Rod Stephens og S&S

Sparkman & Stephens har lagt ut en uredigert og uferdig utgave av Rod Stephens bok 'Rod on Sailing, Lessons from the Sea' , hvor han deler sine erfaringer fra et langt liv som S&S 'practical man', den som sørget for at S&S-båter ble skikkelig bygget, rigget, utstyrt og seilt. Boken er desverre uten illustrasjoner, men mye kan finnes igjen i Sparkman&Stephens type plans. En klassiker fra Rod Stephens hånd er f.eks. Dorade-ventilen som ble designet til båten med samme navn. Les mer om Dorade.

Sakset fra boken:
"I heard a nice story a while ago and it might even be true. Two young fellows were walking
down a marina dock in Seattle and they saw our former old Dorade tied up there. One of the
men said to the other, “Why do you suppose anyone would name his boat after a ventilator”?
Well, that made me laugh, but it also made me feel good, because ventilation issomething that
Olin and I have always felt very strongly about in our designs. And if the Dorade ventilator
has become a basic part of sailors’ language today, then that’s fine."


"Way back in the early 30s, when Dorade was launched, we first tackled the
problem by making up four special ventilators with four-inch diameter necks and eightinch
cowls, about three, which were two and a half feet high, that screwed directly into
the deck in a waterproof deck plate. The cowls were on joints so they could be turned
away from the wind when the spray was flying. You couldn’t buy them that way, so we
had them manufactured."

"The trouble is that all these elements of the ventilator have to be designed
correctly for the idea to work right. The cowl area has to be four times that of the
standpipe - that is, twice the diameter - or else it won’t collect enough air. The box has to
be at least six inches tall or the downtake pipe can’t stick up far enough above the deck to
prevent water sloshing down it into the cabin; and the box has to be big enough so that
there is enough volume for the air and water to get separated inside it. There has to be
one good-sized scupper - at least one inch square - on each side of the after face of the
box, so the water can get out whichever way the boat is heeling, but so that a minimum
amount will get in when a sea comes aboard.

So these are the basics for good ventilation: boxes that are big enough and high
enough; vents that are tall enough and cowls that are big enough; scuppers on the after
side of the boxes."