Alajuela 38 - History of the hull design
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Pierce Ostrander
Dec 20, 2016, 9:51:29 AM12/20/16
to Alajue...@googlegroups.com
I've been going back through my ALA 38 folder, looking for past gems.
Hi everyone!
Well the short answer is that the Alajuela 38 is basically a just a modified Ingrid.
It's hard to explain to people how the Alajuela 38 came about and hopefully the following is able to do so. The Alajuela 38 wasn't "designed" in the normal fashion. I can't think of a better word other than it "evolved" and was the result of a tremendous amount of input from others who were experts in the sailboating industry. (Chris Welton, who is here on our list, is a good example of this. He was Alajuela's "engineman" and one of the best in the business. He contributed a lot of his expertise into the design/layout of the mechanical and electrical systems on the 38)
I'm not saying the 38 wasn't "designed" as we spent hours and hours on design calculations etc. and then rechecking them. ( I bought one of the first HP hand calculators to do this...about $400!...Walmart now sells a better one for $9.95 !!!)
It just that when we came across a design decision it was heavily discussed and on some things we sought acknowledged industry experts and asked, "If this was your personal boat how would you do this ?" There are obvious differences in the Ingrid and the Alajuela so I'll just touch on those that are not so obvious, like the hull shape which I'll get into next.
How the hull design came about - If you wanted a cruising boat in the early 1970s you had very little to choose from as most sailboats were designed for racing /race rule cheating, not cruising. There was a Garden design, called Mariner, which was built in Japan in 32 and 38 feet and several people were selling bare fiberglass hulls of which, the only acceptable one for cruising was the Kendall 32 double-ender. (The Kendall 32 hull later became the Westsail 32.) The only other choice was to build you own boat.
Being boatbuilders and each of us wanting to get our own cruising boat, the Kendall hull was of great interest to us, so we naturally spent a lot of time researching double -enders. The Kendall 32 was built in fiberglass directly from the lines of the Atkin design, "Eric/Thistle" which was a direct scale down of a Colin Archer design for a Norwegian sailing lifeboat. The "Colin Archers" were designed as rescue craft and had to be able to stay at sea with the fishing fleet and save the men from boats that foundered during a storm. Having to sail well wasn't all that necessary especially when your sailing performance was in a 50 kts+ wind. After a bit of studying it soon became apparent to us that while double-enders make great sea boats, it is very hard to design one that sails well. (the problem is getting the design of the"run"aft right) The majority of double ender designs we looked at had the reputation of being poor sailers though there were a few that were noted for good sailing qualities. (the main ones being the "Ingrid" and "Little Ranger" by Atkin, "El Gaucho" by Manuel Compos ( of Vito Dumas fame), and "Angantyr " by Maclear & Harris - (aspects of these designs' lines influenced the 38 lofting)
Initially not wanting to go through the hassle of building a hull from scratch, Mike Riding and I decided to each buy a bare hull from Kendall, however, the circumstances changed and Mike decided to build a boat from scratch and went with an Ingrid based design as this was in the size range he wanted.
A one-off built boat in the early 70s was very rare. The few one-offs that were done were built in wood though aluminum was starting to come in on the bigger boats. The ferro-cement craze was going strong with backyard builders. The West Systems and one off fiberglass weren't started yet so as a builder you didn't have much choice. For a while Mike was considering Ferro-cement but after researching it, found that it wasn't practical as a boat building material. However having had to consider and calculate the differences of weight in a wood hull vs a ferro cement hull got us thinking that it didn't really make sense to make a direct copy of the Ingrid hull as it was designed for wood, not fiberglass and since fiberglass has very few design restrictions we could incorporate things that would be impossible with wood.
