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)

My daily trek to RL work takes me through Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan. Pushing past the crowds of tourists gathered around the Today Show studios, one comes upon Christie’s auction house. I always enjoy browsing their windows, decorated with sample representations of upcoming lots.

One morning this last winter, a maritime art auction was announced by a 10 foot high blowup of this painting of two J-Class yachts cross tacking in what seems like the 1930 America’s Cup Elimination Trials. Though not so impressive in my snapshot, believe me – it stopped me dead in my tracks when I came upon it. :)

The actual painting itself? … a just slightly less impressive 36″ x 58″ that went for a cool US$122,500 – and no, not to me! Trudeau Yachts isn’t quite that profitable. (eagle-eye viewers will see this is a painting of a more modern regatta with restored 1930s Js)

Though customers in the past have asked for a “large” racing boat, not necessarily with a complete cabin, it takes something like this to nudge my inspirational muse to commit the time to build a new boat.

With that little bit of introduction, Trudeau proudly announces it’s J-Class. It is modeled on the J-Class America’s Cup racers of the 1930s. Only 10 RL J-Class yachts were ever built – 6 in the USA and 4 in the UK. Most of these competed in trials for the America’s Cup, or competed in the Cup itself. In a word (two actually), these boats were awe inspiring – prewar yachting at it’s most opulent. If the Trudeau J-Class was scaled accurately, it would be nearly twice the size as it is – the RL J-Class yachts were in excess of 125 ft. in length. They carried enormous sail area (~7,500 sq ft) on the new fangled innovations of the decade, the Bermuda rigged mast (150 ft+!) and Park Avenue boom, had a racing crew of 30+.

“If you have ever encountered a 12-Metre at close quarters while afloat you may recall the sheer size of the thing, the feeling of immense power in the sails and the suction of her passing. Compare then, the dimensions of a Twelve with those of a J and you begin to get an inkling of the grandeur of their progress and with what majesty they moved.”

–Uffa Fox (British yachtbuilder) 1935

Sadly, most of the J-Class yachts were scrapped for wartime material at the end of the 30s. A couple did survive and have been restored and there is a movement afloat that has built and launched modern replicas. Here are a couple of sites with all the historic details:

http://www.jclassyachts.com/

http://www.ultimatesail.com/JClass/

The Trudeau J-Class

As with our other latest boats, she is a sculpty hulled “rideable” – no attachment required. Though not skimping on the details, she can carry 3 other people in addition to the skipper. She is also the first Trudeau with a spinnaker, which was somewhat out of place on our fleet of gaff rigged sloops and catboats ;) (with the Leetle Cat and it’s centerboard and the J-Class with it’s chute, Jacqueline Trudeau dryly observed that the next boat might be the Flying Tako). The J-Class is a big boat most at home with lots of room to operate – perfect for the Blake Sea and USS environs.

Here are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the hull (2.44MB) and naming (673KB) and sails (409KB) graphics. Also contact the J-Class sailmaker, the very talented Bunnie Mills, inworld for further information about sail customization.

Other features of the Trudeau J-Class include:

• Can be sailed either solo or in collaboration with a crew. You can assign skipper permissions to others as well.
• Realistic sailing including functional reefing for overpowering winds and 100m range boat to boat windshadowing.
• Moving helmsperson animations.
• Customizable. Voice commands to change the hull textures from a selection of traditional nautical color schemes, modifiable notecard for changing variety of settings including camera location and angle, skipper placement, chat channel.
• The redesigned low-prim onscreen HUD provides button control for the common boat handling commands and display of environmental conditions. An included 2nd EZ-Sail HUD controls all sails with one control, including autodeployment and autotrim of the spinnaker. An included 3rd info-display only HUD is geared towards regatta racers.
• For overriding the fluky SL winds, artificial wind strength and direction commands which are translated into apparent wind. SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind.
• Auxiliary motor to power you through those rare occasions when the wind dies down.
• Accomodations for your crew in custom designed sit poses/animations positioned about the boat.
• Since sim crossings can be unpredictable, copy and modify permissions.
• Drydock wedges when rezzed inworld over land.
• Included half-hull display plaque.

Animations by Larinda Cordeaux, sails by Bunnie Mills.

