

A. Well, of course, he tells me what he wants and I decide that the boat should have so much beam and so much draft and freeboard and displacement. I determine displacement. I calculate the balance so that you have stability and I calculate the mid section. I use coefficients, the mid-section coefficient, and take it from there and by trial and error you arrive at the displacement you want and then you have to determine the amount of lead you want. You have got to estimate the weight of the hull and rigging and everything inside. Then of course the sails. You have to balance off against the displacement.

Q. The righting arm?

A. Yes, so that you have the stability you want. You can take out of displacement, the cubic ft. and compare it with the square root of the sail urea and come out with a figure like 4, say 3.9 or 4.1 or 4.2, in that area, and that gives you just about what you want, depending upon what you want to use the boat for, and where you want to sail. If you are sai1inq in Marble Head Bay you don't need as much sail area as you do on Long Island Sound, for instance.

Q. Because of the winds?

A. Yes. The Typhoon worked out pretty well. I can only remember reefing the mainsail once. It was a real screaming Norwester and everything was laid out flat and I rolled about four feet on the main and she stood up like a church.

Q. I had run one time below Plymouth, it was to the Cape Cod Canal in about six foot seas

A. That's a mean area.

Q.... and I just had the jib up and whether I did not have the boat tuned up correctly or not (it was a broad reach, almost 1ike a run) I found that I couldn't control the boat as well with just the main. Could that have been the reason?

A. If you had a full main I would say you would have a bad weather helm; with a reefed main, you might be better off.

Q. I see. The Dealer that sold me my boat said that the mast should be absolutely perpendicular. Do you rake it aft?

A. I start with a pretty good rake aft-about 3 or 4 degrees, if I find that I need less weather helm I rake it more forward. But, I have never had it perpendicular; it was always raked a ft.

Q. A little bit aft? I wi11 have to try that then.

A. Where the helm is, it a ll depends on how much the boat is heeling over. If you keep the boat absolutely level you will have no helm; when she starts to heel she picks up weather helm, and if it heels well down she has a bad weather helm. That happens on every boat. I have had people write to me and say, "I drive the boat and she has a bad weather helm,” and I said "don't drive it with the rail under water. Drop the main and sail with the jib. Cut it down."

Q. I went by a fellow in Quincy one time going the opposite direction that I was headed. .He had a terrible weather helm on his boat and he didn't know what was wrong. (having an un-reefed main up?) That's bad.

A. It's worse than that; that's dangerous.

Q. He said that was the way the dealer had set it up for him. (vertical mast?) It was a shame.