The Trinado was a design collaboration between Russell Brown and myself. It was designed for Donald Young and built by Russell in Port Townsend, Washington. The original concept was for a small trimaran which would use Tornado hulls as its floats. The Tornado floats ended up being a little shorter on righting moment than ideal,…
Trailerable, high performance to cost ratio, home build-able and fun for the family to race and maybe spend 10 days cruising on. The combination of high stability, light weight and large sail area gives the Shilshole 27 excellent all-around performance on a windward-leeward race course. The lifting keel and rudder make shallow anchorages accessible, and…
A concept design for a larger version of Shearwater, the idea was to create a comfortable, fuel efficient cruiser for a couple, and retain the simplicity, maneuverability and open arrangement that an outboard engine allows. A small diesel stern-drive was also evaluated. Particulars Overall Length (Hull) 9.76 m Waterline Length 9.28 m Beam Over All…
25-Foot High Efficiency Cruiser Shearwater is a high-efficiency light weight cabin cruiser. The design started out as a concept for a commuter that Paul drew up for a potential Seattle area client, and which incorporated some elements learned from experience with Nemo. I modified the commuter concept for family camp cruising by raising the foredeck,…
This is a plywood power cat for a client in Florida who wanted to build his own boat. He was keen to take advantage of Bieker Boats’ foil design experience to get better fuel economy and performance, and also wanted a boat that was distinctively styled. We started with our little commuter cat hulls as a…
Paul has designed rudder tubercles to decrease the tendency for stalling in certain cases. Drag is increased somewhat, but stall angle is increased and in the case of rudder arrangements that are likely to ventilate easily, the tubercles act as fences, reducing ventilation and subsequent flow detachment. Thanks for inspiration goes to Megaptera novaeangliae. BACK…
The Riptide 55 was my first keel boat design (1994). She was designed and built for George Thurtle of Seattle WA who wanted a high performance offshore family cruising yacht. George is a very open-minded client who encouraged me to take the design to its logical conclusion, and I was perfectly willing to do so.…
Strum was built as an evolution of the concept behind the Riptide 35 and 44. She is a high performance long course racing boat with comfortable cruising accommodations. Her light displacement and water ballast make her capable of 24 hour runs in excess of 350 NM and cruising speeds under power of 10+ kts. Water…
Dark Star was designed and built for Jonathan and Libby McKee of Seattle. The design brief was for a high performance racer/cruiser capable of blistering speed on the race course (Jonathan is an Olympic gold medalist in the FD class and a silver medalist in the 49er class). Dark Star is also a comfortable family…
We like to think of the Riptide 41 as a high performance gentleman’s racer. It is designed to be sailed efficiently with a crew of between 6 and 8 rather than the 10-12 persons commonly found on a racing boat of this size, and it has comfortable accommodations for everyone on the boat. With its…
