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We've had interest from some of you wanting to hear about One World America's Cup sailor and Olympic medallist Jonathon McKee's new 44' Paul Bieker designed Dark Star, and our friends at Boating New Zealand supplied us with the pictures and most of the text you read here. Enjoy.
Paul Bieker is mostly known for his work in the International 14 class - his designs have won the last four world championships - and he is currently with the design team at Oracle Racing. Jonathan and his wife Libby McKee wanted a boat strong enough to cope with any ocean sailing, with a crew of two. It also had to be competitive round the buoys in club racing. Bieker's creation is a lightweight carbon fiber 44-footer (13.4m) that displaces only 10,120 lbs. with nearly 4,000 lbs of that as ballast. To achieve the upwind grunt, Dark Star has water ballast tanks under the side decks, each holding 1980 lbs. of water when filled. "The water ballast takes the place of having a team of guys on the rail," says McKee. "The boat is set up to handle everything from the helm station so that you can effectively sail it single handed when cruising offshore with the assistance of the B&G H1000 auto-pilot that uses a Whitlock drive motor. For racing we only need enough guys to handle the sails, not for their weight. Out in the ocean with only two aboard, you are able to sail the boat almost as efficiently with two as you would if you had a full crew." In June, he sailed to Norfolk with three aboard and returned with two in some of the roughest seas he's ever experienced. Clear of North Cape they sailed into a northeasterly that backed south to produce what McKee describes as "weird beam seas at a cross-angle - just like a washing machine." He was pleased with the performance on the wind, especially over the last 50 miles into Norfolk in 25-30 kts. For the trip back to New Zealand, the wind was just aft of the beam. With double-reefed main and the blade jib they consistently sat on 13-14kts, surfing more than 20kts on several occasions. Bieker's design concept of light displacement and hull shape is to produce a smoother speed curve where the boat goes faster and faster the windier it gets. In McKee's view, most boats of around this size typically get to 8-10kts boat speed downwind and then need some wave effect to achieve higher speeds. "You also have to be able to project a good sized kite if you want to fly downwind. As a skiff sailor I would be disappointed in a boat if it didn't get up and fly. You have to feel as though you are in control at speed - ripping along but not hanging on the edge."
Built by Ian Franklin in Christchurch under the project management of Paul Stock, Dark Star had her initial launch and sea-trial over Christmas, cruising the Marlborough Sounds, before returning to the boatyard for final completion and delivery to Auckland in March 2002. Throughout the yacht, things have been kept simple and light, but she includes all the live-aboard cruising requirements such as a fully equipped galley, deep freeze, hot water shower and a Webasto diesel heater to cope with the winter climate in the McKees' hometown of Seattle. The layout provides two double-berth cabins. The first is in the starboard quarter aft of the navigation station. Here the squab is split in half to allow for a fore-and-aft lee cloth for a safe and cozy sea going berth. This berth runs beneath the cockpit and is wide enough to sleep athwartships. The other double berth is in the forward owners' cabin. This has ensuite access to the head. A feature of the forward cabin is the ports set into the hull giving extra light and a peep of the outside - ideal for a quick anchor check. The settee seating around the central table in the main saloon can be used for additional sleeping space, however the boat is ideal for two couples to cruise together. The saloon table is built over the engine, heater and trim tab mechanism, with access provided through the side panels. The 36hp at 3650 rpm Yanmar 3JH engine almost sits right on top of the keel, driving a two-bladed Maxprop.
The engineering of the keel attachment is a particular challenge for narrow chord length keels. The problem is to get sufficient bottom structure, where the keel joins the hull, to cope with the sideways righting load and the fore and aft potential grounding load. Bieker's solution is to extend the keel up into the cabin and forward to tie it to the main bulkhead and mast collar. Dark Star's keel draws almost 10ft, and McKee considers his chances of bumping it are quite high, particularly around Seattle where the water shallows quickly: "It's either five hundred feet or two feet." The electrical system is solely 12 volts and has been kept fairly simple. There is a full set of B&G sailing instruments, a VHF radio, a CD stereo system and refrigeration. The GPS is a simple plotter, though the owner will consider a PC-based system. For the trip to Norfolk Island he took a satellite phone that he considered better and easier to use than SSB. He is particularly pleased with the battery monitor that continuously displays the percentage of charge, current draw-off and estimated hours of charge remaining. The main charging system is through a high output alternator. When alongside, shore power connects through a charger.
