Moore 24
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The Moore 24 is a type of sailboat.
Designed by Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
surfer/sailor, George Olson, it is one of the first ultralight displacement sailboats, or ULDBs entering production in 1972. This design, along with the Santa Cruz 27 and Olson 30
Olson 30
- Introduction :The Olson 30 is a sailboat designed by George Olson of Santa Cruz, CA around 1978. Olson was a surfer and surfboard shaper who decided to design a 30' ultra light displacement boat while on a delivery from Honolulu to Santa Cruz on Merlin, a 68' Bill Lee designed and built ...
changed the world of performance sailing with their breakaway downwind speed. Well-founded rumor has it that George Olson was going to abandon the mold to the prototype Moore 24, Grendel, with a wild ride down a hill (in the mold of course) when it was rescued by Ron Moore and put into production. To improve on the sailing characteristics of Grendel, Moore used jacks to pry apart the original narrow-beam hull tooling, increasing the maximum beam by about one foot to 6'8". This resulted in the characteristic asymmetry of the Moore 24, where one half of the boat is about 2½" wider than the other. Despite this irregularity, Moore 24s appear to sail similarly on each tack.
This fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
is used primarily for racing
Racing
A sport race is a competition of speed, against an objective criterion, usually a clock or to a specific point. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time...
and fast daysailing. In June of 1975, the second hull out of the mold was sailed from Santa Cruz to Honolulu by David Ingalls and Jan Lippen-Holtz, thus demonstrating its seaworthiness. In the 1980 Singlehanded Transpac, three yellow Moore 24s were entered in the biennial race from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii, sailed by Lester Robertson, Bob Boyes, and Chuck Hawley. It is said that, under the right set of conditions, a Moore 24 could beat a Transpac 52 to Hawaii, although that set of conditions ranks 3 standard deviations away from the mean.
Construction
The Moore 24 is constructed of vacuum-bagged fiberglass and balsa composite hull and deck structure with a Bruynzeel plywood interior. Of particular interest is the main bulkhead, which has a circular passage allowing access to the forepeak. The original hulls were partially cored in the bow and aft central portion of the hull. Later models had a complete balsa-cored hull. There are two quarterberths aft, and the forepeak can be outfitted with cushions to create a small double berth. The keel is constructed out of 1,050# of lead, covered in resin and gelcoat, producing an appendage that flows seamlessly from the hull. While bolted in place, the keel is not easily removed. The rudder is a fiberglass and foam sandwich with an aluminum rudder shaft. The precision of the finishing of the rudder and keel is a testament to the skill with which these boats were built.The hull has a few design themes which make it stand out in appearance. The bow has a slight hollow, and the side view shows a reversed sheerline which maximizes interior space (such as it is). The original version had a flush deck with a small footwell for a cockpit with no coamings or seatbacks. In the late 80s a "Sport" model was introduced with a low-profile wedge deck. Four Sport models were purchased by the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
Sailing Program as one-design trainers.
The aluminum mast has a single set of spreaders, and is supported by 1x19 standing rigging. Originally the boats had double lower shrouds, but many have been converted to single lowers to allow the mast to bend more when racing. The rig is described as 15/16ths, meaning that the jibstay attaches about 18" below the masthead. This increases the power of the adjustable backstay to control the bend of the mast, and therefore the fullness of the mainsail. While the mast and boom were sourced from a number of companies, most of the later boats had spars from Ballenger Spars http://www.ballengerspars.com/, a local sparbuilder.
Approximately 160 Moore 24s have been built.
The Express 27
Express 27
The Express 27 is an ultra-light displacement sloop designed by Carl Schumacher. It was built by Terry Alsberg at Alsberg Brothers Boatworks in Santa Cruz, California from 1981 to 1988.- External links :****...
was greatly influenced by the Moore 24.
The Moore has won the Pacific Cup a race from San Francisco to Hawaii, as well as being a class and or division winner multiple times.