Westsail the Grid?

It was the late 1960s – early 1970s. The era of counterculture and search for personal meaning in a world of war, Watergate break-ins and a corrupt establishment ruling class. Enter a Southern California boatbuilder with slickly produced brochures showing their 32 ft cruiser anchored in a serene bay in Tahiti, Bora Bora or somesuch tropical paradise, the attractive sea-going family of four, fit and tan, diving off the boom into the crystal clear waters. “Westsail the World!” And promises to “pioneer the oceans, to live aboard the sea, to weather the storm, to reward yourself, to live a different kind of life” were powerful prose in the time of Whole Earth Catalogs and back-to-the-land (and sea!) sensibilities. Consequently, the dream, the concept, and the boat were a hit.

About half of the Westsail 32s were sold in kit form, the idea being take delivery of hull and deck, spend the winter outfitting her, then set sail to the South Seas in the spring (in most cases, quite a few springs later!). At one point there was a two year delivery backlog. Despite all that, due to lax business practices of the Westsail Corporation (hey, it was the 70s!) the boat had a relatively short production run, about 800 produced between 1972 and 1980. The overwhelming majority of these boats are still fully seaworthy and their resale value has held up well.

The Westsail 32 was everything a deepwater cruiser should look like – the double ender design lifted from Colin Archer’s Scandinavian lifeboats, the fullest of keels, traditional cutter rig, small seaworthy cockpit, spacious belowdecks accomodations. It’s very heavy construction (displacement – 10 tons!) emphasized seaworthiness over speed (detractors gave her the nickname “Wetsnail”) but the boat delivered on the promise of taking its owners anywhere in the world, one even surviving the “Perfect Storm” intact (The boat, that is. She washed up on a Maryland beach mostly undamaged. Her skipper and crew were airlifted to safety in a harrowing USCG evacuation as documented below).

The Westsail Trudeau 32

Being wood snobs, modeling a fiberglas constructed boat like the Westsail 32 is a departure for us at Trudeau. However not entirely, we had the Westsail 32 in mind back in 2005 with our very first offering, the Trudeau 32. (Perhaps one or two of us at Trudeau had also been in thrall of those Westsail brochures :) Full keel. Check. Sloop rigged. Check. Double-ender, stern hung rudder, bowsprit. Check, check, check.

The Trudeau 32, circa 2005-6, in all her prim-eval glory

What we wrote about her in 2005 still stands as the ethos behind every one of our subsequent offerings

The Trudeau 32 is a gaff rigged, full keeled wooden sloop sailboat with graceful lines – one of a line of sailing yachts inspired by the classic designs of famed nautical designers like L. Francis Herreshoff, Colin Archer and John Hanna. The Trudeau 32 designed for a unique SL boating experience. A lazy afternoon in a peaceful cove, racing across a sun-dappled sea, slipping off the deck shoes and relaxing when the sun goes down, entertaining guests on the water or dockside, or visiting exotic ports of call on an extended cruise. It looks fantastic berthed at your lake or seaside marina and at a 27 prim displacement, can accommodate a party of up to 4 for sailing excursions.

Our original 32 had a relatively long lifespan, made it into the SL windlight era, and we’ve been told can still be occasionally found here and there on the grid.

A windlit Trudeau 32, having made it, like a Westail 32, to tropical waters

But SL time marches on and if you think the 2005 Trudeau 32 looks clunky, let me remind you of what our avatars looked like back then! On second thought, let me not :) Mesh remade the entire look of SL and and did so with our latest offering, the…

All New Trudeau 32

Trudeau 32 under full sail

Trudeau 32 moored

Full keel. Check. Sloop Cutter rigged. Check. Double-ender, stern hung rudder, bowsprit. Check, check, check. How about some features only available as pipe dreams 15 years ago? Line drawing correct shape of it’s real life inspiration. Tru-Sail luffing and billowing sails giving in-world indication of correct trim. Completely inhabitable below decks accommodations. Movable running rigging. Seating positions for skipper and 2 crewpersons – 1 heel-offsetting hike position per side for the skipper, 3 per side for each crewperson.

Additionally, the new 32 has a couple features that no proper oceangoing cruiser can be without. Last seen on our now-retired Columbia, 32 carries a tender on her deckhouse that is an actual separate 2 person rowing dinghy in her own right. Touch the deckhouse tender to rez either port or starboard-side (naturally parcel rez permissions needed, this is SL after all)

The Tender

Something else is afoot in this Trudeau offering. The HUD gives a clue:

Check out that windspeed scale – 80 meters/sec! That’s like 160 knots. WTF, Trudeau? The other clue is the Reef 2 setting on the 32:

Trudeau 32 storm sails

Yes, that’s a storm jib and a trysail main. Two more things no proper oceangoing cruiser can be without.

