Great yacht designs 6 the Rozinante

Publish date: 2024-06-14

Francis L Herreshoff’s Rozinante is one of the famed small cruising yacht designs ever drawn. But is her lavish praise deserved?

Article reproduced in full from CB332

Few boats have earned such lavish praise as L Francis Herreshoff’s ‘canoe yawl’ Rozinante; L Francis himself wrote immodestly “you will find her a beautiful model” and elsewhere you’ll find her lauded as “one the most beautiful and graceful vessels ever designed” and “hypnotically beautiful”. At the risk of prompting outrage from her admirers, I’m not sure I’d go that far; certainly, the hull is very pretty (and better in photos than on paper), but while the original rig with her club gaffs may be practical, to my eye it’s nothing very special in the aesthetic department. He evidently returned to the design later in life; the original version was published in The Rudder and ‘The Compleat Cruiser’ (1956), but he published (posthumously) a prettier bermudan version (Design No. 98) in the 1973 ‘Sensible Cruising Designs’, by which time the hull was a fraction longer and deeper and had a lot more sail area.

In ‘The Compleat Cruiser’ L Francis described her as a whaleboat type, ketch rigged cruiser, but in The Rudder he described her as “of a type that used to be described as canoe yawls”. That canoe yawls are not canoes (or necessarily yawls) is a truism; the consensus seems to be that they should be slim and small enough to row if necessary, double-ended, partly decked, have a mizzen, and if the accommodation is anything other than snug it won’t count. Albert Strange is often cited as the inventor of the breed, but more prosaically they seem to have evolved during the 1870s; Strange did much to popularise them with his artistic drawings and articles though, a tradition that L Francis followed.

Herreshoff also described Rozinante as “non-capsizeable” but I would suggest that potentially self-righting would be more accurate; no boat of this size is truly uncapsizeable, but she is very slim for her length and has a good ballast ratio (in most versions 50 per cent or more), so should come back up pretty readily one would imagine, assuming she doesn’t down-flood. The original had a long (8ft) cockpit which looks a nice space, but it wasn’t self-draining; and that would suggest her ideal milieu would be inshore or at best reasonably sheltered coastal or estuarial use rather than offshore. The cost of the decent cockpit with such a narrow boat is next to non-existent side decks, which with her low sheer will bring her crew into regular and intimate proximity with the water; which again suggests relatively sheltered waters would be her forte. In the same vein, the sail area at 265sq ft was originally pretty mean; with a sail area/displacement ratio of 129 she would often have been sluggish, despite her slim hull. Presumably reflecting that, the redrawn versions have 348sq ft (32.3m2) and the SA/disp ratio jumps to a healthier 169 as a result; since nearly all the examples built follow the later rig plan it’s not surprising she has a reputation for scooting along pretty well.

As an aside, it is surprising that such a renowned draughtsman as L Francis produced the published lines plan with some definite anomalies: have a look at where the first buttock crosses waterline 1 near station 20, for example; (the later version is much fairer). The general form of the hull is delightful though; L Francis was a fine proponent of double-enders and this is a sweet example. The very slim aft waterlines might cause a little tendency to hobby-horse in a chop, and make her sensitive to a cockpit full of crew, but then he designed her to be rowable and hence gave her those slim quarters. Given a decent pair of oars she will probably move along OK, but at three tons it would take a pretty determined crew to keep it up for any length of time or into breeze or tide.

Following canoe yawl tradition, the accommodation is comically snug (as Herreshoff demonstrates in the original illustration), but with her moderate draft and low coachroof that is inevitable; concentrate on enjoying the cockpit space. Her fixed keel makes her a potentially more capable pocket cruiser perhaps, but she is not truly shallow draught as a result.

The draught is necessary to compensate for the lack of beam, a feature predominantly related to being row-able, which confirms that fitting an inboard (which Herreshoff was volubly against here) would be largely missing the point.

There is a purity of intent about the design which is nicely mirrored in L Francis’ general style. The hull shape is determined overwhelmingly by the need to be able to row her, which in a three-ton, 28ft boat places a hard compromise on most other aspects. Putting the hyperbole on one side, Rozinante is clearly a highly focused design, which will suit a few people perfectly.

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Great yacht designs 6 the Rozinante

Francis L Herreshoff’s Rozinante is one of the famed small cruising yacht designs ever drawn. But is her lavish praise deserved?