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FPB 78 Dream Details: A Brief Update
There are 10 hard-working FPBers presently detailing structure, interior, and systems. Between hours of conferences, checking drawings, talking to vendors, the days are long (and nights very short)!...
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Best Window Coverings – What Is Your Experience?
Window coverings will play a more important role in the new FPB 78, given our goal of staying cool at anchor a majority of the time without a genset. This post is about the factors affecting the...
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Seeing Through The Fog
As designers, we worry about getting so caught up in detail that we miss the big picture. This is like a fog that obscures the true path to cruising Nirvana. In the last couple of weeks, as we neared...
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Rudder Angle Geometry
Rudder control steering geometry is one of those things which looks simple, but is actually quite difficult to get right. Loads can be high, space tight, and when you are shooting for maximum rudder...
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Sometimes The Best Cruising Is Close To Home
Over the years we have learned that often mundane destinations close to home offer unexpected cruising rewards. If we were other than land locked these days, we’d entertain you with an aquatic...
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Speed Freaks – A Partial Antidote
With the 34th America’s Cup now concluded, sailors with the need for speed can be expected to go into depression. As a partial antidote we offer a series of videos available online. OK, not the real...
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Steering Clear of Trouble – Tradeoffs in Rudder and Skeg Design
Skeg, rudder and canoe body integration play a large part in comfort on passage, heavy weather tactics, maneuvering in port, propulsion efficiency, and tolerance for operator error. The absolute...
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Ultimate Dinghy Revisited: Is a Big RIB The Answer?
We have been rethinking the ultimate dinghy concept and are looking at a big custom designed RIB for our new FPB 78. Not having experience with properly designed deep V RIBS, we have a few questions...
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America’s Cup – Finally – Unlike Anything You Have Ever Seen Before!
Tomorrow, Saturday September 7, marks the start of an amazing spectacle that you don’t want to miss. Whether on network TV or YouTube, we will be treated to heated competition between “yachts”...
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FPB 78: The Dream Machine (updated)
When we unexpectedly sold Wind Horse (before we were really ready to part with her) the plan was to take time off from cruising. After a lifetime spent messing around in boats, we considered a new...
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Crew Quarters – What Is The Best Layout – A Call For Input
We are in the process of designing crew quarters for our FPB 78. With no experience cruising and/or living with crew, we are working in a theoretical world rather than reality. If you are a...
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Happy Holidays From The Crew At SetSail
Sue Henry just sent us this marvelous photo of FPB 64-2 Sarah Sarah anchored out on the longest night of the year. As big a thrill as this must be for Bill and Sue, it gives enormous pleasure to us as...
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Catamaran History – Early Days Updated
In the process of cleaning up the office, a few more photos from the early days of the multihull history on the West Coast have come to light. There is an earlier post on the subject of multihull...
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FPB Construction Update As Of December 18,2013
The parts pile grows larger for the first FPB 78. Shortly after the Kiwis return from their holiday break we’ll start to see these sub assemblies being fitted onto the building jig. Meanwhile, FPB...
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Why FPB?
We’ve been chasing the holy grail of the perfect cruising vehicle for 40 years. The Deerfoot, Sundeer and Beowulf series of sailing yachts got us close. The FPB series brings our bow right up to the...
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Report From Ground Zero
We are just back from a week at ground zero in the FPB world. We had the chance to take a couple of boat rides, hang out with three owners who are presently moored in the town basin, and review...
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FPB 78: Crew Quarters, The Laundry Room, And A Hallway
We have had a ton of feedback on the subject of crew quarters – both via SetSail and e-mail – and we’ve worked up what we think is as close to crew Nirvana as one can get on a small yacht. The process...
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Speed, Sex, Rules, & Dinghies: Size Does Matter
We want to talk about a subject often avoided: Size. It is important for comfort, for aesthetics, and for speed. This has been much on our mind of late as we reach the “hard point” in the build cycle...
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Steering Clear of Trouble – Tradeoffs in Rudder and Skeg Design
Skeg, rudder and canoe body integration play a large part in comfort on passage, heavy weather tactics, maneuvering in port, propulsion efficiency, and tolerance for operator error. The absolute...
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Cruising In The Olden Days – A Marquesan Tale
We’ve been talking for years about going through our boxes of photos and slides and scanning them before they disintegrate. Well, the process has started and we are having so much fun remembering that...
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