Stuart Marine Knockabout

Sail Handling and Rig

The Knockabout's rig is really quite conservative, especially compared to other early designs. She carries only 265 sq. ft. of sail, and the plan is nicely divided for sail handling and delicately balanced steering. Despite this moderate sized sail plan, she's surprisingly fast in light winds and she certainly is when it breezes up. A good, deep-keeled, modern racing design of comparable weight and size with 100 sq. ft. more sail area may have a slight advantage in real light going, but the situation is reversed when it freshens a bit. The mainsail is equipped for slab reefing and the jib also can be reefed to its club. A Genoa can be added to her sail plan, and it really livens her up in wind under 12 knots.

The main sheet is a 4-part tackle, double-ended to the aft corners of the cockpit, close at hand for the helmsman's quick attention. This sheeting arrangement also makes effective use of a 5 foot long traveller and a wide range of trimming possibilities.

One of the additions we've made to the design is a club­footed, self-tending jib. This sail sheets to a traveller designed to provide perfect sail trim when close-hauled, so there is no loss of sail performance (compared to an ordinary double-sheeted jib). What a convenience and joy it is to tack this boat without having to touch any line.

At the forward end of the cockpit there is standing room to handle halyards, etc. They lead aft from the mast to a console in the little space where the coamings come to a point. Winches on both sides of the cockpit are used for spinnaker sheetlines, and one is used for the jib she

Hardware

Most of the fixed hardware are bronze castings. The travellers and sheetline blocks are of stainless steel or aluminum, as appropriate. The mast and boom are painted aluminum and resemble traditional wood spars. The jib club is painted spruce, matching the rest of the rig.

Keel fastenings are stainless bolts. A fixed high-capacity bilge pump is located on the center­line under the cockpit sole aft of the centerboard trunk. The intake is at the low point of the bilge with a discharge aft under the stern. It is activated by a removable handle, which can be operated by the helmsman without leaving the tiller.

Construction, Trim and Finish

Each boat is built with foam-cored fiberglass "sandwich" construction, resulting in great strength and less overall weight. This permits the addition of 400 pounds of keel ballast to bring the completed boat up to her designed displacement, thereby increasing her capability to carry sail into a good breeze of wind. The interior of the cockpit is painted with white gel-coat, to brighten and provide attractive color contrasts. This surface requires no maintenance other than occasional cleaning with water.

The cockpit sole is teak and is appropriately arranged with removable sections. Coamings, rails and trim are also teak. Seats are plywood (or optionally, teak) painted the same buff color as the spars and decks. Optionally, the seats may be made in teak and finished in either varnish or oil. The decks are fiberglass finished in gelcoat with a surface texture of painted canvas. She has a beautifully shaped transom finished in varnished teak, to round out as close a resemblance to a wooden boat as practical. Toe rails, rubrails, coamings and other trim pieces are also teak. The boat has the same exquisitely clean, pleasing appearance of the original L. Francis Herreshoff model.

Please Note

The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. Measurements, capacities and standard equipment lists, derived from public, published sources or from manufacturer's specification sheet for the given model year, may occasionally contain errors and omissions. Estimated Performance and fuel consumption will vary and be affected by water and weather conditions, altitude, load and condition of boat, engine, and propeller(s). Buyers should instruct their Agents or surveyors to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.