Shannon 53 Hybrid Power Sailer

The big surprise was the number of disgruntled trawler owners and other power boaters that wanted this same type of boat. Concerns about the precarious geo-political situation and the resulting possibility that diesel fuel will not be readily available regardless of price has made many power boaters rethink sail power rather than give up boating. Aside from round-the-buoys racing, the skill set necessary to cruise using sails is easily acquired. We provide complete owner orientation and checkouts including seatrials, and in fact have found that it is easier to “teach” an experienced power boater how to sail a Shannon than it is to teach a round-the-buoys racer. During the energy crunch of the 1970’s, many owners of Hatterases and Bertrams switched to sail rather than sit at the dock. Currently, we have a Chinese trawler company and an American sailboat company that have heard these same complaints and they have both decided to build motorsailers. Historically, motorsailers have provided an alternative to either a traditional sail boat or a conventional power boat. The marine business has seen a constant ebb and flow of different types of crafts including motorsailers, and right now it looks like motorsailers are coming back in popularity. This is very interesting, except it looks to me like the current offerings are both slow powerboats and poor sailboats. Another common feature of some of these new models locates the outside helm right behind the mast up near the bow exposed to spray, sun and the occasional big wave right in the face. However, I am sure the marketing people will turn this negative feature into some fantastic new helm concept. While I certainly believe that a motorsailer is a far better and safer design for long offshore passages than a single engine trawler, if the boat is too heavy and there is not enough sail area, then it is necessary to always run the engine to get anywhere. The rule for offshore passages is that the fastest trip is the safest trip, as it means that there is less time away from port exposed to storms and equipment breaking. A slow boat is a dangerous boat, especially with the recent increase of intense storms worldwide.

The Shannon 53 HPS is a new solution to the shortcomings of motorsailers and trawlers. As I indicated earlier, I take no credit for the genesis of my earlier drawings into this final design as I was just responding to the positive input from a bunch of nice people who wanted more than the currently available boat designs. By geometrically up-sizing the proven sailing design features of the Shannon Shoalsailer 32/35 and coupling them up using the sophisticated Multi-surf hydrodynamic computer software with what I have learned from the fuel efficiency of my SRD powerboats (both designs with U.S. patents), I created a new hull design that will sail to windward with no leeway in only 4.75 feet of water without having to drop a deep centerboard. The design incorporates fixed, shallow dagger boards that do not increase the 4.75 feet of draft. Implausible as it may sound to someone who has never heard of or seen the Shoalsailer, after seven years and numerous Shoalsailer 32/35’s sailing in wind and sea condition varying from a zephyr to almost a hurricane, including to windward, with only 30 inches of sailing draft, the hull design concept really works. The 53 HPS will cruise under power at 12 knots with a single 145HP engine or twin 75HP diesels. Once again, the performance of the 53HPS is based on the Shoalsailer 32/35 hull with engine size and powering speed ratios that break the displacement hull barrier, producing speeds of the square root of the waterline times 1.6, a 23% improvement in speed over a sailboat and just about the same speeds that semi-displacement Down East lobster yachts run at. By incorporating the modern styling of a plumb bow and reverse transom, the waterline length of the Shannon 53 HPS virtually equals her on deck measurement, and a longer waterline length equals greater speeds. Concerning propulsion, the 53 HPS was designed to accommodate both single and twin engines. While a single motor is simpler, twins offer redundancy, and with twin motors, I plan to angle the motors 5 degrees inboard so that the leeward engine can be used to power sail even if the boat is heeled. A motor cannot be run safely when the boat is heeled more than 10 degrees as such an angle inhibits the proper circulation of the crankcase oil. Assuming the engine(s) keeps running, the Shannon 53 HPS (Hybrid Power Sailer) will travel over 1500 miles under power alone. And if the start button is pushed and the motor doesn’t start or if there is no fuel at the marina, the Shannon 53 HPS can be sailed home. Don’t try that with a trawler/motorsailer.

