Stability (STIX) Rating

Stability is the resistance of the boat to forces that tend to induce heeling.

Issues that impact stability are the center of gravity, the center of buoyancy, overall displacement and the moment of inertia.

If we know what the issues are we can determine the relative stability of one vessel vs. another.

Although we do not have an established rating system in North America, the Europeans use a comprehensive system known as STIX.

To be offered for sale in the European Common Market, new boats are required to publish their STIX ratings.

Island Packet Yachts are actively sold in Europe. The company’s tag line is “America’s Cruising Yacht Leader.”

Island Packet STIX ratings bear that out. For example, the STIX rating on a 50 ft. sailboat from the world’s largest manufacturer of coastal cruisers is 41.The Stix rating on an Island Packet 485 is 66!

In every case, the comparably size Island Packet yacht enjoys a far higher STIX rating than its competition.

Racing around the beer cans calls for long waterlines and light displacement. The race is fast but managing the boat can be very tiring. Beer can races only last a few hours so crew fatigue is not a major issue.

Cruisers, on the other hand, are on the water for extended periods of time. Fatigue is to be avoided.

At sea, displacement is your friend. A high STIX rating means that the boat will be able to look after itself through a wider range of wind and sea conditions. Her crew will not feel the need to jump up and grab the wheel to correct for the effects of a gust of wind or a large wave.

Island Packets have travelled the world. They are recognized by cruisers everywhere who see them as seaworthy, seakindly and cruiser friendly.

More Thoughts

Bow Thrusters

Cruisers encounter all kinds of less than perfect conditions when sailing into unknown ports or anchorages. A bow thruster can be worth its weight in gelcoat in a really tight spot.

Reduced Glare

Deck Color

After days at sea in the bright sunshine, Ivory or off-white decks can be much easier on your eyes .

Stark white decks tend to produce high levels of glare.



Acessible from in
the water



Swim Ladder

Swim ladders should be accessible to anyone who has accidently fallen in the water. Ideally, you should be able to deploy it yourself if you have fallen in. If tied-off to the top of the stern rail, you can’t get to it!

Navigation & Communications

The Nerve Center

Cruisers tend to go places where the average coastal cruisers just don’t go.

Anyone can buy an extensive array of today’s sophisticated equipment, but you still need a proper navigation station with enough room to install and service its components..

Blue water cruisers typically devote more serviceable space for electronics and communications equipment.

From VHF, to SSB, to satellite communications, to Direct TV, to internet, email and weather fax, the need for space is high. Don’t forget GPS, color chart plotters, radar, and perhaps forward looking sonar.

Even with all of the above, you still need room to spread-out a paper chart!

And yes, room to grow is equally important.

Rest, Recuperation & Personal Hygiene

Good Storage instead of
Clutter

Staterooms need to be spacious with plenty of headroom. If you can’t stand up, you’re just camping. Forget about living out of a knapsack. You need a yacht designed to give you adequate storage for clothes and personal effects. Full size, cedar lined hanging lockers and plenty of storage under the berth make a difference.

You can also forget cheap foam pads as mattresses. Memory foam is fine, but you don’t want to wake up to your watch with an aching back!



Proper Heads with
Showers

Separate heads with full showers also make a difference. Personal hygiene becomes very important after even several days at sea.

Fresh water, VacuFlush or electric heads cut down on unnecessary odor. Much of the "head odor" is cause by decaying marine life in the seawayer used to flush standard hand pumped toilet fixtures.

Ideally, fresh water for the heads will be kept in separate, dedicated water tanks. Water levels are easier to monitor if separate from the main supply.

Don’t compromise on how you look after yourself!

Remember to Eat

Galleys on coastal cruisers are usually ok for a weekend cruise or perhaps a week or so. Sure they have stoves and refrigerator /freezers, S/S sinks and hot water. They just don’t have enough of anything for extended cruising.

Fully Equipped Galley
with lots of Counter
Space

Let’s face it. One of the pleasures of cruising is eating. Unless you are planning on eating the catch of the day, every day, you need manageable refrigeration. Manageable means options. The best cruising designs have separate, thermostatically controlled refrigerators and freezers. Just like you have in a modern home!

You will also appreciate a galley design that gives you abundant storage. Too many designs run out of storage after you find a place for your pots and pans. Don’t forget counter space! Without it, you’re camping again!

For a number of issues, the difference is in capacity. How about 300 gallons of fresh water, not 100. How about a 400-600 gal/day water maker. How about a built-in water filtration system?

A genuine cruising vessel needs both the space and the buoyancy to carry a full load of provisions, without compromising the boat’s ability to sail.

Great cruising designs will carry perhaps up to 300 gallons of fuel,  the water, and the provisions to make your next destination without compromise of comfort, safety or performance.

You don’t want to depart the dock with the boat settled in the water below the boot stripe!

Going Below

Here is where we transition from what makes a vessel seakindly to what makes it cruiser friendly.

