Ted Brewer Design - Huromic 35 - Thoughts?

[DeanMac]

I have a Goderich 35. Bought it 4 years ago and have been cruising the North Channel of Lake Huron. So far a great boat. It's a customized Ted Brewer design built in Goderich Ontario. It's 37 feet loa and draws about 5'6" with a displacement of 26,000lbs. Loaded with interior and exterior teak.
Wish I had furling. And the windlass is set too far forward for proper chain fall. Other than those minor things everything else is done with quality.
She can handle any weather so far and is easily powered by a vintage Volvo MD17C.
We feel very safe and comfortable.
I love the steel......especially when we hit a rock shoal in Lake Erie.....a few minor scratches ..... a ten minute fix.
Dean

[PhillyBill]

Originally Posted by KISS

Ted Brewer Huromic 35

Cutter/Double Headsail Sloop
All Steel Construction
Radius Bilge Hull
LOA = 35'8"
LWL = 28'4"
Beam = 11'6"
Draft = 4'9"
Ballast = 6,200lbs
SA = 649ft2
Displacement = 17,000lbs
Tankage = 35g fuel, 75g water

Hull Speed = 7.13 knots
D/LWL = 333.8
SA/D = 15.7
Ballast/D = 36.5%
Capsize Factor = 1.79
Prismatic Coefficient = .55



N.B. I plan to sail with only a small outboard for harbor work, so I would remove the designed inboard and exchange the fuel tank for an additional water tank.

I'm looking for a steel boat in the 30-35ish LOA range (30 being the minimum I need for living/storage space, 35ish being about the max I think I can handle comfortably with manual winches) to singlehand as a full time livaboard, for Caribbean and Med cruising (meaning frequent Atlantic crossings). Priorities are survivability in extreme conditions, ease of singlehanding (e.g. as relates to self-steering ability), and speed, in that order. The interior layout in the plans can be ignored, as I'll redesign it to my own requirements (though it looks pretty good, actually).

The Huromic is on the high end of my LOA range, but appears to hit the right notes otherwise, from what (little) I know of boat design. If you had my purpose and priorities in mind, how would you evaluate this boat? Will it suit my needs poorly, adequately, or well? Can you think of another design (must be steel and 30-35ish LOA) which would be better?

(I understand there is no objectively right answer to this question, I'm asking for your opinion).

Thanks

The Cabot 36 is virtually the identical boat to the Huromic 35, but in fiberglass, built by the Canadian company Cabotcraft in the 1970s and possibly early 80s. According to Sailboatdata.com 49 were built. Many are still sailing and occasionally one comes on the market. I mention this because you might find one for charter so you could get an idea about the sailing characteristics of the boat. Or you might find one in your area with an owner willing to take you for a sail.
Also the Cabot 36 is one of the boats featured in Richard Henderson's book Choice Yacht Designs. As I recall Henderson's one negative comment on the Cabot 36 for offshore work was the boat's high cockpit coamings which would hold a lot of water if the boat were pooped by a following sea. Larger cockpit drains and/or lower coamings would address the problem. (The boat does appear to have a decent bridge deck.)

Good luck with your investigation!

[ingrid75]

I agree with sanibel sailor. There are thousands of boats for sale out there.. One of which of which will be right. Life is just too short and the world is too big to waste time building boats when you could be cruising. And as for an inboard engine: one would be hard pressed to find a more diehard purist than me. Gaff rig, no winches, and only carrying 36 gallons of diesel in my fuel tanks, but there have been lots of times when I was damned glad to have that engine.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Building a boat to go sailing is putting the cart before the horse. You do not have enough experience to know where to make the zillion choices/compromises. F'rinstance, other than a SMALL handful of outspoken authors, almost every long term cruiser has an inboard... You really need to be skillful to do without, not what I would suggest for a neophyte.

I am inclined to agree with this. You will learn way more by buying a small cheap fibreglass boat and going cruising for a month or two than you will in years of reading forums or books. The biggest thing is not the boat, its you. and until you have a few miles under your belt you really don't know exactly what sort of sailing you enjoy, and what style of boat is right.

Secondhand boats are so cheap right now that building doesn't make any economic sense, unless you love to build and want a very unique type of boat.

If it were me i would buy an existing steel boat, and go sailing. The issues with internal rust are not as bad as you think, and It will save you years of time and thousands of dollars.

The design you are looking at looks nice. She wont be real fast, but will be easy to handle and seaworthy. I am guessing a hull would cost around $50k to have built, unless you can find a very cheap welder. certainly thats what it would cost over here in aussie. Rig $20k, Interior $10k ,winches 3k, electrics 3k, sandpaper 5k, screws etc 5k, outfitting 4k. that comes to about 100k. You can make big savings by finding secondhand stuff, and building parts youself. But these take time and still cost a suprising amount. 100k gets you a pretty good boat these days.

Brent Swain has some of the simplest and cheapest steel boats. I like them and the ethos behind the boats. If you are planning on building a budget steel boat it would be worth looking at some of his ideas. Or just buy one of his boats that are for sale.

[Snowpetrel]

One thing I would change about the design is the rudder. Transom hung is way simpler and stronger.

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[KISS]

Thanks all for the input, lots to consider.

Another I'm looking at is Dudley Dix's Pratique 35..

LOA - 10.50m (34'5")

LWL 8.70m (28'7")

Beam 3.30m (10'10")

Draft 1.50m (4'11")

Displacement 8160kg (17985lb)

Ballast 2510kg (5532lb)

Area Waterplane 17.72sq.m (191sq.ft)

Immersion Rate 182kg/cm (1019lb/inch)

Wetted Surface 30.35sq.m (327sq.ft)

Fineness Coef 0.68

Block Coef 0.40

Prismatic Coef 0.55

Displacement/Length 345

Sail Area (Main + Fore-triangle) 61.07sq.m (657sq.ft)

Sail Area/Wetted Surface 2.01

Sail Area/Displ 14.9

Water Tankage 375 litres (103 US gal)

Fuel Tankage 250 litres (69 US gal)

Headroom in galley 1.90m (6'3")

Headroom at mast 1.77m (5'10")

Righting Moment @ 30 deg 3865 kgm (27956ft.lb)

Righting Moment @ 60 deg 5226 kgm (37800ft.lb)

Righting Moment @ 90 deg 4410 kgm (31898ft.lb)

Powering 20-30hp inboard diesel

Really impressed with the amount of data Dix provides on her.

[Snowpetrel]

I like them, and it has the transom hung rudder! Also I think dix has the CNC files to cut out a kitset, which would make it way easier and cheaper to build. He has a heap of other great designs. I really like his Hout Bay series.

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[KISS]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

I like them, and it has the transom hung rudder! Also I think dix has the CNC files to cut out a kitset, which would make it way easier and cheaper to build. He has a heap of other great designs. I really like his Hout Bay series.

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Yup

That's a big plus.

[gjordan]

Having spent my first 2 years cruising without an engine and many more years with boats that had inboard diesels, I would recommend that you have an engine. Not having one, limits you in too many ways, making an anchorage before dark if the wind has died, moving around in anchorages or channels etc. You dont need a big engine or huge amount of fuel, but it makes life much easier to have a simple reliable engine. Crossing oceans without an engine is simple, it is at both ends that you need a little help and as a single hander you need it even more. A folding or feathering prop, good light air sails and a clean bottom will reduce the running time (fuel burn) enough that you dont need huge fuel tanks. Just another opinion. ____Grant.