Hess 28 Solita of San Francisco anchored in San Diego Bay on the way south
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Hess 28 Solita of San Francisco anchored in
San Diego Bay on the way south
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Someone asked me if buying an aleutka
would be easier than trying to redesign the boat. Yes, it would,
but after making a living refitting cruising boats, I know the time and
cost involved in refitting an older boat. Nearly everything must
be replaced. Even a little-used boat that sat for 10 years will be
in sad shape. For a boat this size, it
may be better to start fresh than tear one down to the bare hull.
I do have pictures of a production Aleutka that was for sale earlier
this year, and it is very nicely done.
My design goals are simple: a small, sound vessel built to work boat standards that I can put on a flatbed and haul to Mexico. A reader recently emailed some data about the production hull: I know a fair amount about the beginnings of the Aleutka mold made by P&M Worldwide. I knew the two people involved in the production of the molds for the Aleutka and saw the boat from which the molds were taken. I helped them make the steel support work for the molds. Ed Parker, the P, and Tony Mendoza, the M, jointly owned the company. However it was principally Tony who was involved in creating the mold for the Aleutka. The mold was taken from a hull built by Armando Grant in Newport Beach, Ca. This was about 1980-1. Tony and Armando became friends as Armando, an American and a professor of central American literature, spoke fluent Spanish. Tony was born in California to parents who were migrant farm workers from Mexico. Tony helped Armando fair the hull in exchange for the right to take a mold from the finished product. Tony also made a deck mold for the boat. To my certain knowledge there was one part made from the mold. It was sold to and finished by a local sailor/builder in Costa Mesa, Ca. But I do not remember his name. There may have been a couple of other parts made from the molds but I do not know for certain. Armando Grant visited John Letcher in Maine and talked with him at length before buying a plan set. Armando was not much of a builder when he arrived in California. To the best of my recollection he never finished his Aleutka. I do not know what happened the his boat. At the time I know many people encouraged Armando to build the boat using C-Flex instead of wooden battens. However due to ignorance or stubbornness he insisted on the battens. As a result and due to his poor construction skills the boat was not very well made. It required a tremendous amount of work to fair the hull so that it could be used for a mold. The molds were pretty well made but I think that the parts made from them were a fair amount off the original dimensions. The last I saw the molds, about 1986, they were located in Perris, Ca. P&M was sold to a couple of guys who revived, for a short time, the Downeast 38. I have heard that Bud Taplin of Worldcruiser Yachts bought some of the molds that P&M used to own. I do not know if he has the Aleutka molds. Possibly they are still sitting out in Perris. Probably they were destroyed. If anyone lives in the Perris area, they may want to take a look around for the molds. My initial internet research into the
Aleutka produced virtually no results. Either an amazingly small
number of boats were actually produced, or they have all
disappeared. There are hints that the now-defunct Columbia Yacht
Corp., then P&M Worldwide Yacht Builders (Costa Mesa, CA) produced a production
Aleutka. The USCG MIC database had this to say about P&M:
They are apparently long gone after 8 years in business. A 29 foot version was designed, and at least one was produced - there was a web site that lived from 2000 to 2001 at aleutka29.com according to the internet archive (www.archive.org). I was able to retrieve a few pictures and some specs from the archive, but unfortunately the detail drawing was not archived. Maybe someone saved a copy. This is what the archive saved about the 29: The Aleutka 29 is a big sister to the highly popular and successful Aleutka 25 design. She is a response to the many people who have been attracted to the unusual features of the 25.
Her low, sleek profile and charming Nordic appearance -- but who feel, for one reason or another, that they need a bit more room than a narrow 25-footer affords. Like the 25, the Aleutka 29 is conceived as a long-distance cruiser emphasizing off-wind performance for the long passages, shoal draft for the inshore explorations, practical habitability for years of living aboard, simplicity for quick building and carefree cruising. The difference is principally in the dimensions: Aleutka 25 Aleutka 29 Length overall
25’ 5’
29’ 3’ In displacement, sail areas and interior space the 29 is just about 50% bigger. For the sailing family, this means room for two or three children or teenagers to share the adventure. For the sailor who is not quite ready to shake free of the auxiliary engine, it means room and bouyancy to carry the right kind, an inboard diesel -- we are allowing particularly for the Volvo MD-5A saildrive in a highly accessible location below the companionway. For the ambitious longdistance voyager, it means a doubling of space and carrying capacity for stores, water, and other supplies. For the builder, of course, it means the job will take about 50% longer (we estimate 2000 manhours, fully found and ready for sea, vs. 1350 for the 25), and the materials will cost about 50% more.
Boatbuilding discussion boards occasionally mention the Aleutka. Someone wants plans, nobody knows where to get them, then they find AeroHydro Marine and Dr. Letcher. There is evidence of quite a few people following through with emails to AeroHydro, but not one mention of a successful contact with anyone there. Maybe they have just moved on to other things. I don't blame them - a 40 year old design isn't exactly news. I did find several dozen decent photographs - enough to start on a guess at the lines. Most photos are above the waterline, or shot from the side while an Aleutka was laid up. The following 2 drawings surfaced, but I need a simple lines drawing or some good photos taken from astern and ahead to develop a set of plans:
Combining and scaling the two images to 0.25":1' gives the following image:
In the above image, the LOA and draft work out to the actual measurements, so this must be rather close to the actual lines. Additionally, I have made .5:1 enlargements of this diagram, and then scaled actual measurements off of Aleutka photographs. The photographs show a boat in dry dock, with a standard ladder against the boat. Using the ladder rung spacing as a scale standard, I can compare the drawing to actual measurements. It comes very close - keel depth from hull bottom drawn: 1.4', measured: 1.43'. Keel leading edge length drawn: 26", measured: 25". With the perspective of the photo (not edge-on), some distortion shows in topside measurements. They are all off by a couple inches, but the boat in the photo may also have its boot top in a different position, or other build changes may be visible. I will re-draw the diagram and then look at the measurements again.
After significant research, I located a lines drawing of the original, and compared it to my first attempts at a new hull. Significant differences were evident - I did not count on the sides being quite so steep, or the turn of the bilge to be so sharp. The hull is very much like a ship's hull in cross section with nearly vertical sides to carry maximum beam as low as possible and for as much of the length as possible. Also, the one-off building technique was evident from the lines drawing. All sections are drawn from a base plane so that plywood molds can be set up against a floor rather than a tricky strongback. The sections can be transferred to plywood and instant hull forms can be produced. The stations are on 18" centers.
The shear line is apparently cut in later when the clamp and shelf are applied to the frames. Very clever drawing. The lines drawing is not clear on attachment of the bilge keels, so I am now researching shape and positioning of twin keels. I also will consider the addition of a simple skeg to protect the rudder - in my Hess cutter, I could glide right over a forest of lines or kelp and never snag anything.
Here is a hull to deck detail:
Here is a station to hull bond detail:
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