(This design was conceived in 1992 and although some of the ideas behind it still hold true, the actual design feels a little awkward for me 8 years later. Still, Aileron - named after her keel configuration - was something of a parent model for subsequent designs and her general arrangement would be difficult to improve even today. A direct predecessor is the 38´ Taileron, which has a simplified construction, an easier hull shape and even more room below.)
Boats come in different shapes. There is the old tradition with its wealth of variation. There is the modern tradition which seems to state that all boats should look more or less alike. And there are a few examples of a mixed breed between the two. But to categorise which kind of tradition a particular design belongs to is not necessarily the decisive factor; rather, the quality of a design is determined by the more or less happy fusion of a number of separate characteristics.
In the case of Aileron, the outcome will also depend on a few innovations which have been melted into the design. The transom, the keel flap and the hull shape are all very different. However, it may be interesting to note that a few innovations are in fact old and well-proven ideas which have somehow gone out of fashion..... Thus, we have endeavoured to find a successful combination of past, present and future.
COCKPIT
The companionway is offset to starboard and protected by a dodger. All halyards, reefing lines and control lines are well within reach on the aft cabin rooftop, along with the mainsheet winch. The other end of the mainsheet is within reach of the helmsman.
AFT CABIN
The interior volume and layout will set new standards for 35´ or 36´ sailboats. There are several reasons for this, but the cabintop arrangement in particular deserves mentioning. This kind of asymmetrical cabin was not unusual five or six decades ago, for example in Alden's Off Soundings and Phil Rhodes' Reliant classes. It allows a proper owner's stateroom aft of the companionway with full standing headroom, a single and a double berth, a wardrobe, seat, lockers and shelves and a private entrance to the w.c./shower. You can sit on the edge of the berths like in any ordinary bedroom and there is generous headroom above each berth.
INTERIOR LAYOUT FORWARD
Just forward of the curved companionway staircase is the galley. This location makes it workable at sea. The ice-box holds 125 L (33 US gallons) and there is ample drawer and locker space and a bar to support the cook. The navigation station opposite the galley holds instruments and the electrical centre. There is room for an old-fashioned fire place on the forward bulkhead in the main salon.
The forward stateroom has two full-size berths and a little less space than the owner's cabin aft. Physical dimensions are adequate, all berths being a least 2 m (6'8") and standing headroom between 186 cm (6'2") and 190 cm (6'3") in all parts of the boat, including galley, shower and sleeping cabins.
Water capacity is 240 L (63,4 US gallons) and batteries are 12 V 240 Ah. 3 Dorade vents and 6 opening hatches ensure good ventilation and a deck prism provides a natural light source above the stove. Four sea berths can be arranged in the aft and main cabins and, under the shelter of the dodger, both the main companionway and the large opening port in the aft cabin can be left open.
All in all, the layout of this yacht should work well both for a cruising family with occasional guests and, lightly built, she should perform well for racing.
DIMENSIONS:
L.O.A. 10.86 m
L.W.L. 9.25 m
Beam 3.72 m
Draft 1.94 or 1.50 m
Displacement light 5200 kg
Dito, half-load 6000 kg
Ballast 2100 kg
I 13.78 m
J 4.26 m
P 14.00 m
E 4.90 m
Sail area 100% foretriangle 63.7 m_
Mainsail 34.3 m_
Genoa I 43.9 m_
Spinnaker 114 m_
D/L 186
SA/D 21.2
SA/WA 2.34
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THE UNUSUAL HULL SHAPES OF MARIA AND AILERON
In 1950 my father bought Maria, a small cruiser of 4,6 tons displacement. She was of unusually strong composite construction, tight-seam carvel planked of fir on oak and every third frame galvanised steel.
At the time, Folkboats were about the biggest boats we would normally meet cruising along the coast so although we were five in my family, we felt almost luxurious in our little ship which had a small galley and sitting headroom below deck in her cosy main cabin. There was no engine but a 12' oar for use in a calm.
When I was a teenager, I gradually became aware that Maria's shape was different from most other boats and standing on a dock and looking down at her decks, I would sometimes wonder how a yacht with such a chubby, unshapely bow could ever sail. But sail she did.
She would frequently outsail yachts of her size and a little larger, especially in a breeze, and she took first place in class IV, and overall, in the Skaw Race in 1951, beating all competition even in class III on time sailed. She sometimes seemed to have that magic of a successful design, smoking along in an inexplicable way.
In the lines drawing of Maria you may find her shape above waterline a little unusual. Her midship sections shows a good degree of tumble home and her bow sections have considerable flare. Normally this shape would have been sweetly faired into a bow overhang and a sweeping curve of the deck outline. But instead, her designer made her a short-ender and chose to finish her deck forward in a violent curve so that the bulwarks meet at a 90 degree angle at the bow.
Considering her performance under sail I came to realise that this was not the result of a whim of her designer. She was created by Tore Herlin who was the designer of cruising yachts par excellence in Sweden during four or five decades.
There is nothing new about the straight-sided and chubby-bowed concept seen in Maria. Such shapes were once used by leading designers such as L. Francis Herreshoff, E. G. van de Stadt, Laurent Giles, and John Alden. This was also, basically, the shape chosen for Aileron’s hull.
However, the above-water aspects of yacht design are rarely discussed and probably few people realise that a boxy shape may be the key to a number of advantages:
The shape of a yacht below the waterline should not differ too much from the ordinary or the yacht will perform poorly. But as the yacht is heeled, another part of the hull is immersed and the shape of the hull which is now under water will be different. The new shape may cause more drag, or it may have improved characteristics.
When a straight-sided yacht heels, its waterline will become both longer and straighter. And, at the same time, with a better prismatic coefficient or Cp (a measurement of the fullness of the fore- and afterbodies). Yacht designers pay great attention to this value, and for good reason, but the change of Cp as the boat heels seems so far to have been overlooked.
Aileron for example has a Cp of 0,55 which increases slightly to 0,56 at 20 degrees heel, whereas in the typical modern racer, Cp will usually tend to decrease.
Furthermore, a full bow and stern above the waterline will contribute greatly to stability. When the yacht is sailing near hull speed she is leaning on the bow and stern wave, with a trough in between. Thus, it will be seen that beam forward and aft are even more important than 'midships beam in creating a stiff boat. A further advantage is that a yacht of this kind will retain good tracking ability downwind, making her able to carry large sails without causing steering problems, and without burying the bow. This brings us to the aspect of weight distribution in relation to hull shape:
In 1969 Maria was equipped with an engine which was placed right in front of the mast, driving the propeller through a hydraulic system. The system worked well but our boat changed in one way: In a dying wind and an old swell she sometimes buried her bow deeper than before and became sluggish.
I think we knew that all boats are sensitive to carrying heavy loads forward, and probably aft, and that heavy rigs are deleterious to performance. Now we became aware that Maria was particularly sensitive to overloading because her full bow, if forced into a head sea, was capable of stopping her.
(Incidentally, the lines of Maria bear a striking similarity to those of Free Spirit, the lovely Concordia 33 owned by Jon Wilson, the first editor of WoodenBoat. Her lines can be seen in ‘Fifty Wooden Boats’. Apparently her owner has had her iron ballast keel replaced by a shorter lead casting and she has been fitted with a new carbon mast. These changes seem very conciously made and will undoubtedly give Free Spirit a livelier motion and help keep her bouyant bow out of the water.)