The latest Trudeau is tribute named after the beloved and esteemed figure in the community and Commodore of the Fishers Island Yacht Club, Epicurus Emmons, who very sadly passed away earlier this year. Epi was a fixture on the SL sailing scene organizing regattas, cruises, events and a tireless help to all he came in contact with. He had a huge, brave heart and we were honored to have known him and call him friend.

Though not European in origin like Epi’s cherished skûtsje, a tribute from a boat like this is not as odd as it might seem. Epi was a instrumental in bringing out an earlier Trudeau catboat – the Leetle Cat – giving us much needed advice on performance and handling. Both boats, the Cape Cod Catboat and the Frisian Skûtsje (originally common workboats now live on fitted out as traditionally-themed yachts and yes, racers) sport gaff rigs and strong, distinctive sheers.

The Cape Cod Catboat is another favorite design of ours that has gone through several iterations, getting closer to the ideal in our mind’s eye as SL prim molding technology has advanced. So, a Catboat? What is it? I’ll steal from an earlier posting on the Epi’s high-prim predecessor, Jacqcat

The catboat is a native American art form – plumb stem, wide beam, mast in the eyes, gaff rig, big barn-door rudder, single head-stay. The catboat – a little boat, a useful boat, a handy boat, simply rigged and simple to operate; a mast and a sail, a tiller and a cabin for two — there was a time when most small boats were rigged as cats.

As with all the “new” Trudeaus, the Epi has the inworld “TruSail” luffing sails, moveable skipper and crew positions to counteract the heeling forces (Epi carries skipper and crew/passenger complement of 3) and the first that offers a snug cabin with sleeping berth for a couple.

The Epicurus is the perfect boat for you and your partner to set sail in for those overnight and weekend SL cruises. Swap your bathers for sweaters and set your windlight to foggy – just the right romantic touch for a boat like this.

Find that no-return parcel (hopefully in a picturesque cove), switch on the cabin lights, snuggle in for the evening and continue your cruise the next morning. ;) If you do get caught in a tight spot, there is a motor under the cockpit sole (including the requested reverse gear).

While the Epi has 5 built-in traditional color schemes (no extra charge for “fat packs” ever), here are all (and we mean all!) of the PSD templates for making her your own:

Hull and rudder (1.86MB)
Sail and furl (4.1MB)
Name (460KB)
Spars (4.78MB)
Other exterior parts (6.62MB)
Interior (1.5MB)
Hatches and trim (3.17MB)

Trudeau Catboat Epicurus

32 prims. LOA 27.5 ft, beam 12 ft, draft 1.75 ft

Fair winds, EE.

Recently Retropolitan Magazine took notice of the “classic” aspect of the TCS Yachts. And the just released issue of Prim Perfect is entirely dedicated to SL Sailing.  Check them out!  (and personal thanks to the respective editors for preventing me from sounding too much like a self absorbed twit!)

Harper Beresford’s SL fashion blog tells all.

You must check out her blog beyond the linked posting, she has a fantastic way with the looks!

Hep?

Get with it, daddios. Hep is hipper than hip. It’s in the pocket. It’s straight from the fridge. It’s copacetic. It’s the new Trudeau HepCat, our Son of a Beach(cat). Reap this righteous riff, this is one crazy SOB.

Instructions:

1.  Raise sails.
2. Hang the hell on to something!

Dig:

• Flat ain’t where it’s at. HepCat’s sails, more curves than a Jayne Mansfield film fest. Bunnie Mills, Trudeau sail boss, is one wrascally wrabbit!
• The tramp is no lady. Nor is it a bindle-stiff. It’s a stage for skipper and crew to make sweet music upon, so blow, Roy, blow.  Or play it solo. 4 positions per side. Hiking straps.  Keep cool though, too much bouncing around on this tramp will upset HepCat’s balance with clinkers and put the kibosh on your speed.
• No kick from champagne. But plenty of kick from these rudders – HepCat turns on a dime. And a kick up… handy for sailing up on the beach, over ramps and other screwy exhibitions. Down… they can be a real drag, man. Up… not so much. Not much help in steering either. But don’t sweat it, you’ll be the wiser in no time.
• Circus act. We don’t dig jive clowns. But a high wire? Solid. HepCat has trapezes for all you daring young men (and women). If they asked if you were moving, tell them you were flyin’!
•  Wig out. Or as the L7s call it, capsize. Hot dog it too much and you’ll get the bum’s rush into the drink. Don’t have a kitten though, moor HepCat and you’ll be sittin’ pretty again in no time.
  