The interior is painted white, contrasting with the quarter-sawn Douglas fir timber joinery trimmed with mahogany. The water ballast tanks, extending between the cockpit and mast bulkheads at the point of maximum beam, fill the space under the side decks normally used for storage or pilot berths and are similarly trimmed with the golden-colored Douglas fir. There is ample internal storage under the bunks and around the practical U-shaped galley. The area aft of the galley is a huge stowage area, large enough to take a kayak, sails, fenders, drogue and all the other miscellaneous gear, all in a big black carbon cave with access through the cockpit locker. The deck layout is clean, with most controls either under the dodger on the cabin top, or running to the aft end of the cockpit. The Harken headsail furler and anchor winch are hidden below deck level in the bow. The gennaker prod rotates on a pin just above the waterline, and swings through a wide arc to enable projection to weather. The carbon-fiber mast is from a Farr 40, but with longer spreaders. The stays are all PBO, which is a third the weight of rod. These terminate at the deck with Spectra lashings directly to the hull - a bit like the sailing ships of old. There are no chain plates, just carbon rod reinforced with carbon fiber at the gunwale. The forestay is rod because of the furling gear and a hydraulic jack under the mast step adjusts rig tension. The T-shaped cockpit has twin wheels well outboard so there is a good view of the headsail. McKee preferred this option to the large, single wheel alternative because it allows easier access through the middle of the cockpit and a large wheel would have meant some sort of trench. The mainsheet, main traveler and headsail sheets are close to the helm, along with the controls for the trim tab, ballast tanks and their gauges. Initial filling takes about four minutes by electric pump. There are two separate dump trapdoors in each tank, both operated by simple block and tackle systems. One trapdoor dumps the water through the hull and over the side. The other allows access to an eight-inch diameter tube linking the two tanks. It takes about 45 seconds to transfer the water from the weather tank to its leeward twin, just prior to tacking. There is a step down aft of the cockpit to a boarding platform where the inflatable stows comfortably on its edge. For our test sail we had a solid breeze of 15 to 20kts, fortunately timing it between the heavy rainsqualls that have been a constant feature of Auckland's winter. Under gennaker we tacked down harbor at around 12kts; Dark Star was light and responsive on the helm and it took little time to get the feel of sailing the right apparent wind angles by just maintaining a constant small heel. It was helpful having telltales on the gennaker luff and one wonders why more boats don't do this. Gybing was fairly simple; the gennaker was allowed to rotate outside around the luff onto the new tack. To try and prevent the lazy sheet from falling under the bow, McKee is experimenting with an extension on the top of the prod. This will be dressed up and refined when he is satisfied with the length and angle. The gennaker has a sock and snuffer, making hoisting and recovery a breeze. For short-handed sailing McKee believes gennakers are infinitely easier to handle than spinnakers, with little velocity made good, i.e. VMG, performance difference.
Before returning up harbor on the wind, we had to drop the main to fix a broken batten. McKee opted for Strong luff slides and a slab reefing system with lazy jacks that he has found works well, even under a sailing load. He considered an in-boom system but prefers the simplicity of a non-powered system. With the main back up, we unfurled the jib and set off into the 18-20kt breeze. Initially the weather ballast tank was empty and as it filled we felt the power come into the boat as it stiffened and drove into the short chop. The owner then wound on about five degrees of trim tab. This reduced the weather helm and Dark Star powered to weather at an easy 8-8.5kts. He considers the performance advantage of a trim tab is a reasonable cost benefit investment, estimating a five per cent improvement for around $10,000. The helm had a good, sensitive feel and the yacht seemed easy to get it in the groove in the oscillating breeze. While we were right on the point of needing a reef in the main, we were never overpowered or felt any tendency for her to round up. Tacking the blade jib was easy, however, not being used to sailing with ballast tanks, it was easy for me to forget to allow another 45 seconds to transfer tanks prior to putting the helm over. This would come quickly with familiarity, and even if you do forget or need to tack quickly, it is simple enough to top up with the electric pump.
While the McKees don't expect to get much sailing over the next six months while Jonathan is involved with the OneWorld America's Cup challenge, they intend to cruise Dark Star around the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands at the conclusion. That may be combined with some South Pacific cruising before probably shipping her back to Seattle. We have probably all tended to associate water ballasting with high performance race boats like the Volvo and Open 60s. The logic for using the system for performance enhancement on cruiser-racers is obvious and you wonder why it isn't more common. The costs can be relatively modest; the systems used on Dark Star are fairly simple and foolproof. While she is an expensive construction in carbon fiber and exotics, lightweight boats in cheaper, conventional materials would certainly perform better. They would sail faster and more comfortably short-handed if they incorporated similar systems. Needing less conventional ballast, they might even be cheaper and it saves ringing around for more crew when heavy winds are forecast for race day. LOA 44 ft. 11/07/2002 |
