The moulds for the new Radford 12m
performance cruiser are complete and the first production boat has been
launched and is sailing on Sydney Harbour.
The
design has a range of options to appeal to different areas of the
yachting market but is essentially a performance cruising yacht which
can also be raced.
Options
include three different rigs and keels.
There is a large fractional rig for racing; a smaller
fractional rig for the short-handed cruising couple or; if you want
something totally different, the very interesting cat rig.
Keel options include a
lifting keel; a 2.45m deep draft or a 2.1m draft cruising keel.
The
new Radford 12m breaks new ground for contemporary production yachts in
Australia
by
offering an un-stayed cat rig for those who want to enjoy sailing with
a minimum of fuss.
Having
trouble finding crew but
want to go sailing at any time? This
12m cat rigged yacht is an exciting option for harbour or offshore
sailing, weekend club racing, Wednesday afternoon and twilight
races.
The performance cat rigs
already sailing in North America,
appeal to those sailors who
have a background in competitive sailing and who want to continue their
racing without having to rely on a revolving crew list to allow them to
compete.
Equally,
the cat rigs have
proved suitable for those who want to encourage less experienced people
to participate and enjoy racing and casual sailing while not
intimidating them with the sometimes confusing activity associated with
conventional sailing yachts.
Graham
Radford worked
in conjunction with designer Tom Wylie at Wyliecat in San Francisco and
Watsonville, CA to develop a suitable rig for the new 12m
design.
Having
sailed on yachts with the performance cat rigs, Graham says
“It’s an eye-opener to step aboard a yacht which
doesn’t have stays & spreaders, spinnaker poles,
spinnaker tracks on the mast, multiple halyards, headsails &
spinnakers, headsail furler, headsail tracks & adjusters,
spinnaker sheets & braces, mainsheet travellers &
control lines, mainsheet fine tune, backstay and the myriad of other
“strings” associated with a conventional sailing
yachts.
The
cat rig is a very simple
rig with a limited number of adjustments.
The mast is an un-stayed, tapered carbon fibre tube with
just two halyards. The
wishbone is also carbon fibre. The
wishbone is sheeted at an angle more like that of a headsail at
8-10degrees off centreline. The
rig is self tacking – to go about just put the helm over to
the new course and continue sailing.
The sheet controls the position of the wishbone
athwartships and is lead to port and starboard cockpit
winches.
A downhaul controls the
luff tension on the sail. A
“choker” purchase system controls the wishbone
… pull on the choker line and the wishbone moves aft,
flattening the sail.
The
fully battened sail with large roach includes three reefing points with
reef lines running forward through the wishbone.
In a fresh breeze, when trimmed for a range of wind
strengths, the un-stayed mast bends in a gust to automatically de-power
the sail making it possible to carry full sail much longer, before slab
reefing is required.
To
go sailing simply remove the
sail cover, hoist the sail, adjust the downhaul, choker and sheet, and
away you go.When you are finished sailing for the day, drop the
halyard. The fixed lazy jacks on the wishbone recover and
immediately contain the sail.
Replace
the sail cover and you are finished. When was the last time you enjoyed
folding and bagging a
wet headsail or spinnaker, before dumping them below and going
home?
Several
other design options are available. These options include a lifting
keel (2.8m - 1.6m draft),
a deep fixed bulb keel (2.45m draft) and a fabricated stainless steel,
lead ballasted cruising keel (2.1m draft). The lift keel gives the best
combination of performance
and shallow draft – but is the most expensive option. The
2.1m fabricated keel
is the least expensive to build and maintain.
While
the cat rig will prove to be the best choice for many, other rig
options include a large fractional rig for fully crewed racing or a
more moderate rig for cruising. Both
will use a stayed aluminium rig with swept back spreaders and no
runners.
Based on his confidence in the
new sail plan, the first 12m cat rig has been built for designer Graham
Radford. It has a carbon fibre mast and wishbone
supplied by
Wyliecat and a carbon sail from Truflo Sails, Brookvale, NSW.
Deck
Layout
Design
features include forward & aft watertight bulkheads, fwd anchor
locker, large aft lazarette, liferaft stowage, aft boarding platform,
watertight companionway hatch, built-in halyard tail boxes and cockpit
coaming lockers. The cockpit seats for a wheel steered version are 2.0m
long with additional cockpit length at the companionway hatch and aft
adjacent to the lazarette hatches.
There is significantly less deck gear required for the cat
rig version.
Accommodation
The
accommodation on this design is simple and practical ... We have not
set out to design a triple cabin charter yacht!
There are a
couple of options for the quarter berths. Firstly, the bunks can be
750mm wide with full height lockers, or, water ballast tanks outboard
of the quarter berths. Alternately, it is possible to have more
spacious berths with overhead lockers outboard as shown on the cat rig
accommodation drawing.
A 37HP engine
is located under the cockpit. Forward
of the quarter berths are seats and lockers.
To port is a large stand up chart table incorporating
fridge/freezer and lockers. The
head is forward of the chart table and is adjacent to the keel case for
the lift keel version. The
head has a ventilation hatch and opening port in the house
side.
Allowance has been made
for grey and black water holding tanks.
The
galley is
starboard, with double sinks on a return to get the sinks closer to the
centreline for better drainage. Forward of the galley is the saloon,
with wide settee berths and well angled seatbacks. The freshwater tanks
are located under the aft half of the settees. Outboard are
lockers/shelves.
The
accommodation for the fractional rig version is finished off by bureaus
and the forward vee berth, with sail stowage underneath. The
cat rig version has a
longer saloon and stowage around the mast.
The saloon settees can be converted to a large double
berth when in port.
The R12m is a
relatively simple yacht which
can fulfil many roles ... crewed racing, shorthanded racing, medium
term cruising, or just fun sailing on any day of the week.
Specifications
| L.O.A. |
12.0m |
39'4" |
| L.W.L. |
11.5m |
37'9" |
| BEAM |
3.4m |
11'2" |
| DRAFT - fixed keels |
2.45m & 2.1m |
8'0" & 6'10" |
| Lift
Keel - DOWN |
2.8m |
9'2" |
| Lift
Keel - UP |
1.6m |
5'3" |
| DSPL |
5,700kg |
12,566lb |
| SAIL
AREA |
|
|
| Cat
Rig |
89 sq m |
958 sq ft |
| Fractional
Rig - Main |
44.11 sq m |
475 sq ft |
| Jib |
35.05 sq m |
378 sq ft |