If going below feels like going downstairs into the basement of a house, the boat is not going to get a very good rating.

Open, bright and well ventilated are essential characteristics of a cruiser friendly vessel. There is more to it than that, but if she is dark and dingy, you can forget about anyone wanting to be there.

People who can afford today’s large cruising vessels have likely become accustomed to a fairly high standard of living.  A great cruising vessel still won’t let you take everything with you, but it has to meet your personal standards for quality and comfort.

Simply put, clutter does not cut it. Abundant, well organized storage is essential. Specific design elements make a real difference to tidiness.

Abundant fuel and water tanks located on the center line, below the floor boards in the main salon will free-up tremendous storage space for provisions and other equipment.

Their location on the centerline helps to keep the center of gravity lower and reduces heel as liquids are consumed at different rates.

Although you would expect the engine to be located on the centerline of the boat, it also helps if provision has been made in the design layout for a generator on the center line as well.

Cruisers typically want to be able to fold-up the dining table in the main salon and stow it up against the bulkhead. This also frees up space to expand the salon settee into a double sea berth with an appropriate lee cloth.

Combination plywood/laminate floorboards tend to squeak. Real wood floors are both more attractive and quiet!

Anchors Aweigh



Dual Anchors and
Rollers



The phrase "anchor's aweigh" is a report that the anchor is clear of the sea bottom and, therefore, the ship is officially underway.

Designers of blue water cruising yachts know that cruisers use their anchors more frequently than most coastal cruisers in west coast regions.

Before weighing anchor, someone has had to set the anchor in the first place. Often, two anchors are need to be set to secure the vessel.

Proper cruising yachts need a minimum of two anchoring systems available at all times. More than just a convenience issue, they are essentially a safety issue. A second anchor may need to be deployed on short notice.

Chain and rode for each anchor need to kept separate to avoid entanglement. Anchor lockers need to be properly divided for ease of access.

Windlass Remote at
the Helm

Electric windlasses are ideally controlled remotely from both the helm and the foredeck.

Sunken Foredeck

Speaking of the foredeck, cruising designers incorporate a sunken deck at the bow to give a crewmember secure footing against the bulwark when going forward on a heeled vessel in an active seaway.

Secure Cockpit

Safe and Secure with Bow
Thruster Joystick and
Windlass Remote
Control

The cockpit on a blue water cruising yacht needs to be safe and secure. Wide open, shallow cockpits may be great for cocktail  parties  or entertaining at the docks but they need to be more secure in an open seaway.

Ideally, the helmsman can wedge himself/herself in  without the risk of becoming airborne. Airborne is bad!

Cruisers prefer settees long enough for a full grown adult to sleep outside in the warmer climates. Not always, but occasional is nice.

As a cruiser, you will spend many hours in the cockpit. You will be more comfortable if the coaming is angled outward. This simple design feature keeps the top of the backrest from digging-in just below your shoulder blades! Nice.

Perhaps the most important piece of equipment in the cockpit is the helm. Traditional chain and cable systems routed around a steering quadrant below decks are susceptible to wear and stretch. This can result in excessive “play” in the wheel.

Higher-end cruising boats use  more dependable direct steering . It is a rack and pinion  arrangement much like race cars for more precise control.

Rig Selection

Designed-in Safety

You may have noticed that cutter rigs dominate the single-handed and crewed races that circumnavigate the globe.

Why? Because they offer greater sail selection  to  deal with a wider range of wind and sea conditions. 

On a cruising yacht, the addition of a furling, self-tending staysail makes it easier to tack the boat under full sail. Because the staysail tacks almost instantly, it is common for the jib to simply slide along the staysail as it too is tacked.

Managing the slot between sails is easier when it can be done with small adjustments between three sails instead of  major ones between two.

Cruisers also like to completely furl the jib and run under the main and the staysail in more active weather. Because the staysail is still close to the mast, they can maintain the slot under reduced sail.

Having a staysail can eliminate the need to rig a stormsail.

A cutter rig affords more options than the sloop rig associated with coastal cruisers. More options translate into more safety and comfort.
Relax and enjoy!

It’s a design safety thing!

Shorthanded Sailing

Shorthanded Sailing

Most cruising boats undertake their voyages under shorthanded conditions.

Lots of your friends may be happy to fly to a destination and meet you for a few days. Land based friends simply do not have the time or the inclination to make the trip with you. Actual cruising is your lifestyle, not theirs.

Good design dictates the best use of equipment and systems  to allow two people to cruise in comfort and safety. 

In practical terms, this means that the boat has to be set-up so that it can be sailed by one person. At some point, you begin to work the watch system and someone has to be off watch, and able to sleep.

Sure, the off watch crew may sleep with “one eye open” but  you need to know that the boat can be sailed by the other crew without you having to be forever alert to the unexpected.

Cruisers don’t  select their boats because they perform like grand prix racers, they buy them because they don’t!

Very fast light displacement boats present unique handling challenges that detract from comfort and safety.