With a roller furling boom mainsail and headsails on roller furling all the winch work and sail handling is kept to a minimum. The hull and deck profile and center of gravity is kept low for seaworthiness and all the glass has Lexan storm shutters for safety. Of course the unique patented hull shape combined with the mast and sails preclude the rolling motion found in trawlers. The Shannon 53 HPS cockpit with twin outside helms is aft (where it belongs) protected by a dodger and a sun bimini and placed where docking and tight spot visibility both forward and aft is excellent. It is possible to go from the bow to the stern on an outside deck without going through the interior for quick line handling when docking. Docking stern to, you just step off the swim platform to the docking, without having to make a Flying Wallendas’ “Jump for Life” from a hull with high freeboard. There is a weather protected aft lounge deck that has drop curtains and screens, and a transom door to the big swim platform. Above the aft deck is the perfect spot for a dinghy. Like all Shannons since 1975 the interior layouts of the Shannon 53 HPS are totally custom-to-order and only limited by imagination. Because of the greater beam carried aft there is more interior volume available than a conventional sailboat hull, so there is room for up to four sleeping cabins. The engine room provides great access to all the systems and equipment, with room for all those extras like air conditioners, watermakers, fuel polishers, inverters, etc. And the view from the wheelhouse helm and seating is as nice as the view from a trawler on a rainy day. And for people looking to travel the Intercoastal Waterway (which is still possible if the draft is under 5’ like the draft of the 53 HPS), my three decades of experience with Shannon ketch rigs prompted me to provide the Shannon exclusive Sketch rig that is only 64’ tall for the 53 HPS.

This “laundry list” of what people asked me to achieve in the Shannon 53 HPS design is very long, and it has been the greatest challenge of my career at Shannon and has utilized all the yacht design skill and experience that I have acquired since I founded Shannon in 1975. I would be curious to know what you think, and even better to have the chance to meet with you here in Bristol, RI and then hear your comments.

W.S

based on the formula of top speed equals the square root of the waterline times 1.3. This challenge of how to balance sailing and powering performance has been addressed in different ways over the last century. My hobby is wooden boat restorations, and one of the most intriguing boats that I have taken in is a 1930 45’ motorsailer by William Hand. Hand was one of America’s preeminent yacht designers during the 1920’s and 1930’s, and his series of motorsailers continues to be acclaimed today, even though they followed the true motorsailer rule of propulsion achieved 50% by the engine and 50% by the sails. Hand motorsailers power well, and gain stability from the short rig but do not have any real speed under sail alone.

Looking at the current state of the marine industry a few years ago, I decided to do some design concept drawings to try to solve this conundrum of speed under power versus speed under sail, combined with the comfort of an interior helm. Amazingly, the response to what I was trying to do was incredibly favorable as I had touched some raw nerve in the boating public. There was a segment that I had anticipated who were life-long sailors who wanted more speed and comfort, but still wanted to keep sailing and not be forced to go to a trawler. I believe much of the success of the trawler business is based on providing a boat with a luxurious interior, when compared to a sailboat, even though trawlers still travel over the water at sailboat speeds of 8 knots. I think it is a case where if you can’t have speed, you should at least have some interior space and a place to sit where you can look out the windows on a rainy day, things that you can’t do on a sailboat. Also, there are no winches or sails to work on a trawler, even though electric winches and furling gear for the sails has eliminated all of the difficult physical component of sail handing. In addition, the rugged “shippy” look of trawlers sets them apart from the Euro jogging shoe appearance of conventional powerboats. I am surprised that one of the trawler companies does not offer the option of providing a parrot to sit on your shoulder, to make the owner feel like a real “old salt”. The fact that trawlers roll excessively without using some form of complex gyro fin stabilizers or deploying back-breaking manual paravanes, amazingly, has not slowed the success of the trawler market until just recently. The total reliance on a single diesel engine that must never break down is tough to accept for someone like me who has been working on broken diesel engines for 40 years. The little “get home” engines that run off the generator with a tiny pinwheel propeller that can not push the heavy trawler in even calm water at 3 knots does not provide any comfort for me either, especially since stabilizers will not work unless the boat is going at least 5 knots. I knew that there would be a group of sailors that knew what I knew about trawlers, and they would be interested in the kind of new hybrid boat that I was looking to design.