Dieter Empacher and Jack Winninghoff have done preliminary design work on a line of modest size cruising daysailers of aluminum construction. The idea of Winninghoff built welded aluminum sailboats dates back to 1974. Our goal was to produce a round bilged aluminum sailboat called the 7+ (7 + meters) using hydrostatic forming techniques. Great economies were imagined, but did not materialize. The aluminum hydrostatic forming process which seemed attractive was rather quickly abandoned. The boat was renamed the Quickstep and produced successfully using FRP construction.

It is possible to build a compound curved aluminum hull as we demonstrated in the mid 80’s with an Empacher modified Lord Riverdale Blue Bird of Thorne 50 footer (see the Custom-one-off section of this web site). There are no good arguments we know of for doing this compared with building multi-chine hull unless one is really hung up on round bilges. The multi chine hull will likely be a tad faster due to less wetted surface and tracking improved by the chines, as well as being more economical to build.

Suffice to say, the preliminary designs shown here, viz. a 21ft. (64 dm), 24 ft. (73 dm), and 27 ft. (8.2 dm) are multi chine designs. Welded aluminum construction offers the lightest, strongest, highest impact resistance hull possible combined with long life and very low maintenance. We suggest combining this with electric auxiliary drive although convention outboard auxiliaries, inboards, sail drives, or diesel-hydraulic drives can be installed as well.

We anticipate offering semi custom boats varying keel design (deep keel, wing keel, or centerboard, and custom interiors. Ballast can be varied depending on conditions where the boat will be used primarily, typically varying between 35 and 45% of total displacement.

At some point most people want to know what the boat will cost. The answer depends of course on the detailing and the equipment, but it seems safe to say cost will be within 10 to 15% of well built production boats of similar size based on similar levels of finish and equipment.

Dieter Empacher and Jack Winninghoff are serious about this project. We would like feedback on the preliminary specifications shown, and would of course welcome sales inquiries. Please contact either one of us, Dieter Email: dieter@dieterempacher.com, phone 978-744-2440, or email Jack Winninghoff or call him at 978-500-0490.

For background on Dieter Empacher’s impressive accomplishments click here.