PETE GOSS DESIGNING OUR PERFECT BOAT

The legendary offshore yachtsman talks us through the design of his latest boat

- Pete Goss

Designing my own boats has resulted in a series of different craft, ranging from small, high-performance multihulls through to a sea kayak, a Cornish lugger, a huge futuristic catamaran and a swing keel Open 50. In parallel, Tracey and I have had several cruising boats spanning a wonderful family Prout Snowgoose through to a Garcia 45 Exploration, called Pearl of Penzance. Although all of them had to please our eye there was no common thread to be found when it came to their style.

What they shared was that they were each a functional solution to deliver a clearly defined vision; something that I believe to be crucial when making that final commitment to a boat or design. Romantic notions must be swept aside by a laser-like focus on what you want to do at a granular level. The DNA of your vessel should be the nitty gritty stuff that is so often left beyond its chance to influence the whole. This, to me, is the only way to avoid those lingering ‘if only’ frustrations that haunt so many a sailor’s wake.

LASER VISION

A craft is a tool, an enabler of dreams. Even the smallest lack of clarity about your proposed dream and approach to living aboard will multiply exponentially as practical and budgetary compromises, layer by layer, dictate the boat. The challenge is to land the end product in as tight a radius to that vision as possible.

Oddity, our final boat is a case in point. Tracey and I had just spent two-and-a-half wonderfully life-affirming years cruising the North Atlantic on