• HepCat is lousy with sail choices. And for you egghead longhairs, all of them historically correct.

Glad rags to deck your cat out in:

Sails(2.5MB)
Hull (360K)
Trampoline (7.8MB)
Misc Parts (1.6MB)

Beach Cat Beach has gone Hep. Make the scene and dig the righteous Cats (cut a demo too!).

That’s the rap. Don’t be a chump, get Hep.

Go, Cab, Go!

We at Trudeau are huge fans of the boats of the Herreshoff family. If it seems like every other boat that comes from our yard is in some way a tribute to either Captain Nat or his son L. Francis’ work, it’s probably because it is. Of course, the one design that is most approachable, perhaps the most endearing and enduring is Nathanael’s 12 1/2 daysailer. We are in love with that boat and have tried to model it from the earliest days of TCSY (read our rhapsodic praise and historical tidbits about the real life H12 here). The Trudeau Sea Sharp (circa 2007, shown below) was our first attempt at building a 12 1/2 – like boat.

Of course, working with the SL sphere and cylinder primitives at our disposal didn’t quite lend themselves to the compound curved beauty of the 12 1/2′s lines.

It’s no surprise (to us, at least) that as soon as we had mastered a sculpty form beyond that of a hollowed out log, we would take another stab at the H12. That was the Trudeau Twenty (below left), our first sculpty boat.

Closer perhaps, but still no cigar. There are RL H12 owners in Second Life who directed comments our way on Twenty’s shortcomings as a Herreshoff H12 tribute. The masthead all wrong… the coamings are supposed to sweep all the way to the transom… the jib is supposed to self-tend on a club… and take those battens out of the main! Hey, when you are the owner of an important piece of yachting history and a bona-fide masterpiece, that entitles you to be picky!

So now, over 4 years after Sea Sharp hit the seas, nearly 2 1/2 years after Twenty’s launch – those comments taken to heart, other lessons learned, new building skills acquired, additional Linden scripting functions to abuse, led us to take 3 of our infatuation with the H12. Since it is more or less 12 feet on the SL waterline, we decided to call this one a twelve as well.

Presenting our T12

We think we nailed it this time! Though that makes it somewhat smaller than Twenty, the T12 can still haul you and 3 of your friends on sailing excursions throughout SL’s waterways. All four of those seated positions help counteract Twelve’s heeling – by shifting from side to side. There are tons – tons – of other new features.

• Redesigned hull and other new parts – coamings, rigging, rudder, cockpit benches, tiller, mast, mast hoops, boom, jib club…
• Beautiful sculpted gaff mainsail and jib with just the right billow and twist to bring a tear to an old salt’s eye (thanks to the very talented Bunnie Mills – give it up for her… again!).
• Our exclusive Tru-Sail feature as first introduced on the Trudeau One. The sails flap, luff and fill to give inworld visual indication of correct sail set. No HUD angle sail by numbers… no color codes… no big inworld dials… just realistic true to life sail behavior.

Alright already … this is getting to sound a lot like our write up for the Leetle Cat II. We suggest you read about the features of the “new” Trudeau boats, including T12, there. As you might have noticed about Trudeau boats, some boats have some features, other boats have other features. We try to give each of our boats a flavor of the RL ones they are modeled on.

Here are some features unique to the T12. While she doesn’t have the spinnaker (not exactly standard equipment on the H12 when first introduced in 1914), she has a very effective wing and wing setting for running downwind.

T12 is the replacement for the Twenty in our lineup, as such we have kept and updated popular features from that boat. For the cruising set is the motor and the boom tent and sleeping accommodations.

Customization templates? For you hot modders and rockers, follow these links for .PSD graphics:

Hull (2.33MB) including rudder templates

Transom naming (388KB)

Sails (9.44MB) – main, jib, furled sail and boom/reefed sail templates

(see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – T12 follows the Sea Sharp procedure – Sea Sharp lives on in T12 after all!)

