10.00 m
32' 10"

Cruiser-racer sailboat Moondance Yachts
MOONDANCE 30

Though classic sailing boats are generally considered in this day and age to be heavy and slow, we also find some wonderful examples of light displacement and seaworthy boats from the drawing boards of some of the doyens of classic yacht design. Laurent Giles, Uffa Fox and Ricus van der Stadt come to mind. The Royal Cape One Design designed by Van der Stadt in the 1950's is a thirty footer that still holds some coastal records in South Africa and recently came third on handicap in the Cape to Bahia South Atlantic race. The boat, Suidoos, is half the age of the eighty years old skipper, Gawie Fagan. The seaworthiness of this design is unquestionable and her performance awesome. With lightness comes ease of sail handling, getting out of troubled spots fast and lower costs associated with smaller equipment.

Her light displacement, long waterline, flat aft sections, submerged transom, relatively narrow beam and large sail area, ensure both speed as well as easy handling in rough seas. The easy curvature and straightness of the diagonals indicate to a well-balanced and fast hull. Her fine entry angle and narrow beam will make her cut through the water on a beat with ease. Her displacement/length ratio is below 100 and her sail area/displacement ratio of just over 26 will ensure good light wind performance and exhilarating performance in a breeze. She should be fun to sail, easy to sail and maneuver, safe and strong and, above all simple in function and form.

She accommodates a couple and is my ideal boat for cruising in the Mediterranean. The large sail area can be reduced with the slab reefing and a roller-furling jib. She is also an ideal daysailer with her large cockpit that accommodates four adults with ease.

The preferred building method is wood composite with Western red cedar core and epoxy glassed inside and out. The rest is marine ply and epoxy glass. We can also build her with a core-cell core. She is constructed on CNC cut male frames. In addition, the bulkheads and furniture create a strong monocoque structure. Vacuum bagging and post-curing guarantee a light and strong boat. Despite the fact that scantlings are over specified, the painted hull, for example, weighs only 340 kg. Lightness and strength is emphasized. The styling is classic with a strong shear line, low freeboard, Mahogany cabin sides, tiller, toe rails, hand rails and cockpit coamings. The deck is painted with anti-slip paint (Awlcraft or similar). An over specified welded steel keel foil with bolted on lead bulb and a hard-wood core with epoxy glass rudder, gives peace of mind. All foils and the bulb are NACA sections optimized for maximum lift and reduced drag. The transom-hung rudder is balanced.

Moondance 30 has a well balanced 9/10th rig placed towards the center of the boat with single swept-back spreaders (22 degrees). The small 105% jib and the large fully battened main assists in ease of handling the sails. A large Code "O" will ensure excellent broad reaching. She should be able to generate sufficient apparent wind to make dead running obsolete. She comes with a small storm jib and the main can be reefed to 12 sqm for gale force winds. Her Dellenbaugh angle of 17 degrees will, nevertheless, make her quite stiff.

More specifications...