Intented Use, Historical Research, and Design
The objective for rig planning for a custom private yacht is to design the boat to be a pleasure to sail under her intended normal circumstances. This Schooner is intended for mostly husband and wife cruising on the East Coast–New England, Chesapeake, Bahamas, Caribbean, etc. Occasional participation in some classic boat regattas with additional guest crew and possible crewed charters were also noted as a strong possibility. The resulting plan for “Belle” was conservative, easy to handle, and well balanced but with plenty of room to power up in lighter winds. Getting to this stage involved scrutinizing other similar sized schooner projects, such as Amelia, Dauntless, and Lion’s Whelp, which had enough available drawings to transfer into CAD and analyze sail areas, CE, CLR and LEAD along with other standard design ratios to determine the wind ranges for different sail combinations. Finally, using Rhino 3D all aspects are determined in advance including all hardware, the length and strength requirements for each shroud, stay, halyard and sheet.