Sailboats - MF-246 - B&B Yacht Designs

----This is a new design that will be available soon in the form of Plans and Templates---

I have been designing the Matthew Flinders for myself for more than a decade off and on, long before we did the Mk3's. What I was trying to achieve was to design the ultimate small voyaging boat that could easily be trailed behind a reasonable size vehicle and yet be be capable of crossing any ocean. She had to be built tough and live well for two people with room for a third person. She is not intended to replace the mk3's as they are great boats, but for anyone who wants to go up to the next level.

I went through hundreds of iterations till I finally got it and I am very pleased with final outcome. As you can imagine I am really excited to see her come to life with Jay and Carol.

I started at 22 feet and it finally grew to 23'4" as I massaged the ergonomics. When Jay ordered the boat, I did a lot of thinking about his comfort plus I had some interest from people who are a lot larger than me so at the last minute I scaled her by 5% to give 6'4' headroom with the final length at 24'6". If anyone has to have 6'6" headroom they can raise the cabin sides.

I am still planning to build the 23'4" version. One of the things that I worked hard on was the range of stability. She has positive stability to 180 degrees which more than meets the EU ISO rules for ocean sailing. I have attached one of the many stability curves that I made with the red and blue curves showing a best and worst case vertical center of gravity. That is to allow for builders to make their own modifications and still meet the high range of stability. I was also able to calculate the Flicka A well known small cruising boat, @ 20 degrees for comparison.