Throw a wind setting like this at the 32:

/1 set wind 0 40 20 2 1

That much wind on any SL boat (Trudeaus included) and you are asking for a spinning knockdown or worse. Our new Trudeau 32, like that Westsail in the perfect storm, can handle set wind speeds up to 40 m/sec (and with a 40 speed variance setting, gusts up to 80 m/sec). Make sure to reef 2 immediately!

You won’t make much headway under normal conditions in that configuration, but if you want to roleplay the entire Beaufort scale in SL, here’s your chance! It’ll be a handful in those higher winds and only the storm jib luffs to give indication of proper trim, but it can be done. (tip: dump wind often!) Maybe this will open up a new category of SL regattas – “survival!”

What else to say? Skipper, crew and passenger sit locations for the 32 and tender:

Sit targets

Are those adult couple anims in the passenger sits? We’ve heard those are popular ;) Boatyard jackstands when rezzed over the hard. 5 built-in traditional color schemes. And, naturally….

Customization!

Downloadable templates, in .psd format, to make her your own:

Hull (including name), Rudder and Gunwales (15.3MB)

Tender Hull and Oars (19.4 MB. Make sure replace the tender in T32’s contents with your custom textured model)

Sails (60.3MB. Please see the “The Sail Customization Files and Notes on Modding” section in the “Sailing the Trudeau 32” notecard regarding changing the default sail textures)

Deck, deckhouse, hatches (62.7MB)

Hardware and rigging (86.6MB)

Spars (1.3MB)

Cabin Interior (21.7MB)

Dimensions

Trudeau 32 – 37.35 ft (11.38m) length on deck, 45.9 ft (14M) length overall, 13.45ft (4.1m) beam, 5.9ft (1.8m) draft.  75 land impact moored, max 84 land impact when sailing.

Tender – 10.5 ft (3.21M) length overall, 5.75ft (1.76m) beam, .6ft (.18m) draft. 4 land impact.

Jackstands – 5 land impact.

Trudeau 32 ghosting

See the Trudeau 32 inworld at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts today. Reward yourself, live a different kind of second life, the grid’s oceans are calling!

The Mystical Runa

We at Trudeau Yachts are always looking for the next inspiration. This one came from within Second Life itself. It turns out a close SL friend of Jacqueline Trudeau works in the fashion industry. Within that industry he is a designer of women’s handbags and other leather goods. Within that job description he reports to those at the top of the fashion houses where he works.  For a time the very top of this particular fashion house was Yves Carcelle, a well respected executive and by all accounts well loved within the organization he headed.  But business and fashion was not the only thing Monsieur Carcelle lived for.  His passion was sailing, and in particular the sailboats of Danish designer Gerhard Rønne (1879-1955).  Rønne was a building architect, but also a passionate yachtsman who designed and oversaw the building of 10 yachts (6 for himself) beginning in 1910, all christened Runa (from I to X).

“It’s a name I found within myself. It indicates ‘rune’ – a little mystical. I am also aware that it has a nice sound to it”. — Gerhard Rønne ¹

Over the decades the Runa yachts were well tended to, sailed by humble everyday sailors to those of more noble standing, including an ex-commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, the son of a prestigious French pastry chef, a top Portuguese financier. ²

Fast forward a century later to 2009.  Carcelle, with his keen eye for classic beauty, acquired two of the five extant Runa yachts, the yawl Runa IV (1918) and cutter Runa VI (1927).  He commissioned beautiful stem to stern restorations of both and were relaunched in 2011 and 2013 respectively.

Monsieur Carcelle actively participated both restored Runas in classic yachting regattas, but sadly about this time he was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer which took his life in 2014.  One of his last acts was the commissioning of the book La Saga des Runa,  a history of the Runas and an ode to all things Gerhard Rønne.

Yves Carcelle at the helm of Runa VI

This brings us back to Jacqueline’s SL friend.  As mentioned, he was one of Carcelle’s lieutenants, a sailing enthusiast himself and a personal eyewitness to Carcelle’s fleet of Runa yachts. “Jacqueline, il faut construire Runa!”  One quick google of the boats and it was absolutely agreed. But which one? Since we hadn’t done a multi-masted mesh yacht yet, it had to be the topsail yawl Runa IV.