Dimensions

32 prims (sit locations for skipper and a crew of three)
18ft (5.5m) LOA, 6.5ft (2m) beam, 2.6ft (.79m) draft.
Cradle – 21 prims
Tent/Lantern/Mattress – 28 prims
Mooring buoy and line – 11 prims

Come see the new Trudeau 12 at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts.

Charmed? We’re sure!

Say Hello To A New Cat

The Trudeau Leetle Cat has become a popular SL daysailer/trainer since her introduction over two years ago.  But time marches on and even classic boats can do with a facelift, especially if it makes them a better boat. With that thought in mind, Trudeau brought the LC into the yard with the goal of giving this cat a new life. And that we did – we proudly introduce our Leetle Cat II.  So where do we start? Despite her aged paint option, she is a completely new boat. You could say she is “One” new Leetle Cat.

• Completely redesigned hull – smaller, less draft, follows more closely to the RL inspiration’s lines. Actual centerboard slot (why? Just because!) Other new parts – centerboard trunk, rudder, tiller, mast, mast hoops…
• Beautiful sculpted gaff sail with just the right billow and twist to bring a tear to an old salt’s eye (thanks to the very talented Bunnie Mills – give it up for her!).
• Our exclusive Tru-Sail feature as first introduced on the Trudeau One. The sail  flaps, luffs and fills to give inworld visual indication of correct sail set.  No HUD angle sail by numbers… no color codes… no big inworld dials…  just realistic true to life sail behavior.
• Sculpted halyard and gaff detail prims follow sail rotation. Boom crotch and sail ties detailing when moored.
• True to life sail response to wind in tacks and gybes (what was Trudeau thinking in those 1st and 2nd generation boats anyway???)
• Helm location has 4 hiking positions to counteract heeling momentum. Is the helmsperson really steering by nudging the tiller with his/her feet on those outboard positions???? (thanks to Isis Rexie for that suggestion ;)
• Second bonus sit position for a passenger/instructor/crew. While Leetle Cat II is designed with single handling in mind, after some shakedown sailing we determined it was wrong, just wrong, to keep this poor person planted on the lee side while heeling. So this location also has 2 hike positions – 1 port and 1 starboard – to help “slightly” in righting the boat. Remember, on LCII, trim is really up to the helmsperson.

• While proper skipper positioning can pretty much keep you going in winds up to 10msec, there is also a sail reef point for when the winds kick up even higher.
• Despite all the tools given to the skipper for the task of keeping his boat upright – hiking, spilling wind, reefing – there are times, like in real life, when you are just caught in the wrong side at the wrong time. Watch out! – yes, Leetle Cat II capsizes! The first Trudeau boat to do so since we introduced it to SL sailing with the Beach Cat 4 years ago.  Novices and instructors don’t worry, it’s as easy to right her as it is difficult to set her over. But don’t expect help from that smug crewperson of yours!

• Self bailing cockpit – no more water lapping around the floorboards when you heel over.
• As in One 1.14, the option of controlling the tiller rather than the boat direction with the keyboard arrows.
• Geeky stuff – more than halved the script count of the original Leetle Cat as Linden Lab keeps making noise on setting a limit on the number of scripts per sim.

Customization templates? As always, we’ve got you covered to keep your Trudeau boat covered. Follow these links for .PSD graphics:

Hull (1.83MB) including rudder and CB trunk templates

Transom naming (57KB)

Sail (3.88MB) including furled sail and boom/reefed sail templates

(see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – Leetle Cat follows the Sea Sharp procedure).

Come see the all new Leetle Cat II  – the leetler cat – and sail the demo at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts.

Are there any more translations from Babelfish we’ve left out? :)

The One is the newest classic boat from the Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts. It takes it’s inspiration from a well-known Scandinavian one-design keelboat of the 1930s that has developed, through the years, into actively raced fleets in locations across the globe. From Norway to Long Island Sound, from San Francisco to Bermuda, you could say it has truly international appeal. (though RL intellectual property considerations prevent us from singling out that boat, we’ve dropped broad enough hints that any sailor worth his/her/it’s salt should have no trouble identifying it ;)

With a 7/8 Bermudian rig, it is the first Trudeau boat with fully sculpted sails and, sculpted by Bunnie Mills, what beauties they are – perfectly billowed, perfectly curved throughout the leech with wrinkles like real sailcloth, and actually texture-able.  But that’s not all. Wait until you see…

…Realistic Luffing!

