About Dick Newick 1926..2013
by Dick Newick
Newick's plans are the result of over forty nine years of designing, building, and sailing all types of multihulls, starting with a catamaran and several trimarans in my Caribbean day charter business, one of which is still sailing. Fiberglass sheathed plywood with strip planking below the waterline was the usual construction then. Present designs can be built of fiberglass and epoxy with cedar or foam core, using Kevlar or carbon fiber as the budget allows.
Most of these designs are made one at a time by small shops or by their owners. Conventional wisdom says that mass production boats are the best value. Not necessarily! They are usually found in the middle of the quality scale. The best boats are still built one at a time by proud craftsmen with modest overhead budgets, (as it is ashore; tract houses suit some people, but most of us prefer individually built homes).
Safe, seagoing performance and good looks are Newick design priorities. No waterfront cottages! High performance is an overused and often purposely vague advertising term. As used by me, it means the ability to sail safely and comfortably, faster than winds up to about 14 knots and to achieve over 20 knots in ideal conditions with a minimum of effort. The primary reason to buy a Newick design is to SAIL!
We all want high performance with comfort and low cost. Since the three cannot be combined in one vessel, priorities must be established and compromises made. Seagoing comfort can be very different from what is comfortable in a marina. Too often comfort is defined merely as interior volume. I prefer to consider three factors: (1) easy motion in a seaway, (2) peace of mind, and (3) interior volume. Who can be comfortable with the environment and stomach jumping around while concerned about stability, slamming, or worse? Waterline beam is closely related to both speed and easy motion at sea. A beam to length ratio of about 1 to 11 has worked well on my designs. For wider cabin soles we give up seagoing performance. Before making that decision, it is desirable to go to sea in a good boat to experience the trade-off. The same can be said for daggerboards vs. shallow keels. Windward ability is proportional to draft. Knowing the joy of going to windward at 10 knots comfortably can change your design priorities. Stock designs can often be economically modified for your exact requirements.
Cheers,
Dick Newick
Born May 9, 1926 in Hackensack, N.J.
Died Aug. 28, 2013 in Sebastopol, Califonia, at age 87.