Runa IV

The Trudeau Runa IV

Working from the Runa plans, it didn’t take long to get the basics in place.

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But that’s when the fun began. In keeping with the authenticity of the Runa, not only the sailplan but things like the rope lashings that make fast sails to spars, multi-part sheets for all sails, blocks and tackles for the gaff halyards, etc. would have to be modeled, and scripted to move in concert with every angle of sail trim. (if some of you are wondering why this boat has been under construction for longer than it would take to build the RL version, that is a good part of the reason why!)

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(and a big thanks to our beta-testers who revealed that what we originally thought was scripted to move in concert with every angle of sail trim wasn’t quite so!)

We added a Danish-finish inspired cabin interior, also based on the RL Runa:

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One slight change, in addition to the aft quarter single berths we added a forward double vee-berth in place of the head in the RL Runa. Because everyone in SL knows, avatars need sleep more than those other bodily functions :-) There are a total of 34  53 (v1.1) sit, sleep, above deck lounging and cuddle animations in the cabin. Headroom is at a premium, so you may have to belay that beehive hair-do before going belowdecks ;-) (Seeing water in the cabin? This is the explanation)

Underway, there are seating positions for skipper and 2 crewpersons  – 1 heel-offsetting hike position per side for the skipper, 3 per side for each crewperson.

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Other features of the Trudeau Runa IV include

• Our should-have-been patented in-world luffing Tru-Sails.
• 1 reefing setting (douses the jib and main topsail).
• Wing and wing foresails for additional oomph when running before the wind.
• Half a dozen built-in traditional color schemes.
• Auto-rezzing boatyard jack stands (28LI).

Customization!

As with all Trudeau yachts, Runa IV is modify permission-ed allowing you to make her your own. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the:

Hull Parts (hull  – including the transom and boat name face, rudder and tiller 5.1MB)

Sails (all  – including jib, staysail, mainsail, topsail, mizzen, main/mizzen furl 20.4MB *Please read how to apply in the “Sailing the Trudeau Runa IV” card that comes with the boat*)

Bowsprit (including boomkin, hardware, stays, chainlinks, etc 17.1MB)

Decks (including gunwales 13.1MB)

Deck furniture (including cabin, cockpit, coamings, hatches, skylight, etc 26.2MB)

Spars (including mast, booms, gaffs, halyards, stays, turnbuckle, etc 29MB)

(additional templates for other boat parts will be coming soon)

Dimensions:

Trudeau Runa IV – 85 prim equivalent , 51.66 ft (15.75m) length on deck, 75.85 ft (23.12M) length overall, 12.13ft (3.7m) beam, 7.5ft (2.3m) draft.  85 land impact moored, max 95 land impact when sailing.

Come view her at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts and see if you are ready for a sail into the mystic.

Runa Ghosting

¹ ² The Runa Saga

The 12 Metre Sit Targets In Detail

We’ve have been getting reports that the 12 Metre crew locations are hard to access, that no matter where you click to sit you end up in the skipper or below decks positions. We’ve included sit target graphics in the 12 Metre Sailing Guide, in this card we’ll expand on that information along with other do’s and dont’s.

The 12M contains 7 sit targets – the skipper, 4 active crew sits, and 2 belowdecks cuddle sits. The skipper and active crew are controlled by Trudeau developed scripts that allow multiple port-starboard positioning increments to help offset the heeling force of the wind. The 2 belowdecks targets contain the ubiquitous AVSitter scripts that present the user with a menu of contained animations and gives the ability to adjust position and rotation.

Skipper

The skipper position is the entire boat (except for the other 6 targets), best accessed by “sitting” directly on the boat’s steering wheel.

Skipper sit position

If you successfully targeted that sit, you’ll receive the “Welcome aboard, skipper…” message.

Active Crew

These crew members use the <left> and <right> keyboard arrow keys in adjusting their position to help counteract the boat’s heeling force. The 4 active crew positions are the cockpit coamings, deck house, skylight and base of the mast.

For the deck house, skylight and base of mast positions the sit scripts and animations are contained in an invisible prim that envelops the visual part and enlarges the sit target (for the cockpit coaming, the script is contained in the mesh prim itself).  The graphics below show the outlines of the actual sit target prims:

Crew Position 1 – Cockpit

Position 2 – Deckhouse

Position 3 – Skylight

Position 4 – Base of Mast

Make sure you and your crew are as precise as can be when targeting your sit clicks.  For the cockpit, the compass housing might be an easier target “hit”.