On top of that, these sails are scripted to really luff!  No need to keep your eye fixed on that sail angle figure – One will let you know inworld, visually and aurally, about your sail trim. Actually, you won’t be able to keep you eye fixed on that sail angle figure as it is not to be found anywhere (but don’t worry – wind and speed numbers are still in the sail control and info-HUDs). One is the first Trudeau boat that is truly sailed by your senses.

Specifically designed with racing in mind, One has features such as the chute, ballast shifting positions for skipper and up to 2 crewmembers and naturally, sail handling duties shared by all aboard. That spinnaker bag looks like a comfy spot to relax between heats… and it is!

Customization

There are 6 built-in color combinations, all actual schemes found in the RL fleet of the boat not mentioned above (including a folkboat-y like bright hull) that we are quite proud of. But naturally serious customizers will want to make their own, and we have you covered in texture templates for covering your One:

Hull and Rudder (2.55MB)
Sails (5.45MB)
Name (208KB)
Nearly every texture found in the boat (excluding sails – 11.42MB -  for serious modders!)

(please look in your “Sailing One” card for example script and notecard for over-riding One’s built-in sails)

Extra Goodies

One has built-in mooring field and dockside details – buoy, fenders (yes, those are half-hitch knots making fast the lines ;),  cradle autorezzed over the hard, half-hull display model for your SL home.

One and her revolutionary sails have to be seen to be appreciated and you can at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts. Sit in the One on display for a short demo of them and you’ll see why we are so excited by them!

Dimensions

32 prims (sit locations for skipper and a crew of two)
39ft (12m) LOA, 8.3ft (2.53m) beam, 6.1ft (1.86m) draft.
Cradle – 20 prims

A special thanks to the SL sailors who have requested this design - Francois Jacques, Naeve Rossini, Jane  Fossett – for me,  it was the right boat at the right time.  And an extra-special thanks to Bunnie Mills whose SL sail lofting skills made it all possible. Now I can get back to my catboats!

Rozinante was the name of Don Quixote’s steed. She was a long, thin animal but every time the Don mounted her he had remarkable adventures. Perhaps seven-eights of the romance of these adventures took place in Quixote’s mind, for he was a great reader of romance who rather looked down on the times in which he lived. Like Don Quixote, every time I venture out in this Rozinante I meet with great adventure and romance. Perhaps, also, seven-eighths of it takes place in my mind but each point that I round opens up new vistas with all sorts of possibilities.

L. Francis Herreshoff
The Compleat Cruiser: The Art, Practice and Enjoyment of Boating

L. Francis, son of famed American yacht designer Nathanael “Captain Nat” Herreshoff was famed and accomplished in his own right. Probably his most admired and beloved design was that of Rozinante, a 28 ft canoe yawl, introduced in a chatty “how-to-build” series of articles in the late sailing magazine, The Rudder.   Rozinante was the epitome of LFH’s philosophy of simplicity, elegance and romance (and if you thought you’d seen the last Herreshoff designed boat from Trudeau, think again!).

When a thing is out of the usual and pleasing to contemplate it is romantic. When an object is nicely proportioned and has retained some well-proven ancient quality, it is romantic looking. To a sailor a romantic vessel is one that looks like a good sea boat, one which has a good sheer and nicely proportioned ends: in short, a vessel he falls in love with at first sight, as we all did when we saw Rozinante.

Ibid

LFH was fierce advocate of boats that looked the way boats should, goddammit! Boats that weren’t designed to “meet some ridiculous ratings rule” that “penalize the speed-giving qualities of a sailboat”. Rozinante’s style would be in fashion “long after the abortions of the present are forgotten, dangerous and expensive rule-cheating wind-bags.” He dismissed the thought of spoiling Rozinante’s profile by adding a headroom gaining doghouse as “most of the sailormen I have known sat down when they ate and preferred to lie down when they slept”. His advice? “If you want to make changes, then by all means get a modern boat for your changes cannot make her any worse!”