We spent a lot of time on the lofting and studying the lines. In laying down the lines we were very careful when making any changes as we didn't want to disturb the Ingrids good sailing qualities. As wood planks have limits to how they can be bent / twisted, being free of the limitations of wood enabled us to make improvements in certain hull areas. The changes were small but important ones. The Ingrid owners we talked to mentioned that the Ingrid at times would dig in her bow in a sea so Mike increased the buoyancy of the hull forward above the water line . We also increased the overall hull size which added to the reserve buoyancy. ( An Ingrid would fit inside a bare 38 hull) . A lot of the changes are visibly obvious, like fairing in the stem post and garboard areas. We had expert help with the lofting as being boatbuilders and working for different sailboat companies we had an "inside track" and were able to seek out the best lofters and ask their opinions. These guys would come up after work to where we were lofting and offer valuable input. Newport Beach/Costa Mesa at that time was the fiberglass sailboat capital of the world and the experts in the companies were the older guys whose past experience was building wooden boats. About the time we finished the lofting, Mike had decided to change direction from a one-off and build a fiber glass mold to produce a few hulls and that was the start of Alajuela.
I've used the word "we" a lot in this narrative as I was at that time helping Mike in my spare time after work, however Mike deserves full credit for the hull design and the hull tooling.The design, fairness and sailing qualities of the hull are the result of the perseverance, craftsmanship and genius of Mike Riding. Without his hundreds of hours of toiling in the sun, striving for perfection, there would be no Alajuelas today.
Going on with differences- The other main difference is that the Alajuela has lead ballast rather than iron. That allows her to carry more sail and makes her stiffer. The lack of lead ballast was another common complaint of Ingrid owners we heard about when we researched Ingrids. Later we had several wooden Ingrid owners visit us and go sailing and all remarked on the improvement lead ballast made.
I think that's about it for the main differences. Much stronger and larger interior than a wooden Ingrid of course. As a design feature the one piece hull and the hull/deck connection I think sets the Alajuela way ahead of all other boats.
Hope that answers your question. I'm going to be away for a while and off the computer. Doing a cruise with some friends out of Puerto Rico to the southern caribbean so if you need me look on the beaches in the Barbadoes for a guy in a straw hat drinking Cockspurs rum! 8-) Back around May 20th.....though if it looks good I might stay!!
Best regards to all.
- Rod
The following was a response from Rod Jermaine to a specific question about the Alajuela 38 vs the Ingrid; and ended up being something more.
Enjoy!
Pierce
----- Original Message -----
From: Rod Jermain
To: alajuela
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 7:00 AM
Subject: Re: Alajuela vs Ingrid
Well the short answer is that the Alajuela 38 is basically a just a modified Ingrid.
It's hard to explain to people how the Alajuela 38 came about and hopefully the following is able to do so. The Alajuela 38 wasn't "designed" in the normal fashion. I can't think of a better word other than it "evolved" and was the result of a tremendous amount of input from others who were experts in the sailboating industry. (Chris Welton, who is here on our list, is a good example of this. He was Alajuela's "engineman" and one of the best in the business. He contributed a lot of his expertise into the design/layout of the mechanical and electrical systems on the 38)
I'm not saying the 38 wasn't "designed" as we spent hours and hours on design calculations etc. and then rechecking them. ( I bought one of the first HP hand calculators to do this...about $400!...Walmart now sells a better one for $9.95 !!!)
It just that when we came across a design decision it was heavily discussed and on some things we sought acknowledged industry experts and asked, "If this was your personal boat how would you do this ?" There are obvious differences in the Ingrid and the Alajuela so I'll just touch on those that are not so obvious, like the hull shape which I'll get into next.
How the hull design came about - If you wanted a cruising boat in the early 1970s you had very little to choose from as most sailboats were designed for racing /race rule cheating, not cruising. There was a Garden design, called Mariner, which was built in Japan in 32 and 38 feet and several people were selling bare fiberglass hulls of which, the only acceptable one for cruising was the Kendall 32 double-ender. (The Kendall 32 hull later became the Westsail 32.) The only other choice was to build you own boat.
