39′ C Power

The motor sailer version of the 39C was to address an enquiry from a few people who had done the sailing boat thing (usually with big fat heavy production cats) where they realised they motored 50 to 60% of the time anyway. They would look up at that big, expensive, complicated rig and struggle to justify the money and effort tied up in such a boat. Their average speed was rarely better than 8 knots.

I was asked was it possible to have a boat that was very economical (I usually quote ‘Two To Go’s 3.3 litres an hour at 8 knots), could maintain 8 knots all day, and had genuine and private accommodations for 2 couples. A secondary and nearly sheepish request was “could we have a little rig on the boat to use downhill when we had an honest 15 knots of breeze”.

It seemed logical to me so the design includes the option of a small, cost effective and lowerable rig to extend the range even further.

Funny how things go around, within a week I had another enquiry for the same sort of boat although they wanted the option of cruising under power at 12-14 knots.

While achieving greater speeds is relatively easy, the most fuel efficient is around the 8 knot mark. To maintain greater speeds will require a hull modification, this modification will then impact on its low speed efficiencies both under sail and under motor, mind you it will still be a very fuel efficient boat when doing like comparisons.

So the decision is easy, pick your target speed then the hull type has been chosen. This design will be considerably less expensive to build, fitout and maintain and will also be more efficient under motor with the rig up or down.

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