There are a couple of caveats for these sit target prims.  The out of the box transparency setting for them is 99% – Do NOT set them fully 100% transparent – that seems to make them no longer targets for sit clicks. The second is do NOT change the value in the prim’s Description field (-1). The AVSitter system used belowdecks seems to want to take control of the entire primset, any prim you sit on will be controlled by it’s sit target code.  The -1 value in a prim’s description tells AVSitter to exclude that prim from it’s control.

If you find yourself “floating” above the deck in the various crew locations, realize the animations were developed for a specific AV size and in SL one size does not fit all.  Each sit prim contains a card – “sit config” that allows you to adjust the default distance of the animation from the prim:

offset=<-1.35,0.0,-0.2>  ‘Fore/Aft, Port/Star, Up/Down

We recommend that you not adjust the Port/Star setting as that will throw off the hiking increment visuals.

Relaxed Crew

Finally, the belowdecks AVSitter system.  This is the selection of sits and couples cuddles animations that do not effect the boat’s trim and are accessed by sitting on the port and starboard cabin settees:

Settee Sit Targets

These scripts take a while to completely load all of the contained animation’s offset and rotation settings. Make sure the “Loading x%” hovertext is completed before trying to access these animations:

Wait until the message goes away before using these animations

Null Key Animation Script Errors

For the “Could not find animation ‘00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000′” script errors, this is originally covered in this blog’s FAQ .  If a viewer restart doesn’t clear that up, a viewer cache clear will.

Finalmente

 

Is that Jacqueline Trudeau and friends sailing off into the sunset?  It just seems that way. You don’t want to know when we first started this boat. Okay, Okay… it was June…. June of 2013. Yikes. Time flies (actually it crawls) when you are scripting main and jibsheet movement.

Finally

Introducing Trudeau’s return to the “big boats”, our 12 Metre racer/cruiser, our first new boat in nearly 2 years. Based on the real life 12 Metre class, the yachts that raced in the America’s Cup competition for nearly 30 years from the 1950s through the 1980s, the Trudeau 12 Metre is an accurate scale model of these celebrated boats.

Only 12 meters? I thought you said “Big Boats”

Yes! It’s more like 70-80 ft in length – “12 metres” doesn’t indicate the boat’s length, but rather the result of a complex formula whose variables include waterline length, sail area, beam, freeboard, “girth” (the measurement taken around the boat from one sideboard, under the keel, and then over the top on the opposite side back to the original side) – boats designed to this class were first built in 1907.

The America’s Cup competition, suspended during the second world war, when resumed more economical vessels were needed  to replace the huge and expensive J-class yachts that were raced in the 1930s; the 12 Metre class was selected.  We also selected the 12 Metre as a successor to our popular J-Class boat, they are similar in inworld size (the real world J Class boats were nearly twice the size of the 12 Metres).

Size is about the only quality in common between the Trudeau J-class and Trudeau 12 Metre.  Our 12 Metre is constructed of mesh, her lines and detailing are completely accurate and taken from the 1937 wooden 12 Metre “Trivia” (whose wonderful site can be found here), she has animated running rigging, full complement of sails – main, jib, genoa, spinnnaker – and many other details.

All Aboard!

The Trudeau 12M  can carry up to 5 people including her skipper.  The skipper position is “sitting” on the wheel prim (or anywhere on the hull), the other crew/passenger sit locations are the cockpit coamings, deck house, skylight and base of the mast.  See the sit positions graphic:

Of course it wouldn’t be a Trudeau boat if all aboard didn’t help offset heeling by hiking out in several positions, so they do!

In addition to the working crew positions, there is a wide selection of sits and couples cuddles animations in the full cabin that do not effect the boat’s trim. These are accessed by sitting on the cabin’s port and starboard settees:

Other now-standard Trudeau features include:

• Our should-have-been patented in-world luffing Tru-Sails
• Half a dozen built-in traditional color schemes.
• Auto-rezzing boatyard jack stands (16LI)
• Half hull model

Flood Insurance!