For a cruiser, control and manageability are key to successful adventures. The best blue water cruisers should be able to maintain a boat speed equal to one-half the apparent wind speed.

Maintaining speed and course while staying in control have played a role in the number of blue water cruisers that have won long-distance races.

Keel & Rudder Structure

Integral Keel, Lobster Trap
and Rudder

We have all heard stories of boats that hit a submerged object and drop the keel. Not fun.

When asked why he prefers an integral full foil keel, one of the country’s best known designers of cruising yachts simply says, “Because it won’t fall off!”

Keel bolts on a typical
deep keel boat.

Why? Because it is an integral part of the hull. It is laid up as part of the original mold, not bolted on later. There are no keel bolts to come loose or leak.

The rudder is connected to the  full foil keel by a “lobster trap” to protect the prop from becoming entangled in seaweed or other debris.

You do not want to lose a rudder or a keel.

It’s a safety thing, an essential element of the original design.

Keel Shape

Blue water cruisers are
designed to slice through waves
instead of bouncing over them.

Older full-keel boats were considered to be both slow and unresponsive to the helm.

More modern cruising vessels are designed with full foil keels, not full depth keels. The keels have a gentle entry followed by a run to the prop and rudder. The longer the keel, the less depth needed to provide directional stability.

Boats that track well (less travel to leeward) also need less power for the auto helm to stay on course.

The gentle entry also helps the boat to ride up on any obstacles encountered at sea. Less impact on the boat and less harm to large sea creatures.

Fin keels have a much steeper and deeper entry. The blue water cruiser to the upper right has a 5’4” draft while the coastal cruiser below may be as deep as 7+ feet.

Unlike a fin keel boat, the full foil keel boat does not tend to pivot around its keel in a following sea. This means greater controland less work for the helmsman.

Below the Waterline

Bashing and splashing to windward for hours on end can be exhausting.

Many coastal cruising yachts are designed with an essentially flat forefoot (the space between the bow and the leading edge of the keel) These designs are effective in light air and moderate sea conditions, but produce an unkindly motion in a more active seaway.

The best blue water cruisers are designed to allow the hull to slice through the waves instead of going over the tops of them.

 These structural angles in the hull contribute to the slicing motion and allow the boat’s natural buoyancy to absorb the effect of oncoming waves.

Flat bottom boats fall off waves and land with a slamming effect, followed by a big splash. The entire boat shudders while the mast and rig can vibrate violently. The boat will often lose forward momentum and have to accelerate until it pounds off another wave and the sequence starts again.

True, many boats are built pretty tough but you and I might not be up to the rigors of the pounding.

That pounding can add to crew fatigue, particularly if it continues into the night when a crew member is desperately in need of recuperative sleep after an exhausting watch.

A genuine cruising hull allows the boat to look after herself through a wider range of wind and sea conditions.

It All Adds Up

Intelligent design means more than just adding a few pieces of equipment. It starts with a vision of how the boats will be used, by whom, for how long and where.

Routine maintenance, spare parts supply and warranty service considerations impact design and build decisions. More importantly, it is not just a numbers game. Customer satisfaction can be measured by customer loyalty.

The number of customers who have purchased two and three boats of a particular line speaks to how well the vessels meet their expectations for safe and comfortable passage making.

Intelligent design encourages intelligent use. Intelligent use is safer than the alternative!

How Many Boats Ever Go to Sea

It is a common question we frequently hear from visitors to San Diego. They see all the boats in the harbor and wonder if they just sit there or if they actually get used.

Beyond weekend sailing, most boats don’t seem to get very far. Not every boat is bought with the intent of cruising the oceans. Coastal cruising is more the norm. Then again, plenty of boats are used for dockside entertaining. We’ll call these ones cocktail cruisers.

Truth is, many of the boats in the harbor were not designed for extended cruising. Although seaworthy enough, they may not meet the test of being seakindly or cruiser friendly.

Looks can be deceiving! Just like people, being attractive isn’t the same as being fit. Reading the spec sheet on a boat does not tell you very much about how the boat will perform offshore.

A really good looking boat is not necessarily seaworthy. The term was originally developed by insurance carriers to rate a vessels ability to go to sea and deliver its cargo safely to another port. The term also rates the ability of the crew.

A really good looking boat is not necessarily sea kindly. Sea kindliness refers to a vessel’s motion in an active seaway. Does she demand a lot of attention from her crew or can she look after herself through a wide range of wind and sea conditions. Does she exhaust her crew in short order?

A really good looking boat is not necessarily cruiser friendly. How easily can you eat, sleep, and live aboard her. We have all heard stories of cruisers who arrive at a port of call, get off the boat and swear they will never set foot on her again.

Ideally, you can discover a really good looking boat that is seaworthy, sea kindly and cruiser friendly.

This blogis dedicated to identifying the design and equipment configurations that make the difference between a “dock-o-minium” and a true blue water cruiser.