Dimensions:

Trudeau J-Class – 28 prims, 85.3 ft (26m) LOA, 13.12 ft (4m) beam, 10.6ft (3.23m) draft

We’ve been hard at work sea-trial testing our new J-Class Yacht. Unfortunately, it seems the SL grid has been just as hard in resisting our efforts.  expired_region_handoffs on what seems like 9 out of 10 sim crossings lately tends to dampen the spirits much more than any virtual water ever could.

The thought occured to us, the sailing would be great if it weren’t for these miserable sim crossings currently afflicting SL. Yes, yes, we know LL is hard at work on updating their internal wide area networking which will once again open our seas to glitch-free racing and cruising (Jacqueline said with tongue firmly in cheek). But for now, a vehicle that could be operated within the confines of a single sim would be ideal. So we took our J-Class boat, shrunk it down to liliputian size, installed a radio receiver and voila! the Trudeau RC J-Class.

The Trudeau RC J-Class is our remote controlled pond sailor/racer. Modeled after the magnificent J-Class America’s Cup racers of the 1930s (more on those amazing boats with the release of our full sized J-Class), it consists of the highly detailed graceful 2m long boat (also suitable for display on your SL mantle), the RC transmitter HUD and the RC transmitter and animation AO worn by your avatar inworld (both male and female scaled anims included).

The boat itself shares many of the features of the full sized Trudeau fleet, with built-in hull color selections and artificial wind. Since, as in RL, racing is the point for most RC fleets, SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind and boat to boat windshadowing will test your competitive strategies. Rudder and sail set are remotely controlled over a 100m range via the RC HUD buttons:

Touch the boat when at rest to bring up a menu choice of options:

If the built-in color textures aren’t exactly what you had in mind, download the PSD hull template here.

For information about custom sails, contact the very talented Bunnie Mills inworld.

As much fun as SL sailing can be, when you get tired of spinning in circles before being launched through the air, come try something different – the Trudeau RC J-Class.

Credits: AO animations – Larinda Cordeaux. Sail textures – Bunnie Mills

The Tahiti Ketch has been part of our fleet since our early days - in fact it was our second release, built on the heels of our Trudeau 32. Now we are especially proud to launch our all new version of this classic, the Trudeau Tahiti II. As with her predecessor, she is modeled after the famous John Hanna design of 1935 that has taken many of it’s real life owners on voyages to the far reaches of the globe. Popularized as a cruising boat at a time when there were no production cruising boats, you bought the plans from Hanna, built it in your backyard, and sailed off to the south seas – if you were lucky :) They have been called little ships because they are built strong and sail flat.

Tahitis are still being built today in backyards and would-be circumnavigator’s reveries. We’ve just taken the wraps off of our completely rebuilt Tahiti. All new from the keel up, using a one piece sculpty hull (no more awkward prim joins on this Tahiti’s hull!), Tahiti II was designed in consultation with SL master skipper Thorvald Larsen (a Tahiti Ketch owner in RL). The little details, such as the height of the bulwarks, shape of the tiller and size of the cockpit well, as well as the big ones, such as her tenderness and performance on various points of sail, have been sweated just right.

Making her go is a version of the lastest Trudeau sailing scripts adapted especially for the ketch sailplan. As a bigger sister to the Twenty, Knockabout, and Leetle Cat, Tahiti II also offers apparent wind, sail reefing, windshadowing and much more. Come see her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and see if you don’t agree!

Customization

Naturally, a premium Trudeau boat wouldn’t be complete without a built-in selection of traditional nautical color schemes, including the tanbark sails. And, as with our newer boats, we are publishing Photoshop PSD templates for the hull and rudder (2.45MB), transom naming (213KB) and sail (4.61MB) graphics. Download them, customize them, apply them to your Tahiti and make her truly your own! (see this page for step-by-step naming instructions - Tahiti II follows her predecessor’s procedure).