Being boatbuilders and each of us wanting to get our own cruising boat, the Kendall hull was of great interest to us, so we naturally spent a lot of time researching double -enders. The Kendall 32 was built in fiberglass directly from the lines of the Atkin design, "Eric/Thistle" which was a direct scale down of a Colin Archer design for a Norwegian sailing lifeboat. The "Colin Archers" were designed as rescue craft and had to be able to stay at sea with the fishing fleet and save the men from boats that foundered during a storm. Having to sail well wasn't all that necessary especially when your sailing performance was in a 50 kts+ wind. After a bit of studying it soon became apparent to us that while double-enders make great sea boats, it is very hard to design one that sails well. (the problem is getting the design of the"run"aft right) The majority of double ender designs we looked at had the reputation of being poor sailers though there were a few that were noted for good sailing qualities. (the main ones being the "Ingrid" and "Little Ranger" by Atkin, "El Gaucho" by Manuel Compos ( of Vito Dumas fame), and "Angantyr " by Maclear & Harris - (aspects of these designs' lines influenced the 38 lofting)
Initially not wanting to go through the hassle of building a hull from scratch, Mike Riding and I decided to each buy a bare hull from Kendall, however, the circumstances changed and Mike decided to build a boat from scratch and went with an Ingrid based design as this was in the size range he wanted.
A one-off built boat in the early 70s was very rare. The few one-offs that were done were built in wood though aluminum was starting to come in on the bigger boats. The ferro-cement craze was going strong with backyard builders. The West Systems and one off fiberglass weren't started yet so as a builder you didn't have much choice. For a while Mike was considering Ferro-cement but after researching it, found that it wasn't practical as a boat building material. However having had to consider and calculate the differences of weight in a wood hull vs a ferro cement hull got us thinking that it didn't really make sense to make a direct copy of the Ingrid hull as it was designed for wood, not fiberglass and since fiberglass has very few design restrictions we could incorporate things that would be impossible with wood.
We spent a lot of time on the lofting and studying the lines. In laying down the lines we were very careful when making any changes as we didn't want to disturb the Ingrids good sailing qualities. As wood planks have limits to how they can be bent / twisted, being free of the limitations of wood enabled us to make improvements in certain hull areas. The changes were small but important ones. The Ingrid owners we talked to mentioned that the Ingrid at times would dig in her bow in a sea so Mike increased the buoyancy of the hull forward above the water line . We also increased the overall hull size which added to the reserve buoyancy. ( An Ingrid would fit inside a bare 38 hull) . A lot of the changes are visibly obvious, like fairing in the stem post and garboard areas. We had expert help with the lofting as being boatbuilders and working for different sailboat companies we had an "inside track" and were able to seek out the best lofters and ask their opinions. These guys would come up after work to where we were lofting and offer valuable input. Newport Beach/Costa Mesa at that time was the fiberglass sailboat capital of the world and the experts in the companies were the older guys whose past experience was building wooden boats. About the time we finished the lofting, Mike had decided to change direction from a one-off and build a fiber glass mold to produce a few hulls and that was the start of Alajuela.
I've used the word "we" a lot in this narrative as I was at that time helping Mike in my spare time after work, however Mike deserves full credit for the hull design and the hull tooling.The design, fairness and sailing qualities of the hull are the result of the perseverance, craftsmanship and genius of Mike Riding. Without his hundreds of hours of toiling in the sun, striving for perfection, there would be no Alajuelas today.
Going on with differences- The other main difference is that the Alajuela has lead ballast rather than iron. That allows her to carry more sail and makes her stiffer. The lack of lead ballast was another common complaint of Ingrid owners we heard about when we researched Ingrids. Later we had several wooden Ingrid owners visit us and go sailing and all remarked on the improvement lead ballast made.
I think that's about it for the main differences. Much stronger and larger interior than a wooden Ingrid of course. As a design feature the one piece hull and the hull/deck connection I think sets the Alajuela way ahead of all other boats.
Hope that answers your question. I'm going to be away for a while and off the computer. Doing a cruise with some friends out of Puerto Rico to the southern caribbean so if you need me look on the beaches in the Barbadoes for a guy in a straw hat drinking Cockspurs rum! 8-) Back around May 20th.....though if it looks good I might stay!!
Best regards to all.
- Rod
Jason Folkers
Dec 23, 2016, 12:41:07 PM12/23/16
to Alajuelaboats
Thanks for posting this! Very interesting.
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