Hawk in Newfoundland

Hawk is a high performance and low maintenance  'expedition' boat.

Designer:....Van De Stadt

Builder:.... Topper Hermanson and Evans & Beth 1997

Type: Fractional Sloop LOA:....47' LWL:....39'6" Beam:....14'9" Ballast:....14,000 lbs. Displacement:....30,000 lbs. (dry & empty) Draft:....2.1m SA (sq.ft.):....1,300

Water:....200gal, Fuel:....200gal

Rig dimensions:

I:....60' 0", J:....18' 0", P:....63' 4", E:....21' 4"

Mast height above water:....76' 6"

Harken sailing load analysis

Our first offshore boat was a Shannon 37 centerboard ketch.  She was a very pretty boat and a marvelous learning platform for novice offshore sailors.  However, when we started considering a voyage to higher latitudes, we wanted a high performance aluminum 'expedition' boat and had five priorities:

Hawk's hard dodger

(1) High on our list was a good looking integral hard dodger.  We considered this a safety priority as it would reduce fatigue on passage and allow better watch keeping.  It also proved to be one of the toughest elements to find and ultimately drove our final design choice.  We were not interested in the more popular pilot house/deck saloon concepts as we believe it essential to maintain some contact/exposure with the weather, so we can sniff out early signs of a weather change.

The hard dodger has proven to be one of Hawk's best and most distinctive features.  We continue to be surprised the concept is not built into more cruising designs.

We used 10mm tempered glass in the dodger, primarily because that's what Oyster uses on their big deck saloon windows and they have never had one break.  It has proven flawless and in Australia we replaced the Lexan fixed side windows with the same glass. The Lexan scratched easily and expanded/contracted so much with temperature changes that it would break the caulking seal and start leaking.

Aluminum construction

(2)  We wanted aluminum construction, primarily to provide a completely leak-proof vessel, rather than for strength.  We had found it difficult to keep fiberglass decks completely leak-proof over the course of an ocean crossing or two, as the fiberglass moves and the various stainless bolts through the hull don’t, which breaks down any caulking seal.  With aluminum construction we could weld to the deck rather than drill through it.  After spending time on Edwin Gaynor’s aluminum constructed Emily, we were comfortable we could avoid the potential corrosion and electrolysis problems often associated with aluminum construction.

We sprayed 3" of foam insulation over the inside of the hull.  It has acted as intended, as sound insulation and to help keep the boat warm when in cold climates.  However we have been surprised at how useful this insulation has also been in the tropics, keeping the sun's heat out of the boat.  We now believe cruising boats should be designed with more insulation that the standard 1" hull coring.

Beth with Code Zero reacher

(3) We especially wanted a boat that sailed well in light air and upwind, two things that cruising boats are not noted for.  We have spend a third of our time offshore in under 10kts of wind, and in the higher latitudes we expected to spend more than a third of our time going upwind.  These two requirements mandated a sloop rig with a tall mast, deep keel and high righting moment.  After much consideration we picked a 7-foot (bulbed) keel as the optimal draft – the maximum we could carry without unduly restricting our choice of harbors.

Hawk's spade rudder & bulbed fin keel

We have been very happy with the 7' draft.  The only place it would impose a restriction on our cruising would be in the Bahamas.  The mast height (76') has been great in light airs, allowing us to sail when other cruising boats are motoring.  It does requite a bit of extra attention and caution, as unmarked low hanging electrical wires are sometimes strung across channels in the third world.

(4) We were looking for a somewhat bigger vessel than Silk, in order to provide greater fuel & water tankage, battery capacity, and guest quarters. Initially we considered 42-43 feet the ideal range, but after sailing Susan Klein’s Swan 47 Till, we concluded we could handle 47 feet.  We believe larger than 50 feet would be restrictive in terms of handling the sails without mechanical assistance, maneuvering in tight Chilean coves and finding marina space in Scotland & Ireland.

40kts under storm jib in the Southern Ocean

We found Hawk's size and stability to be perfect for Southern Ocean cruising and for making real progress on upwind biased routes and punching into offshore-sized waves. However for tropical, mainly downwind, cruising Evans thinks a slightly smaller boat would be handier (less work on a short daysail) and more economical, while Beth would still like Hawk's guest space and water/fuel/battery capacity.

Bare aluminum topsides

(5) We were looking for a simpler boat both in terms of cosmetics (no gloss paint, gel coat or varnish) and minimal systems.  The unpainted topsides were a last minute decision but have greatly lowered the stress associated with difficult docking situations.  I was instructed by several quality control engineers that the key to ensuring reliability is to minimize the number of moving parts.  We followed this edict vigorously as we fit-out Hawk (e.g. no generator, watermaker, pressure water, etc), and it has proven a successful approach.  We are more self-reliant and our maintenance workload is about a quarter of that aboard the more complex Shannon.

After 9 years aboard we still have not felt the need to add any more systems, and are very happy with the simplicity and low maintenance. We are unusual in that regard as almost every other cruising boat, including much smaller ones, have more complex systems.

Hawk from above

We ended up with a very tall fractional rig with masthead Code Zero and running sails, which has proven the perfect combination for excellent performance and easy handling in all weathers & conditions (optimal upwind VMG is 27 degrees apparent, and light air polars about 80% of wind speed).  The design called for two heads and five sinks.  This seemed like a lot for two people, so we turned the forward head into a sail locker and eliminated all but two sinks.  We also converted one of the two aft cabins into a dedicated workshop/garage.

Hawk 3DL sails with single reef

The mainsail has two deep reefs in it. We use 'double line' reefing (separate tack and clew lines for each reef) led back to the cockpit and one of us can easily put in or take out a reef in a couple of minutes.  We use lazy jacks to gather/control the mainsail.

We have always had 'high-tech' sails (Spectra tri-radial and Vectran 3DL).  We made that decision initially in order to keep the sail weight low enough that Beth could hoist the mainsail most of the way by hand and one of us could move the sails around the deck alone.  From a sailing perspective we were spoiled by the 3DL sails which always had just perfect shape, and even a good tri-radial now looks ugly to us with small wrinkles, seams, and pockets.

We initially looked for a used boat with these five traits. However, we quickly realized there was nothing available that came anywhere close to our requirements and started looking at building a boat.  We talked with a number of Naval Architects about new custom designs but none seemed to offer much incremental value over the stock Van De Stadt “Samoa” design.  We looked at various construction options and concluded that getting a bare hull welded up at a small yard in Florida and then finishing out the boat ourselves was both feasible and financially attractive.

During the construction process we were able to fine tune the design to even more closely match our vision of a simple, strong boat with exceptional sailing performance. She was originally designed to have teak decks and a heavy wood interior. By using painted decks and a cored panel interior we were able to put the resulting weight savings into extra aluminum (double framing, three watertight bulkheads and chain-plate strengthening), extra  lead (a 47% ballast ratio, 145 degree LPS, 2700ft-lbs/degree), and extra load carrying ability (we have an amazing and somewhat disturbing 10,000lbs of stuff aboard).

Hawk stern-tied in New Zealand

After 75,000 miles we are immensely pleased with Hawk.  While designing and building a new boat it is very difficult to gauge two of the most important factors for a successful end product - whether the helm will be perfectly balanced and whether she will pound upwind. Hawk smashes enthusiastically through big waves upwind, in fact with much more enthusiasm than her crew, but she does not pound at all.  This is perhaps because we have much more canoe hull in the water than the currently fashionable extra light flat bottom designs.  And her balance and helm feel is identical to comparable Swan’s and J-boats.

We have concluded that the "perfect boat” is an oxymoron, as all boats represent a whole mess of compromises and they all break after enough sea time.  So, we are quite happy that Hawk is merely an excellent boat. She does her job flawlessly with no fuss or complaint.