Other Features of the Trudeau Tahiti II include:

• Can be sailed either solo or in collaboration with a first mate. You can assign skipper permissions to others as well.
• Realistic sailing including functional reefing when encountering overpowering winds and boat to boat windshadowing.
• Moving tiller, rudder and helmsperson animations. Hard a-lee is really hard a-lee on Tahiti :)
• 2 HUDs provide button control for the common boat handling commands and display of environmental conditions. The full featured HUD allows individual control over each sail, allowing the seasoned skipper access to such sailing concepts as wing and wing, jib backfill, etc. For the novice or lazy (horrors!) skipper, the EZ-Sail HUD controls all sails with a single click! If two isn’t enough, a 3rd info-display only HUD geared towards regatta racers who like to command their boats with chat and gesture commands is also included.
• For overriding the fluky SL winds, artificial wind strength and direction commands which are translated into apparent wind. SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind.
• Masthead pennant functions as apparent wind taletell.
• Auxiliary motor to power you through those rare occasions when the wind dies down.
• Since sim crossings can be unpredictable, copy and modify permissions.
• Extra goodies – autorezzing drydock cradle when rezzed inworld over land. Half-hull model for display in your SL home.

Dimensions:
Trudeau Tahiti II - 30 prims, 30.2 ft (9.2m) LWL, 37.7ft (11.5m) LOA, 9.8ft (3m) beam, 5.75ft (1.75m) draft

(As Tahiti is under the SL prim limit for vehicles, she’s a rideable,  with loads of detailing, but not with an enterable cabin).

For seasoned and beginning SL sailors alike – Jane Fossett as an article on SLSailing.com with everything you wanted to know about the Trudeau Twenty. Handling tips, tactics for gaining maximum performance on various points of sail (with charts and graphs, no less!), and much, much more  - wow, theres a lot there that even I didn’t know! Thanks for the terrific writeup, Jane :)

Our latest Trudeau Classic Yacht was inspired by the Beetle Cat, a wooden one-design centerboarder catboat well-known up and down the northeastern US coast. The Original Beetle Cat Boat, named after the family who designed and originally constructed it, was introduced in 1920 and over 4,000 have been built to date. The Beetle Cat class has a long and varied history – it is one of the oldest classes raced actively and probably the only one still made of wood.

The design was taken from the catboats that were used for fishing in shallow waters along Cape Cod. The wide beam, with the rudder not extending below the bottom of the keel, and centerboard that lifts up are features that make this boat ideal for shallow waters. She is a boat that can be beached. The generous beam makes her unusually stable. Made entirely of wood, (oak frames with cedar planking) with no ballast, she is non-sinkable and the large decked area forward on the boat means spray falls on the deck rather than inside the boat. The rig is similar to that used on the old, large-size Cape Cod catboat, with the mast well forward, using a single sail.

The Trudeau Leetle Cat, with it’s single sail, is also easy to sail and ideal for novice SL sailors. While she is the leetle-est and lowest cost boat in the Trudeau line, she is not lacking in features including windshadowing, functional centerboard and sail reefing.

Customization

To keep the cost down, the Leetle Cat comes in one finish from the Trudeau boatyard. But we are publishing Photoshop PSD templates for infinite customization. Follow the links for Hull (1.07MB), transom naming (117KB) and sail (5.55MB) graphics. (see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – Leetle Cat follows the Sea Sharp procedure).

Other Features of the Trudeau Leetle Cat include:

• Can be sailed either solo or in collaboration with a crewmate. You can assign skipper permissions to others as well.
• Realistic sailing including functional reefing for overpowering winds, centerboard and the latest sailing feature for the Trudeau fleet – boat to boat windshadowing.
• Moving tiller, rudder and helmsperson animations. Hard a-lee is *really* hard a-lee on the Leetle Cat :)
• Onscreen HUD provides button control for the common boat handling commands and display of environmental conditions. An included 2nd info-display only HUD is geared towards regatta racers.
• For overriding the fluky SL winds, artificial wind strength and direction commands which are translated into apparent wind. SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind.
• Masthead pennant functions as apparent wind taletell.
• Since sim crossings can be unpredictable, copy and modify permissions.
• Extra goodies such as autorezzing drydock cradle when rezzed inworld over land.

Dimensions:
Trudeau Leetle Cat – 29 prims,  17.7 ft (5.34m) LWL, 21.6 ft (6.6m) LOA, 8.9 ft (2.7m) beam, 1.4ft (.42m) draft board up, 3.45ft (1.05m) draft board down.

“Beetle Cat” is a registered trademark of Beetle, Inc.