You’ve probably noticed a lot of full cabin boats in Second Life have quite high freeboard (the distance between the boat’s waterline and sheer). SL boat designers face the same issue that RL boat designers do – attempt to get the maximum cabin headroom while still maintaining a pleasing and efficient profile. One technique used is lowering the cabin sole (the floor of the cabin).  SL boat designers face an issue that RL ones don’t have to – Second Life water is not displaced by Second Life prims.  We kept our 12M profile in proportions to that of RL 12 Metre yachts with their racer’s low freeboard and subsequently ended up with much of her cabin below the waterline.  Since SL prims don’t (and likely never will) have water displacing properties, we used the old “masking” texture to keep most of the water from the cabin when moored. It works fairly well, but there are two drawbacks with this method.

First, the masking texture also masks avatar parts (remember the invisiprims that came with your old prim shoes?)  So any part of your AV, such as your legs, that dangle below the cabin water mask will be cut off.  We took this into account when developing and selecting all of the boat’s animations.

Second, setting your viewer’s “Advanced Lighting Model” option for enabling shadows negates the effect of the masking texture on most viewers (the Dolphin Viewer does display masking textures with advanced lighting enabled).  So if you have ALM on and not running Dolphin, your 12M cabin will likely look like this:

Sigh (again). One step forwards (mesh), one step backwards (shadows). Why can’t we have it all?

Customization!

As with all Trudeau boats, 12M is modify permission-ed allowing you to make her your own. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the:

Hull Parts (hull – rudder uses hull texture – and transom and boat name 1.9MB)

Sails (all  – including mainsail, jib, genoa, spinnaker and main furl 21.2MB *Please read how to apply in the Sailing Guide*)

Spars (including mast, mast spreaders, boom and spinnaker pole, gooseneck hardware, boot 14.7MB)

Deck (fore and aft templates – also includes cockpit which has a portion of the deck 13.1MB)

Deck Parts (lots of goodies! – deck house, companionway, skylight, hatches, winches, boom crotch, etc, etc… let me know if you want anything that’s missing 45.8MB)

Cabin Interior (everything! 27.5MB)

Dimensions:

Trudeau 12 Metre – 92 prim equivalent , 82 ft (25m) length, 14.2ft (4.33m) beam, 11.5ft (3.5m) draft

See her inworld at Trudeau Classic Yachts

Very Fine Art

Resident Yany O’Real (yany.oh) does fantastic SL themed artwork.  He got hold of some Trudeau boats and here’s what he came up with.  I think they are amazing, Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer don’t have a thing on Yany. :)

If you see Yany inworld, give him a shout out.

Patch Patched

 

(Newest Note: Patchogue II release will be Sunday July 7, 7AM SLT)

New Note: the Second SOL Regatta has been extended past June 23, so the Patchogue II release date has been pushed back as well. Please check back here for the updated release date.  Very soon now…..

Note: The Trudeau Patchogue II was chosen as the class boat for the 2013 Second Sol Regatta (A Sail4Life Fundraising Race Event).  The Patchogue II will available to the general public at the conclusion of the regatta, June 23)

Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts is transitioning to new building materials.  Don’t worry traditionalists, it’s not and never will be fiberglass, carbon fiber, molded polystyrene, polyethylene or any other yucky petroleum based product.  Mesh has taken over the SL grid and we have succumbed as well (yeah about time, Trudeau!).

But boy are we glad we did in our all new Patchogue II, our “mostly mesh” rework of our popular original Patchogue catboat from 2009.  Everything we said about the origins of that boat applies here, and doubly so.  We took the body plan from Gil Smith’s masterpiece Lucille and molded our mesh hull to it’s stations and profile.

The result was a RL lines-accurate SL boat hull, something not possible in prims or sculpts. Yay for mesh!

Bail!

Now Patch II, this lines-accurate model of the iconic Gilbert Smith design (and much more accurate than our previous Patchogue), has a very low profile. In fact, much of her cockpit is below the waterline.  Since SL prims don’t (and likely never will) have water displacing properties, we used the old “masking” texture to keep most of the water from the cockpit when sailing relatively level. It works fairly well, but there are two drawbacks with this method.

First, the masking texture also masks avatar parts (remember the invisiprims that came with your old prim shoes?)  So any part of your AV, such as your legs, that dangle below the cockpit water mask will be cut off (yo ho, me hearties, get your peglegs!).  We took this into account when developing all of the boat’s animations.

Second, setting your viewer’s “Advanced Lighting Model” option for enabling shadows negates the effect of the masking texture.  So if you have shadows on, your Patch II will look like this:

Sigh. One step forwards (mesh), one step backwards (shadows). Why can’t we have it all?

Meshed Up!

