A Race To Remember

The 2017 Everglades Challenge.

- J.F. Bedard

The design

Most people know about the Everglades Challenge by now. Every winter, the RAID-class dash from Tampa to Key Largo, Florida, gathers paddlers and sailors from all around the country; I’ve had an eye on it for the longest time. 2017 it was going to be. We were finally settled just north of Tampa, with a running design shop, a CNC-table and a big stack of plywood.

First decision: what type of boat to design? Multi or mono, big or small, single or split rig, modern or traditional? After a little research I settle on a monohull, cat ketch rig, as small as practically possible. Since every design is a compromise, I decide early where I’ll give and where I will not: I want a small cruiser with excellent stability, comfortable at anchor, and that moves. Every other design characteristics will revolve around and be secondary to those primary ones. The result is RoG, “River of Grass” (see details in SCA #103, plan study section). I followed what I called the Honda-Civic-concept: With their limited size, compact cars are extensively studied to maximize comfort, freedom of movement and spaciousness in relation to the human body. This would translate well to a microcruiser, so I took a few steps outside the box, most notably the convertible forward table/V-berth. Large enough for a full-size map, it allows the sailor to sit facing forward, and also doubles as a comfortable sleeping platform. A bonus would be not to have to bum-rotate awkwardly in-and-out of a quarter berth.

The build