A sailboat loaded to the toerails with features for skipper and mate… A completely enclosed cabin… Sleeping berth for two, accessed via 2 operating companionway hatches… Other nautical detailing such as standing rigging with turnbuckles, forward mooring cleat, pennant telltale, animated moving tiller and rudder…

Sounds like one of those Trudeau high primcount yacht attachments, right? It does, but this is our newest Trudeau “rideable” yacht, the Knockabout Sloop. It is our first rideable with a fully accessable cabin, something our customers have been asking since day one and it took sculpted prims to finally realize it. Now you can dock your cruiser and leave it to go ashore without having to fiddle with attachments.

What The Heck is a Knockabout?

The term “knockabout” was applied to those Gloucester fishing schooners of the late 19th century that did away with the bowsprit. There was a frighteningly high fatality rate for those sailors handling headsails while dangling over a bowsprit in heavy seas – the knockabout schooner did away with the sprit and extended the forward section of the hull to take it’s place. Eventually the term was applied to a class of small sloops (also generally without bowsprits). Fast, and with the simplest accomodations below deck, they were the daysailers, weekenders, club racers of their day. In the early 1900s every down east yacht club worth it’s salt had it’s own fleet of racing knockabouts, and the boats were sometimes named for the club or region that commissioned the design. The Dark Harbor 17, by B.B. Crowninshield in 1906, is a well known classic and beautiful representation of the genre. (read more about the fascinating history of the knockabouts here and a whole site devoted to them here).

The same Dark Harbor 17 is the boat that inspired the Trudeau Knockabout Sloop. Like the original it has a fin keel (3/4 of a century before that was de rigeur for the plastic boats!), cabin with berth, slender hullshape with long overhangs – the Knockabout Sloop just looks fast – and it is! Constructed of 29 prims, it is the ideal (non-attaching) cruiser for two avatars. Come see her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and see if you don’t agree.

Customization

As with the recenty released Trudeau Twenty, we are publishing Photoshop PSD templates for the Knockabout. Follow the links for Hull and rudder (2.55MB), transom naming (238KB) and sail (9.73MB) graphics. Download them, customize them, apply them to your Knockabout and make her truly your own! (see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – Knockabout follows the Sea Sharp procedure).

 Other Features of the Trudeau Knockabout Sloop include:

• Can be sailed either solo or in collaboration with a crewmate. You can assign skipper permissions to others as well.
• Realistic sailing including functional reefing for overpowering winds and the latest sailing feature for the Trudeau fleet – boat to boat windshadowing.
• Moving tiller, rudder and helmsperson animations. Hard a-lee is *really* hard a-lee on the Knockabout :)
• Customizable. Voice commands to change the hull and sail textures from a selection of traditional nautical color schemes, modifiable script for changing the default camera location and angle. Downloadable PSD templates for hull and sail textures.
• 2 HUDs provide button control for the common boat handling commands and display of environmental conditions. The full featured HUD allows individual control over each sail, allowing the seasoned skipper access to such sailing concepts as wing and wing, jib backfill, etc. For the novice or lazy (horrors!) skipper, the EZ-Sail HUD controls all sails with a single click! An included 3rd info-display only HUD is geared towards regatta racers.
• For overriding the fluky SL winds, artificial wind strength and direction commands which are translated into apparent wind. SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind.
• Masthead pennant functions as apparent wind taletell.
• Auxiliary motor to power you through those rare occasions when the wind dies down.
• Accomodations for your mate in sit poses/animations positioned about the cockpit.
• Single sleeping and couple’s cuddle poses in the cabin berth.
• Since sim crossings can be unpredictable, copy and modify permissions.
• Extra goodies – autorezzing drydock cradle when rezzed inworld over land. Mooring buoy and line rezzes on forward deck cleat touch. Half-hull model for display in your SL home.

Dimensions:
Trudeau Knockabout Sloop – 29 prims,  21 ft (6.4m) LWL, 29.5 ft (9m) LOA, 8 ft (2.45m) beam, 5.1ft (1.56m) draft

Renowned American naval architect Nathaniel Green Herreshoff designed and built the world’s finest yachts, including 6 consecutive America’s Cup champions, from the mid 19th to the early 20th centuries. Despite the attention those magnificent boats have received and rightly so, probably his most beloved, popular and enduring design is his 12 1/2.

