I was walking the docks at Quartermaster Yacht Club and saw Tern and Nonsense moored side-by-side, and was struck by how these two boats represent the range of boats that make up current Vashon boating.
Tern is a traditional wooden sailboat that represents hundreds of years of design evolution, and Nonsense is a modern high-speed cruiser that represents the past decade in new design concepts that are revolutionizing how boats are built.
Tern, owned by Susan Thompson and Tim Reagan, is a wooden 30-foot Atkins-designed gaff head sloop, built in 1982 at Port Hadlock, Washington by a skilled shipwright. With a sail area of 526 square feet — 383 feet of main sail and 142 feet of jib – Tern has a short bow sprit, a short mast, and a short main boom compared to tall rigs of modern sailboats.
She is a traditional heavy displacement sailboat with a 26.5-foot waterline, a draft of 5 feet, and a displacement of 12,500 pounds. Displacement hulls move through the water by pushing it aside or displacing it.
Sue and Tim moved to Vashon 20 years ago after living aboard their Atkins-designed Ingrid for the previous 18 years in Seattle and sailing to Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska. They both developed very successful careers in the Seattle wooden boat scene, Sue as a varnisher and Tim as a caulker. They met on a boat delivery to California and worked from their liveaboard home at Shilshole and from wherever they cruised.
Asked, why own a traditional heavy displacement wooden sailboat like Tern, both Sue and Tim responded that they liked to “keep it simple.”
Owning a wooden boat may not seem simple to most of us, but to two experienced wooden boat craftspeople like them, Tern is a reminder of a much simpler time, without complex electronic systems, high-tech materials, and a reliance on the wind.
Nonsense, owned by Marcia Bruya and Jeff Carson is a 37-foot Axopar 37 XC Cross cabin, designed in Finland as a commuter boat to run between the many islands on the Finnish coast.
Built in Poland, its low profile, sleek modern design, and twin 300 HP Mercury Verado outboards means Nonsense is made for speed. Nonsense’s top speed is 42 knots and its most economical cruising speed is 32 knots — fast by comparison to many of the 37-footers in Quartermaster Yacht Club that motor or sail at a more sedate 6-8 knots.
Marcia and Jeff both came to Seattle in the mid-1990s to work for Starbucks, where they met. They moved to Vashon in 2001. Jeff grew up sailing in Cleveland, and in Seattle raced J-24s and Olsen 30s — both designs known for their speed and quickness. When he went to work for Marine Service Center, Jeff and Marcia began to spend parts of their summers returning customers’ cruising boats from Alaska down the Inside Passage.
Asked, why to own a boat like Nonsense, Jeff replied “To get places, and to get there fast.”
Nonsense is the epitome of the most current design ideas for fast comfortable cruising boats. The most obvious innovations are the plumb raised bow, the low profile with the accommodations built down into the hull rather than on top of the hull, the electronic joy-stick controls for the outboards that make the boat amazingly maneuverable, and its stepped hull profile.
The stepped hull is not a new concept. It first emerged as a concept by Charles Ramus in 1872 and was refined in an 1877 design by John Thorncraft that was then married with gasoline engines in 1909, by William Fauber, to create the first modern hydroplanes.
The concept of a stepped hull is relatively simple. In creating a planning hull that lifted out of the water rather than displacing it like traditional hulls do, the step hull introduces steps, or lateral horizontal notches that run from chine to chine across the bottom of the hull.
These steps, which reach above the waterline when the boat is on a plane, create low pressure just behind the step that draws in air from both sides, which mixes with the water so that the boat is not only riding on top of the water (planning) but is also riding on a cushion of air introduced at each step that further reduces water resistance and thus increases speed.
Next time you have a chance to watch boats in Quartermaster Harbor, look for the old and the new worlds of boating. When you do, reflect on how different these boats are and yet how similar they are.
For all their differences, the primary purpose of Tern and Nonsense is to get us out on the water — enjoying all that being on the water represents.
Bruce Haulman is an island historian, active and engaged in the efforts of The Vashon Heritage Museum. Terry Donnelly is an island photographer.
:
