Sail Far Live Free

"No matter how hard I work on the aesthetics, I never arrive at a place where I feel the boat is "perfect". It may look perfect on Monday, but by Tuesday I will know I can improve it." -Bob Perry This is the third entry in a series of my mini-interviews with prominent sailboat designers. My guest this time is SailFarLiveFree guest blog veteran and one of my personal favorite designers - Bob Perry . You probably already know many of Bob's designs, but some of my personal favorites are the Babas (30, 35, 40), the Nordic/Valiant Esprit 37, and the Lafitte 44. It's hard to sum up Bob's sailboat design work in just a paragraph, so instead of trying I'll just give you a few more examples of his production designs: Islander Freeport 36/38, Norseman 447, several Passports (456, 470, 485, 515), Tashiba 31/36/40, Tayana 37, and many Valiants (32, 40, 42, 47, 50). And did you know Bob also designed the Westsail 38, the big CTs (48-72), and the very ...

I'm sure at least of few of you, like me, have been patiently waiting for Bob Perry's sequel to the guest post he provided here a month or so ago about sailboat rigs (If you haven't read it yet, check here ). What follows is the sequel where Bob focuses on split rigs (i.e., rigs with multiple masts). A big "thank you" goes to Bob Perry for his continued guest blogging here on SailFarLiveFree.com. Bob has provided a lot of really great design perspectives and experience that help me better understand the cruising sailboats that I love so much. Maybe more importantly, it's been a lot of fun interacting with one of my sailing heroes. Split Rigs According to Perry , by Bob Perry I use the term “split rig” to describe any boat with more than one mast. It’s important to keep this discussion in historical context. There was a time when dividing up the big rig of a sloop was a practical matter. It was done to break the sail area down into smaller individual compo...