YAGO was designed originally as a hard chine hull, flat bottom & 2 chines It is based on a design for a 37 footer done for me by my friend GERARD CHAIGNE. He already designed a boat I built, sailed and lived aboard many years ago - see the sidebar for more information about him.

YAGO sticks to Gerard's general philosophy for a hull and the final design was again made as a hard chine hull. Here is what the my own chine-version looks like:

Note how already in the chine version the upper chine follows almost horizontally the waterline. Actually it is below the waterline, from the bow all the way to about 30 percent of the hull aft, coming out to join the transom only towards the aft overhang.

Note: on these and some other designs the bow looks open or flat - this is for construction purposes and will be replaced with a formed, round bow piece

{mopsimage}

This hard chine hull is then transformed into a new shape which will produce conical, rounded ends fore and aft, the remaining hard chine is fully hidden under the Waterline

This is a computer generated image that does not take in account that the "real" hull, built from steel will produce a certain amount of compound curvature, adding even more to the soft, round look.

YAGO is designed originally as a boat that carries all ballast inside and has twin, unballasted lateral dagger boards.

These board come out on deck, and offer lots of advantages:

• Shallow draft for getting into creeks and rivers
• Beachable
• take the cheap or free moorings in inaccessible corners
• take the ground at low water for maintenance

Boards are made from wood/epoxy and you can

• leave both down for maneuvering in tight quarter, but lift the one on the wind on longer legs
• replace them everywhere if broken or even switch a broken one at sea
• lift them with simple tackle fixed to the rigging
• pull them out on deck for cleaning and antifouling, clean and paint cases inside with a roller on a stick

Finally, having a variable hull geometry gives a better adapted boat in all conditions:

• Lifting the board when you do not need them (downwind) reduces the wetted area. I have sailed heavy 10 m center boarders and lifting the board is like switching the turbo, especially in light weather.
• In heavy weather when running or laying to, having the boards up is good, no deep keel in solid water to make you "stumble" and the hull can bob away safely when broached. Remember, all hull and ballast stability remains unchanged!

Displacement

The hull is designed for a displacement of about 6.8 tons, with  2.6 tons of it for ballast - that is high these days, but it's  the price of all-inside ballast.

The bottom is roomy enough to store iron pigs, steel logs and fix with cement, no need for expensive lead, although tightly packed lead would lower the Center of Gravity and increase stability of course.

This is sort of heavy for a boat this size, at least in my books...but that's the compromise. Yyou could drop the weight of ballast with a fixed deep lead keel, and the weight of hull and deck by using aluminum. But remember, this would change the weights but not change the displacement which is only defined by the design. In other words, if you want to go for a light hull and pay for deep lead ballast and an alloy skin, better go for another design.