Vandam Custom 38 - New arrival

PRICE REDUCED!

FRESH WATER CUSTOM VANDAM

Saint Barbara was designed by navel architect Eric Sponberg and custom built by Steve VanDam in Boyne City Michigan. The boat is designed with a fairly narrow beam and long water line with a narrow entry angle. The sail area, rudder, and keel are all high aspect ratio. Coupled with a long water line and narrow beam makes for an upwind machine! The mast is free standing and rotating with runners used for hard to windward in strong winds. The jib is sheeted out on a rotating jib boom. So, the main and jib can be sheeted together for any apparent wind angle. The main effectively pumps wind over the jib (upwash) and the sail plan is very powerful. The boat can close reach to broad reach achieving 10-11 knots on auto pilot. Because of the very low VCG ( 24 inches below the water line ) and hull geometry the boat maintains speed even with large angles of heal with next to no quarter wave build up. Water ballast reduces heal angle by about six degrees. The angle of positive stability is close to 180 degrees. There is no pitching rhythm (hobby horsing). Center of buoyancy and center of flotation are in near perfect alignment. Since there is no aft stay coupled with a free standing mast there really isn't much tendency to round up in a strong gust and the boat remains very docile. The reason is because the mast combined with full batten main bleeds off the energy. This same effect gives the boat very good acceleration. The most important feature is the ability to align the wind power resultant along the axis of the boat. An example is sheeting out the boom and jib on a broad reach past the center line. The boat is primarily designed for single handed or double handing. All control lines and hydraulic can be adjusted while managing the rudder. This is a one-of-a kind boat that really needs to be seen to be appreciated. She is a hoot to sail and surely won't disappoint.

The hull is one inch western red cedar and multiple layers of carbon-uni on both sides for balanced laminate, the deck is the same. The keel is CNC machined from Douglas fir and has multiple layers of carbon-uni with a 5,000 lb. lead bulb. The entire keel assembly is sleeved into the hull approximately thirty inches and can be easily removed. Within the boats interior is a structural trunk holding the keel, this is carbon reinforced. The rudder is the same construction as the keel and is installed in a custom bearing assembly. The rudder is raised or lowered at will, even under sail. The rudder is made to be raised out of harms way while at anchor. The rudder bearing assembly is CNC machined from 6061-T6 aluminum with delrin roller bearings fully captured. The bearing has been welded and heat treated and hard coat anodized for under water integrity. The carbon mast and boom shape are designed by Sponberg and fabricated by Ted VanDusen at Composite Engineering in Concord Mass. Ted specified the laminate (PHD mechanical engineering) and the mast and boom were autoclave cured using high modulus carbon. All of the boats appendages are designed for actual stresses far below the allowable working stress for a carbon fiber laminate.  The boat has a water tight bulk head forward, two water ballast tanks, and completely sealed bilge for positive flotation. Since the entire boat is essentially wood together with the water tight spaces, she maintains positive stability. Hull, deck, and mast are painted with Awlgrip Polyurethane. 

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