Known variously as Bull’s Eye, Buzzard’s Bay 12 1/2 Footer, Buzzards Bay Boy Boat, Doughdish, H 12 – the daysailer drawn up nearly 100 years ago is still built today. Despite her compact size (the name comes from her waterline length) and origins (as a training boat for the children of yachtsmen!), the 12 1/2 can carry 4-6 adults. The little yacht feel has helped ensure her popularity to this day.

This is the boat that inspired the latest from Trudeau – we’ve taken Cap’n Nat’s design, upscaled her to 20 ft LWL to carry 4 avatars and christened her the Trudeau Twenty.

We’ve also gone back to our roots as this is our first “rideable” (non-attaching) model in a while – but one with a sculptie twist. The graceful full-keeled hull and sweeping coamings as well as the cockpit and decks are constructed from a single sculptie prim. That leaves plenty of room for the nautical detailing we like to put into the Trudeau boats – without having to use a high primcount attachment. Come see her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and see if you don’t agree!

Philosophy

There are plenty of wonderful sailboats to choose from in SL, but one thing to realize is that they are nearly all modeled on high performance sailing dinghies. They sail fast, they plane, they point high, throwing more wind at them makes them zip along even faster while heeling at 45 degrees or more. A boat like the Herreshoff 12 1/2 – with her full deep keel and gaff rig – just doesn’t behave like that. However she’s a lively sailer and we’ve attempted to make the Twenty’s SL sailing characteristics in line with her RL inspiration. You may find her overall speed potential, her capability on various points of sail, her behavior when facing higher winds somewhat different than what you are used to with other SL sailing boats. However we think they perfectly match her looks and pedigree as a “classic” full keeled sailing yacht.

Customization

“There are only two colors to paint a boat, black and white, and only a damn fool would paint it black.”

-NG Herreshoff

OK, so the great designer was a little strong of opinion. ;) That doesn’t mean we have to follow his every commandment. As with all Trudeau boats, there is a built-in selection of traditional nautical color schemes, including Cap’n Nat’s favorite. But we are also publishing Photoshop PSD templates for the hull and rudder (3.0MB),  transom naming (443KB)  and sail (9.41MB) graphics. Download them, customize them, apply them to your Twenty and make her truly your own! (see this page for step-by-step naming instructions – Twenty follows the Sea Sharp procedure).

Other Features of the Trudeau Twenty include:

• Can be sailed either solo or in collaboration with a crew (up to 4 total riders including skipper). You can assign skipper permissions to others as well.
• Realistic sailing including functional reefing when encountering overpowering winds and – introduced for the first time in the Trudeau fleet - boat to boat windshadowing.
• Moving tiller, rudder and helmsperson animations. Hard a-lee is really hard a-lee on the Twenty :)
• 2 HUDs provide button control for the common boat handling commands and display of environmental conditions. The full featured HUD allows individual control over each sail, allowing the seasoned skipper access to such sailing concepts as wing and wing, jib backfill, etc. For the novice or lazy (horrors!) skipper, the EZ-Sail HUD controls all sails with a single click!
• For overriding the fluky SL winds, artificial wind strength and direction commands which are translated into apparent wind. SLSF windsetter compatibility prompts you for acceptance of racewind.
• Masthead pennant functions as apparent wind taletell.
• Auxiliary motor to power you through those rare occasions when the wind dies down.
• Accomodations for your crew in sit animations positioned about the cockpit.
• Since sim crossings can be unpredictable, copy and modify permissions.
• Extra goodies – autorezzing drydock cradle when rezzed inworld over land. Mooring buoy and line rezzes on forward deck cleat touch.  Rezzing boom tent, lantern and sleeping poses. Half-hull model for display in your SL home.

Dimensions:
Trudeau Twenty – 27 prims, 20 ft (6.1m) LWL, 26.6ft (6.9m) LOA, 8.7ft (2.65m) beam, 3.7ft (1.15m) draft

Trudeau Yachts is no longer taking boat naming orders. Instead, we are publishing links to our templates and detailed instructions here.  All the instructions are for Photoshop CS2. If you are using another graphics editor that reads PSD files, please translate for your application :)

If you do not have experience or familiarity with 3rd party graphics applications or feel any of this is out of your comfort zone, please contact Jaqueline Trudeau inworld and I’ll forward some names of those who can create your naming graphic for you.

Thanks!