Quite a character! A throwback in an ever-changing world, it’s no wonder he identified with Don Quixote. But with the passion his 60 year old design arouses in many in comparison to say, your average fiberglass (“frozen-snot” in LFH-speak) McBoat, he was definitely on to something.

When is a Yawl not a Yawl?

Though termed a canoe yawl, sharped eyed viewers will note Rozinante is in fact ketch rigged (the mizzen mast forward of the tillerpost). LFH explains:

In the 1890′s was a very popular type in England for cruising in some of their delightful waters… The name “canoe-yawl” simply means a boat with a sharp stern that is larger than the usual sailing canoe… The term, in it’s day, had nothing to do with the rigs these pretty vessels used, for among them were sloops, ketches, yawls, luggers, and cat yawls…. Of course, many yawl boats had no rig at all.

L. Francis Herreshoff
Sensible Cruising Designs

Okay, so that clears things up, right? :)

The Trudeau Rozinante

We are taking the concept of romance in a slightly different direction from what LFH, lifelong bachelor that he was, probably had in mind. We’ve conceived the Trudeau Rozinante as a couple’s cruising boat. Leave casual friends and family ashore – Rozinante’s 30 prims limits those aboard to captain and his/her/it’s first mate.  You will find no less than 5 couples cuddle animation sets built-in (this graphic shows where to sit). Other single sit passenger locations are the berth and the mizzen mast.

If you and your mate want to take an extended cruise, say to seek out that mythical passage north of Nautilus, Rozinante will keep you snug once you find your overnight anchorage. Her simple yet spacious cabin – fully equipped with double berth, settee and galley – is unprecedented in a boat that doesn’t need to be worn.  Did you say galley??? True – avatars don’t need to eat, but is not SL the perfect setting for all kinds of LFH-style adventures, seven-eights of which take place in the mind?

And for the times when you want to feel juices of a more competitive nature flowing, have your partner “sit” on the floorboards (trust us, this is for competition!). That’s the position where the crewperson becomes “moveable ballast”, shifting their weight from side to side (using the L-R arrow keys), keeping Rozinante as upright as possible, coaxing out the last bit of performance from her.

The Stuff

We won’t list all the features. If you are reading this, you likely know and love (or hate) them well by now. We will say Rozinante follows our Columbia concept of riding on the complete boat (30 prims) and then optionally filling in the rest of the details by wearing the rigging attachment  (42 prims).

Customization? Yes! the hull (1.9MB), name (277KB) and sail (386KB) templates are all here (the name template is little tricky as the portside text has to be flipped and reversed, but you’ll figure it out!).

Rez Rozinante over the hard and she comes down on her boatyard cradle. And just because this is SL don’t think you are off the hook. After all, Rozinante is a wooden boat. So “sit” on the cradle, wear the offered paintbrush and that can of Interlux and get to work!

Dimensions  – a little bigger (but then isn’t everything in SL?) than the RL Rozinante:

30 prims (carries skipper and first mate), 49ft LOA, 9.8ft beam, 6ft draft
details – 42 prims
cradle – 44 prims

Come take a look at her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and kindle a new romance of your own and, in LFH words, “remember that a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Defender, our boat inspired by the 1895 America’s Cup racer, has been a Trudeau staple since our earliest days. Our original Defender was voted “Best Overall” at the 2006 SLSA Boat Show. “Defender Liveaboard” was our first boat with a (somewhat) usable cabin, Defender II our first high-prim high-detail two piece vehicle/attachment boat. Historically, Defender is our all-time most popular boat.

Long live Defender!

That’s why we are killing her off ;) The first life Defender, with her bronze plating below the waterline and weight-saving aluminum above, lasted scarcely longer than the Trudeau version before galvanic corrosion sent her to the scrapheap. Designer NG Herreshoff was unfazed, remarking that she was a success in the task she was built for. And she was – the America’s Cup winner in 1895 and trial horse for the contender 4 years later.

