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

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)

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.

We The Cats Shall Hep You

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!

The Third Time. A Charm?

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!

A Cat’s Second Life

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.

One, Uno, Une, Eins, Een, Ett, Satu, 日本語, 简体中文版, 한국어 …

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!

The Romance of the Sea

Discontinued

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.”