Perry Design Review: H22

I see at least one boat every month that is designed to capitalize on the concept advanced and established by the Melges 24. British designer Rob Humphreys says, "The Melges 24 has done a lot of good as a market maker;" and I would have to agree. It is hard for new boats to overcome the momentum of the Melges. In Seattle we have a growing fleet of the boats, which already enjoys strong and exciting one-design racing. The Achilles heel of the Melges — the price — has been attacked. The new H22 has been designed by Humphreys, along with partner Jim Moore, to be built at home from a laser-cut set of plywood panels. He calls it the Prefix method and has a patent pending. In short, this is a precision kit boat for assembly in your garage.

H22s race it out.

You start with a pallet consisting of frames, longitudinals, hull and deck shell panels, fiberglass coach roof and bow cone, mast pillar and rudder components. In less than one day these pieces can be assembled into something that looks a lot like a boat. This is fun and immediately gratifying. All pieces are numbered for easy identification. Total time to finish the boat (just prior to painting) is about 300 hours. From what I can see from the photographs, none of the high-tolerance woodworking normally associated with boat building is required in this project. It is an impressively orchestrated construction method.

So we have a plywood kit boat. Close your eyes for a moment and that description can conjure up some scary images. Enter Rob Humphreys. Humphreys has drawn very good-looking boats for a long time. His skill is very evident in the look and style of the H22. Lately, I have seen several boats going together from pre-cut panels supplied by the designer. It is an interesting exercise, but too often these boats have the look of a designer's geometry experiment. The H22 has smooth, clean lines with no hard chines or slabbish flat panels in the topsides. Photos show the finished boat to have the look of a molded hull. Geometry should never control the shape of the boat.

The H22 has a very handsome set of lines. There is enough BWL for decent form stability and the topsides are flared to help. Beam is 8 feet, 2 inches. The sections show a soft, rounded shape with U-shaped forward sections and a gentle almost constant arc to the aft stations. The stern is very broad. Total weight is 1,628 pounds for a D/L of 90.85.

With an SA/D of 30.64, this can confidently be called a high-powered boat. The deep bulb keel provides the sail-carrying power. The rig is a fractional type with swept spreaders and no runners. The asymmetrical chute is tacked to a pivoting pole that is controlled by short struts. These struts provide the vector to get the pole well to weather almost to the same degree as allowed by a mast-mounted pole. This gives the H22 the ability to sail deeper downwind than similar boats with less articulated poles.

The keel is a bulb-type weighing 715 pounds for a ballast to displacement ratio of 40 percent. Note how long and skinny it is, with the LCG of the bulb appearing to come right at the trailing edge of the narrow fin. The fin shows a vertical leading and trailing edge with corresponding constant chord length. The keel is raised for trailering with an ingenious sampson post and winch arrangement that allows multiple uses for the winch. Note that the high-aspect-ratio rudder is approximately half the plan form area of the keel fin.

Efforts have been made to give this 22-footer some cruising amenities; but I wouldn't go so far as saying it has an interior. I suppose after a long day of racing and celebration you could crawl below and pass out, unless you were one of the crew elected to sleep under the tent in the cockpit. It's a daysailer with a handy cuddy cabin to stow your gear.

The deck layout is designed to be inexpensive and versatile. A single winch is mounted on a barney post. This winch can be mounted vertically to be used as a sheet winch; or it can be turned on the post to a horizontal position to assist in raising both the mast and the keel. A piece of extension tubing fits into the winch mounting base to give the additional throw required to get the keel up. Wells and hatches in the cockpit sole give additional stowage.

But is it a good idea to build a boat at home? Yes, if you want to build a boat. It's not enough to just want a boat, since those projects usually end up with partially finished hulls covered with a blue plastic tarp and sitting and warping in a side yard, later to reemerge with a pilothouse or trolling rig for commercial salmon fishing. The H22's design, with all the major structural members pre-cut, will get you a long way fast, leaving you with the low-skill-level jobs like glassing and fairing for completion.

So there you have it: a slick and polished product designed for the home builder that doesn't look like a home-built boat. Most projects directed at home builders are stamped with that lack of finesse that makes them scream, "Home-built!" Packaged and prefabricated designs assembled by professional builders are also usually burdened with the same set of geometry-driven aesthetics. Any builder would be proud of the H22. You can get the basic hull and keel package (resin and fiberglass not included) for approximately $12,000.

A build-it-yourself go-fast daysailer that is long on finesse.

Boat Specifications