The Defender After “Defender”

We shift our attention that contender, the successor to Defender – the yacht Columbia. Commissioned by a syndicate of Gilded Age moneybags from the New York Yacht Club and launched in 1899, Columbia, also from the Herreshoff board and yard (he would design and build an unprecedented 6 consecutive America’s Cup champions), was considered an evolutionary improvement to Defender – built to the same design rules but with deeper keel, more ballast, more sail area. Not to mention more electrolytically compatible structural materials. Columbia beat the British challenger, Shamrock, in all three America’s Cup races in 1899 and and again against Shamrock II in 1901, making her the first two time cup defender. And a 6-0 undefeated one at that.

If you think the first life 1930s J-Class was a big boat, it wouldn’t hold a candle to the earlier generation “90 footers” – Defender, Columbia, and Columbia’s succesor Reliance. Built to the waterline length and sail area rules of the day, these boats were enormous! 90ft LWL, 135ft LOA, 20ft draft, 12-16,000 sq ft sail area. Imagine gybing a mainsail on a 115ft boom. This is the inspiration for our latest.

The Trudeau Columbia

Our Columbia, our biggest boat yet – twice as big as our Defender, even bigger than J-Class – let’s face it, you can’t model a 135ft first life boat to the size of racing dinghy. Her base component, weighing in at a lightweight 28 prims, is a complete sailer for skipper and 3 ballast shifting crewmembers. Her sculpty hull has that distinctive Herreshoff outline with fin keel, cutaway forefoot and long overhangs, a shape that could only be approximated in our earlier Defender models. Mainsail with 2 reef settings (the first reef douses the topsail), jib, staysail, jib topsail and spinnaker/drifter – all from the fantastic Bunnie Mills’ sail loft – replicate the sail suite of the first life Columbia. All the usual Trudeau sailing features are there – well… you know them by now ;)

Actually… there is a new feature worth a mention. On all known previous Trudeau boats, sail changes, reefing, spinnaker hoisting and dousing all happen – Bang! – instantaneously. Not so with Columbia, you will find there is a period of driving power reduction during your reefing and spinnaker changes. How long a period? It can be anywhere from 5 to more than 20 seconds. It’s based on several factors – boat speed, wind speed, number of crewmembers aboard (the more the merrier), the number of times you’ve already done a sail change operation during your sailing session (practice makes almost perfect!). Oh, and once you think you’ve solved the riddle in getting your time down, there may, just may, be a random event that will prolong your next change. The idea is to give the skipper another thing to think about. In a close battle, will that topsail or mainsail reef give you the edge? Or will you lose out during the time it takes to set it? Shouldn’t you really carry a crew to help out with spinnaker operations?

The Trudeau Defender was a high detail boat with a cabin, you say. And so is our new Columbia! If you want to fill out the details there is an attachment with standing rigging, bobstays, spreaders, etc you can wear while sailing (or rezzed while moored).

The Cabin?

Yes! The fully outfitted cabin primset, with period appropriate detailing, can be rezzed while moored. Included are 8 animations for your belowdecks activities, from determining your location by studying the charts to reading a Herman Melville classic to snuggling with your honey.

*A bit of disclaimer about the cabin. Even in first life sailboat cabins involve compromises, and our Columbia is no different. Columbia is a more accurate model of the first life racer than Defender was, so there is no deckhouse. It is sitting, not standing, headroom below. Plus, to keep the primcount down on the base sailer, there is no real opening in the deck – the “hatch” area is actually a transparency in the decking texture. Therefore you don’t enter the cabin by walking down the companionway, but rather by sitting on the hideable poseballs located abovedeck. It takes some bit of SL(tm) skill in maneuvering the camera down in the tight quarters between decking and sole but believe us, it can be done! Standing up might find you trapped between prims (though you might just fit under the skylight) so it is best to exit by sitting on an abovedeck prim.

Love My Tender

The tender NG Herreshoff designed for Columbia was a classic in her own right, still revered and built today.

Our Columbia carries her tender on deck, just as the original did. Plus, touch it and the dinghy is rezzed in the water – a fully functioning rowing and sailing boat in it’s own right! Columbia’s HUD works with her tender’s sailing and rowing operations.