There are a bunch of features we’d found neither possible or practical on previous non-mesh boats such as the highly detailed rigging, sail furls on the boom when reefed and a working (woo-hoo!) mainsheet.  Not for nothing is she a 50-some prim equivalent.

All Aboard!

Patchogue II  can carry up to 4 people including her skipper.  The skipper position is “sitting” on the tiller prim (or either cockpit bench), the other crew/passenger sit locations are the top of the centerboard trunk and the fore and aft decks.  See the sit positions graphic:

Of course it wouldn’t be a Trudeau boat if all aboard didn’t help offset heeling by hiking out in several positions, so they do! Other now-standard Trudeau features include:

• Our should-have-been patented in-world luffing Tru-Sails
• Half a dozen built-in traditional color schemes.
• 2 sail reef points.
• Rezzing mooring buoy.
• Rezzing boatyard cradle.

Customization!

As with all Trudeau boats, Patch II is modify permission-ed allowing you to make her your own. These are the links to the Photoshop PSD templates for the:

Hull Parts (including backbone, decks, rudder/tiller, cockpit and boat name 13.1MB)

Bright (wood planking) Hull Parts (including backbone, decks, rudder/tiller, cockpit and boat name 16.6MB)

Spars (mast, boom, gaff and mast hoops 9.52MB)

Sail (including mainsail, reefed and moored furls 11.25MB)

Dimensions:

Trudeau Patchogue II – 55 prim equivalent , 26.5 ft (8.1m) LOD, 9.2ft (2.8m) beam, 3.9ft (1.2m) draft (board down)

The Francois Jacques Release Fundraiser

A HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to all the Second Life Sailors who turned out at the Nantucket Yacht Clubhouse on Saturday, Nov 17 for the Trudeau “Francois Jacques” release fundraising event benefiting the American Red Cross.

Due to your many boat purchases, amazing auction bids (wow, wow, wow BennyThe Boozehound!) and other very generous donations we were able to raise nearly L$300,000 for this cause in just over three hours! A US$1200.00 donation was made in Francois Jacques’ name.

Special thanks go out to BennyThe Boozehound for DJing and providing his wonderful musical selections, Gemma Vuckovic for providing the NYC clubhouse and Nomad Zamani, the NYC Estate owner.

As a resident in the area hardest hit by Sandy, I can attest to the immense damage that storm did to peoples lives. Please consider making additional donations:

You can help people affected by disasters like Superstorm Sandy by making a donation to support American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

For Francois

Francois Jacques in Second Life

Event time/date changed! Please note:

Earlier versions of this page had the release event scheduled for Sunday Nov 11, 1PM SLT.  That is now incorrect.  Hurricane Sandy knocked out the power at Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts for a week, so we’ve rescheduled the event for Saturday, Nov 17, 1PM SLT at the Nantucket Yacht Club clubhouse.  Sorry for any inconvenience caused – please do plan on attending!

We’ve also changed the charity for the event to Hurricane Sandy relief oriented, the American Red Cross.

This last summer, sailors across the Second Life seas were both shocked and saddened upon learning of the passing of the beloved member of the SL Sailing community, Francois Jacques. Co-founder and Commodore of the Nantucket Yacht Club, United Sailing Sims principal, regatta organizer, advocate of sailing for the entire SL community in the Come Sail With Us centers, it’s no exaggeration in saying that sailing would not be the popular SL recreation it has become without Francois’ passion and dedication.

Speaking personally, I was both lucky and blessed to have known Francois since 2005.  She was an enthusiastic supporter of the Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts before there was a Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts.  She happened to spy me test sailing the clump of prims that became our first boat, the Trudeau 32, and wanted to know if she could buy it.  When it was available, she was Trudeau’s first customer and always among the very first to snap up each subsequent release, eponymously naming each boat “Francois Jacques” (I know because I made the name textures for her! :)  Later, Francois was a beta tester for Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts, providing valuable feedback based on her vast experience in sailing the SL seas in all kinds and makes of boats. She was the one who suggested to us the boat that became the Trudeau One. I tried to explain to her that we didn’t take requests. She was persistent, and boy I am glad she was!

In the same spirit of Francois’ named Trudeaus, we are christening this latest boat Francois Jacques in her memory. I showed her a very early (static, non-sailing) build of it and she liked it a lot. Francois, I hope the final version meets your approval as well.

Come Contribute!

In addition to Francois’ work with the nuts and bolts of SL sailing, she was a tireless organizer of the Sail For Life/Relay For Life fundraising events. Not only did she arrange donations for many of the SFL silent auctions, as often as not she was high bidder herself!

