Around the yards

摘要

Rockport (Maine) Marine will launch two new boats this spring, one a cold-molded W-class sloop and the other a center-console launch designed in-house. The W-46 is the fourth hull of that type, with design work completed by Robert W. Stephens for Donald Tofias's W-Class Racing Yachts, based in Newport, Rhode Island. The new yacht is 46'9" LOA, with a beam of 11', draft of 8', displacement of 16,500 lbs, and flies 981 sq ft of working sail. Because the type is intended for one-design racing, no changes in the specifications have been made from the original, though minor "tweaks" in interior fittings and such rigging details as jibsheet car tracks have been adjusted. The W-46 is one of the "spirit of tradition" yachts the company specializes in, with yachts built to 37', 46', and 76' lengths and with hopes for a 100-footer eventually. Similar in concept, the yachts combine vintage hull aesthetics, with modern sailing performance. The 46s and 76s have traditional long overhangs but modern under-the-water-line shapes drawing on modern performance hulls. The new boat is a replacement for a W-46 that caught fire and sank in Nantucket Sound in May 2014. The hull is a conventional cold-molded construction, laminated in four layers over laminated Douglas-fir frames, the planking consisting of longitudinal 1/2" Douglas-fir on the interior, followed by two 1/8" layers of western red cedar set on opposing diagonals, and a final longitudinal layer of 5/16" western red cedar on the exterior. A mid-June launching is expected.