Customization

Get ready for a whole slew of customization templates for Columbia. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the hull (950K), naming (3.5MB) and graphics for the 6 sails and variations (2.25MB). The tender has it’s own templates for hull (2.8MB), sail (284KB) and name (290KB).

Dimensions:

Trudeau Columbia

28 prims (carries skipper and up to three additional passengers/crew), 117ft LOA, 13ft beam, 13.2ft draft
details – 59 prims
cabin – 36 prims
cradle – 35 prims

Come take a look at her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and see if you don’t agree that the spirit of Nathanael Herreshoff lives in Second Life!

So what is a Patchogue?  Something like a cross between a pirogue and Patch Adams? Nope (but that does give me an idea for an avatar). It’s actually the name of a Native American Indian Tribe, but for our discussion it’s not a what, but a where. The village of Patchogue (named after that tribe), on the south shore of New York’s Long Island, was where the region’s greatest boat builder – Gilbert Smith – developed the Great South Bay Catboat into an art form. The Trudeau Patchogue was inspired by the designs of Smith, who as a contemporary of Nathaniel Herreshoff (the legendary Cap’t Nat was rumored to have visited Smith’s yard incognito at least once, trying to find out “how he made ‘em draw so little and go so fast”), evolved traditional workboat designs into amazing pleasure and racing craft.

Commerical Beginnings

The working boats that plied the Great South Bay in the mid and late 19th century, as platforms for such commerce as duck hunting and oystering, were designed as all such boats are –  in mind to the nautical conditions they operate in.  The Cape Cod catboats for instance, similar in purpose to Great South Bay variety, were designed to withstand the rough conditions off coastal New England – heavy construction, high freeboard, wide beam. Long Island’s Great South Bay, by contrast is a semi-protected body of water, shallow (average 6 ft. at low tide), with generally agreeable weather conditions. The boats there were lighter with a very shallow draft and lots of sail.

The rise of New York City’s leisure class coincided with the waning of hunting and shell fishing as livelihoods. Sailing moved as purely a means of commercial transportation to the realm of amateur yachtsmen, who purchased better, faster and newer boats for racing each other in recreational regattas. Smith adapted the vernacular Great South Bay Catboat to this purpose, constantly refining his designs for this demanding clientele. It is widely reputed that his boats have won more races than those constructed by any other builder on Long Island. He was most remarkable as a designer, builder and artisan as well as a stalwart believer in the beauty and strength of wind. In his decades of boatbuilding, Smith never once built a boat with a gasoline powered engine (though the Trudeau Patchogue does have that engine – shhhhh! nobody tell Gilbert Smith!)

Gilbert Smith’s Great South Bay Catboat (images © WoodenBoat magazine)

 The Trudeau Patchogue

With that bit of introduction, Trudeau proudly announces it’s latest offering – the Patchogue. It, like the great majority of Gilbert Smith’s designs, is a centerboarder catboat – one sail. Think of it as a bigger (beeger?) version of our popular Leetle Cat. The Patchogue has a list of features beyond that of her Leetle sister:

• The aforementioned motor, popular with the cruising set.
• Skipper and crew positioning, adjustable under sail, trims the heel of the boat.
• Half a dozen built-in traditional color schemes.
• 2 sail reef points.
• Rezzing mooring buoy.

Customization

As with all Trudeau boats, Patchogue is modify permissioned allowing you to make her your own. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the hull (2.07MB), naming (242KB) and sail (144KB) graphics. Also contact the Trudeau sailmaker, the very talented Bunnie Mills, inworld for further information about sail customization.

For those of you wondering about alternatives for the flag, we can’t provide a graphic for every nationality, so we suggest retrieving images from sites such as this or do a Google image search. (edit: people have asked about whether I have 3D looking wavy flag templates – I don’t as it would require your flag image as the basis for the graphic. But here is a great step by step tutorial on creating a great looking flag. It’s true, the internet does have everything. ;)

Come take a look at her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and (now that you know who he is ;) ) see if you don’t agree that Gilbert Smith lives on in Second Life!

Dimensions:

Trudeau Patchogue – 29 prims (carries skipper and up to two additional passengers/crew), 29 ft (8.85m) LOD, 11.5ft (3.5m) beam, 5.5ft (1.7m) draft (board down)