We Love Gerty’s Wide Rear End

Sometimes Gerty is a bit self conscious about her rear end.  Admittedly, it tends not to be her most photographed end.  I can’t really blame her considering all the internet chatter bemoaning the trend towards carrying a sailboats beam well aft.

I appreciate the rationale of the wide stern skeptics and traditionalists.  Wide sterns have become popular on light racing hulls designed to plane.  This makes a wide sterns seem “trendy”.  I agree that a mindless transfer of this trend to heavier displacement sailboats would be silly.  However, I do not believe the trend towards wider sterns on heavier boats is an attempt to mimic the aesthetic or performance of racing “sleds”.  Even in the ocean racing world there is continued competition between narrower and wider designs. The jockeying between Wild Oats XI and Comanche comes to mind. I personally find the narrow lines of Wild Oats sexier than those of Comanche.  And sex sells, so there must be more to it than just a marketing trend.

I believe we are seeing wider sterns on displacement hulls to increase volume while minimizing length without building a sloth.  It is simple geometry combined with complex fluid dynamics.  There is little doubt that displacement boat speed and performance is improved in longer, narrower designs.  A design like Beowulf, at 78ft (23.77m) long and 16.4ft (5m) wide, with a length to beam ration of 4.75, will sail circles around Gerty with a length to beam ratio of 3.3.

But, for those who have constraints preventing ownership of a 78ft boat, tradeoffs are made.  Would adding 5ft (1.5m) to Gerty’s length and narrowing the beam, particularly at the stern, improve performance while maintaining volume? If properly designed, yes.  The problem is we really don’t want a boat over 49 feet (15m).  So should we buy a smaller boat with narrower proportions?  Perhaps.  But we don’t want to be less comfortable.  Additionally, all other things being equal, a longer boat is more stable in rough seas, so the tradeoffs become complex.

One tradeoff critics of wide aft boats often point to as a negative is the need for twin rudders.  There is no doubt that twin rudders are more vulnerable than a similarly engineered single rudder.  Would a narrower hull design eliminate the need for dual rudders on Gerty?  Perhaps.  But, perhaps not.  Maintaining a minimum draft of 3.76ft (1.15m) would be a challenge with a single rudder and a deeper rudder would be potentially more vulnerable and weaker than our shorter rudders.  The Ovni’s have solved this with a complex flip-up rudder.  The Boreals and older Garcias use dropdown leeboards.  All of these solutions have tradeoffs.  With our dual rudders we may increase one type of vulnerability; however, we gain rudder redundancy with two potentially autonomous rudder controls and relatively short strong rudders.

Rudders are for steering, so what about steering a boat with a wide stern?  Some critics write that these hull shapes will round up in puffs and steering will be difficult to balance when healing.  Perhaps this is true on some boats, but it has not been our experience on Gerty.  She is very easy to balance.  In strong gusty winds the wheel stays light, and the boat tracks straight.  Admittedly, we don’t have nearly the experience of some of the critics.  But, in speaking with other Allures 45.9 and Garcia Exploration 45 owners, with indisputably vast experience, our conclusions are consistently confirmed.

Enough discounting the wide stern skeptics.  Even if all their criticisms are valid, daily we still love Gerty’s wide rear end.   We love arriving via dinghy and having a wide level platform to safely access the boat and unload gear.  We love the easy access for a swim, paddle, and post swim outdoor shower.  We love having lockers off the stern platform for storing fuel, propane, garbage, the life raft, drogue, and even our 9.8hp outboard.  We love having a wide massively strong arch that can carry 600w of solar panels, plus two inflated paddle boards, plus a 9.5ft (2.9m) dinghy with outboard while we are cruising coastally.  We love being able to carry our stuff into the cabin without having to climb over a steering wheel.  We love having a cockpit where eight or more people can comfortably enjoy a sail and stay protected from the sun.  We love Gerty’s wide ass.