In that spirit, Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts, in conjunction with Nantucket Yacht Club, will release the Francois Jacques in a special fundraising event, Saturday, Nov 17, 1PM SLT at the Nantucket Yacht Club clubhouse. A portion of the proceeds from every Francois Jacques purchased at the event will benefit the American Red Cross in their Hurricane Sandy relief effort.. There will also be a silent auction for a one-of-a-kind personalized custom build, Francois Jacques hull #1, 100% of that proceed to benefit the American Red Cross. Plan now to attend and buy for yourself, buy for your friends at this worthwhile event.

The Trudeau Francois Jacques

The Francois Jacques under full sail

The Francois Jacques under full sail

Now a little about the boat. The Trudeau Francois Jacques lines and sailplan (5 sails – main, jib, staysail, gaff and jib topsails) are based on the NG Herreshoff revolutionary design from 1891, “Gloriana”. Gloriana is really the boat that got captain Nat on the map, her design with the long overhangs and cutaway forefoot took such advantage of the waterline length and sail area rating rules of the day, it allowed her to destroy every other boat in her class in the only season she raced. Her owner retired her after 8 races (all 8 wins) in a show of good sportsmanship. Needless to say, she was hugely influential in subsequent racing designs of the era, including the Herreshoff America’s Cup Champions Vigilant (1893), Defender (1895), Columbia (1899 & 1901), Reliance (1903) and Resolute (1920).

Francois Jacques Nameplate

Our version of Gloriana, the Francois Jacques, is scaled down from that 70ft LOA Herreshoff racer. Francois Jacques has a spacious cockpit outfitted in comfortable Victorian era tufted cushions. She also has a cozy cuddy cabin that sleeps two, making her ideal for cruising as well as racing. She carries a skipper and up to 2 additional crew/passengers. The crew sits (coaming, aft cabin wall) have a menu (similar to our NY30) for crew / cabin locations, with 3 crew heel offsets and animations per side.

Skipper and crew sits

Francois Jacques Crew

Francois Jacques Cabin

Wing and wing

Touch the sat-upon prim to redisplay the animation menu.  Selecting the “crew” option choice gives the crewperson the opportunity to help trim the boat for maximum performance in the usual Trudeau fashion, shifting their location from port to starboard (3 increments per side) using the keyboard L-R arrows.

All 5 sails, fantastically sculpted by the talented Bunnie Mills,  feature the Trudeau “tru-sail” luffing animations. You can deploy and stow the topsails as reefing measures and wing out the headsails for extra downwind running oomph.

Customization and Template Links

There are several built-in color combinations, all actual traditional color schemes found in the RL Herreshoff fleet of yachts. But as always, Trudeau provides you with texture templates for those who wish to make their own:

Hull and Rudder (2.7MB)

Deck and Parts (10MB)

Mast and Parts (9.3MB)

Name (307KB)

Sails (17.7MB)

(please look in your “Sailing the Trudeau Francois Jacques” notecard for example script and notecard for overriding FJ’s built-in sail textures)

Extra Goodies

The Trudeau Francois Jacques has the built-in mooring buoy, cradle when autorezzed over the hard, half-hull display model for your SL home. A box of international yachting flags to update your ensign is also included.

The Francois Jacques is available for your inspection at the Trudeau boatyard and initial availability at the Nantucket Yacht Club on Saturday, Nov 17. Come! (SURLs below)

Trudeau Classic Yachts

Nantucket Yacht Club

Dimensions

While constructed of sculpted and regular prims (not mesh), she uses the new SL object weighting model.

Land impact – 53 prims.
65.25ft (19.9m) LOA, 34.75ft (10.6m) LWL, 10.9ft (3.34m) beam, 8.73ft (2.66m) draft.
Cradle – 11 prims

New York, New York … A Helluva Boat!

If there’s anything predictable about Second Life, it’s inventory loss, sim crossing horrors, lifetime commitments lasting all of a week… and another Herreshoff-designed yacht from the Trudeau Classic Sailing Yachts boatyards.

Legendary yacht designer N. G. Herreshoff (Captain Nat), when he wasn’t building America’s Cup winners, designed several club boats over the years for the well-heeled members of the New York Yacht Club – models 30, 40, 55 and 70 feet on the waterline. This time we’ve set our sights back to 1905 and the New York 30, definitely the most beloved and well-preserved of these one design-classes.  For the sum of $4,000 (close to $100,000 today), the NYYC member who bought the boat received a vessel that was ready to race and cruise, delivered complete – from sails to awnings to a sounding lead, two anchors, and full set of china for the cupboards.

