Douglas 32

[Enfant Du Vent]

Ahoy paradoxbox:


Happy to hear that YOU are happy.


Hint of the day: Learn to reef the main. My Douglas 32--as rigged--heeled quickly and shortening sail barely reduced the speed but made everything much more comfortable. And besides, you'll spill less beer that way <grin>

[paradoxbox]

We sailed our boat from Belleville to Whitby last weekend with a stop at Cobourg to let our dog unwind a bit.



What a wonderful boat. We got a fair distance from shore to take advantage of the wind, but it shifted to a south wind so we tacked and kept on the same tack and heading the entire way from Cobourg to Whitby, making 6 knots on the GPS the entire way.


I hardly had to touch the helm to keep her steady. I think I found my forever boat

[paradoxbox]

Alright - time for my first gripe about the boat

She sails at anchor quite viciously, especially in winds of around 10-15 knots which is uncomfortable when she goes beam to the waves. Aside from the obvious solution of picking a better anchorage, anybody have solutions that worked for their Douglas?

I tried increasing windage aft by putting up a 100w solar panel up in the cockpit but it did not seem to have much effect. So I wonder if an anchor riding sail will have much benefit here.

We have hank-on sails so there's nothing but the forestay catching the wind at the bow. I tried stowing our headsail below but it also did not improve things much.

She tends to swing the bow 90 degrees in one direction, pull taught on the anchor rode then swing back through the wind again 90 degrees in the other direction. Repeat forever.

We have a substantial CQR anchor (35 or 40lbs) plus around 20 feet of chain, the rest is nylon rode. Holding was good each time we anchored, no dragging at any time as verified with a GPS anchor alarm.

One other thing we tried (But failed at) was running a line from the aft winch to the anchor rode, attached at the midway point between the bow roller and the water. Unfortunately when I tried doing this the boat was beam-on to the wind so the rope just clung to the hull doing nothing useful. Winching it in didn't seem to help point. I may try this method again next time - we were running out of daylight and just gave up last time around.

[Enfant Du Vent]

Sails At Anchor
Question: Was this a one or two time problem OR multiple times?

-If only once or twice you may have had a foul current pushing the stern.
-Multiple times: I had a bit of "sailing at anchor" but never anything near 90
degrees, so I'm puzzled. In calm conditions maybe you should check on
whether you're level OR down a bit at the bow.


Try this: Instead of more windage aft how about a 5-10 lb anchor off the stern. (I've never done this, so it's just a guess.)
OR: Set a second bow anchor so the lines come in through the bow chocks
at 90 degrees--or whatever the anchorage/other boats will allow.


PS: I frequently used a 35 lb CQR, with 12' chain + enough rode for whatever depth I was in.
PPS: In desperation you could anchor by-the-stern. LOL

[Kim Gregory]

Sails At Anchor
My Hullmaster 31 also sailed at anchor, and the only fix I found was to drop a second bow anchor at the end of one of the 'swings'. 20 feet of chain and nylon. My 32 Douglas has 60 feet of chain, and nylon, and swings far less.

[Kim Gregory]

Betty Brewer let us know on the Douglas Facebook page that Ted (Edward Brewer) the designer of the Hullmaster / Douglas 31 and 32, has passed away on October 1st, 2021, at 90 years old.
Ted Brewer Yacht Design

https://sailboatdata.com/designer/brewer-edward-s

[paradoxbox]

Oh damn Very sorry to hear that.


I had just reached out to him in August and again in September after not getting a reply.



I'm glad to own a boat design he seems to have been proud of.

[Kelkara]

That's sad news ... but his legacy lives on in our boats. RIP.