Though many of the NY30s were used for cruising, with their speed, weatherliness, and ability to carry sail, the NY 30s had the sleek lines and overhangs of a racing yacht whose purpose is to go fast–and fast they did go. They were usually raced with a paid crew, two of a five man complement. In addition to the their paid salary, the paid crew shared in the prize money – one dollar for a start, four dollars for a first place finish, three for second and two dollars for a third. Those gilded age tycoons – a generous lot, no?!? ;) OK, that four dollars is about a hundred bucks today (and no income tax), but still – we are talking the JP Morgans of the world, the original .01 per-centers.

The Herreshoff NY 30 was one of the most cherished designs of the Golden Era of Yachting. Today the 30s still exist as a one-design racing class .Of the original 18, 11 are either still being sailed today or awaiting restoration. Amazing for a wooden boat over 100 years old.  And please check out the class site at www.ny30.org for more info and history.

Our New York 30

The Trudeau interpretation is, like everything in SL, somewhat scaled up – our 30 is actually closer to a 50. Like the real life original, she’s sloop rigged with a loose club on the jib. Naturally, her sails feature the Trudeau Tru-Sail luffing animations. For extra oomph, wing the jib out on runs (NY30 is command compatible with our other gaff sloop, the Trudeau 12).   You might notice the lack of reeflines on our model and in the historical photo at the top of this article. As Herreshoff historian Maynard Bray tells it, “…for more than a century now New York 30s have been raced and sailed in all kinds of weather, and, with their original gaff-sloop rigs, enjoyed a reputation for never having to the reefed, no matter how hard it blew.”

Customers have asked for a version of our popular Knockabout gaffer sloop (with a cabin and vee-berth that sleeps two), but somewhat larger. Well, here she is!  The NY30 is the largest Trudeau non-attachable with a full cabin (she sleeps 4!) and we’ve emphasized that feature with easy access to a plethora of animation selections. In addition to the skipper (sit location, the usual – tiller. Or anywhere on the deck or hull), there are 4 crew/passenger locations – the cockpit coamings, the cockpit tub edge, the cabin house top, the forward deck hatch. The sitter is presented a menu of redirected sit locations/animations.

Touch the sat-upon prim to redisplay the animation menu. Try them out! (you’ll find some may overlap). Selecting the “crew” option choice gives the crewperson the opportunity to help trim the boat for maximum performance in the usual Trudeau fashion, shifting their location from port to starboard (3 increments per side) using the keyboard L-R arrows. As also in the real life original, The Trudeau NY30 can carry a complement of 5 – skipper plus 4 crewpersons (you decide how much to pay your paid hands!)  There are other animations to help those paid hands earn their pay (mop and bucket included)

The cabin, outfitted in Edwardian period-correct raised panel joinery and tufted upholstery, is the place for relaxing after a day of sailing or upkeep for owner and crew alike (just remember, two is company, three is… well, there’s room for three… and four, too!). The cabin windows are scripted to alternate between glass and curtains for “privacy”.

Customization and Template Links

There are 7 built-in color combinations, all actual traditional color schemes found in the RL Herreshoff fleet of yachts (yes, even that green2!). But as always, Trudeau provides you with texture templates for those who wish to make their own:

Hull and Rudder (2.4MB)
Sails (including furled main) (15.8MB)
Name (205KB)
Deck (14.8MB)
Parts a bunch of other textures including interior (43MB)

(please look in your “Sailing the Trudeau New York 30” notecard for example script and notecard for overriding NY30’s built-in sail textures)

Extra Goodies

The Trudeau New York 30 has built-in mooring buoy (yes, those are half-hitch knots making fast the lines ;),  cradle autorezzed over the hard, half-hull display model for your SL home.

The New York 30 is available for your inspection at all-new Trudeau boatyard (use the SURL below). New York Yacht Club membership not included – who needs it!

Trudeau Classic Yachts

Dimensions

Land impact – 32 prims (sit locations for skipper and a crew of four)
70ft (21.4m) LOA, 47ft (14.3m) LWL, 12.5ft (3.8m) beam, 10.1ft (3.1m) draft. (yeah, she’s big)
Cradle – 22 prims

Special thanks, as always, to Bunnie Mills for her exquisite modeling work and help in making this boat a virtual reality!

The Trudeau Catboat Epicurus

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.