30` cruising yacht annie

THE WORLD’S BEST VOYAGING YACHTS
30’ CRUISING YACHT
ANNIE
DIMENSIONS
LOA:
LWL:
BEAM:
DRAFT:
DISPLACEMENT, 1/2 load:
BALLAST (lead):
SAIL AREA (100% foretriangle):
SAIL AREA/DISP RATIO:
DISPLACEMENT/LENGTH RATIO:
29' 8"
24' 9”
9’ 8"
4’ 6"
11,000 lbs
4,400 lbs
446 sq ft
14.43
324
This is one of the early Morris ANNIEs. She was so bloody stiff you could carry the number one genoa even in a
twenty knot squall. Which she’s about to do here.
I encountered my first Ralph Winslow “Four-Sum” in Pulpit Harbor, a few miles across Penobscot
Bay from Camden. I was cruising my 26 footer “FRANCES” with my wife Debby, dog Shep, and a
former roommate of Debby’s. Now FRANCES was not much when it came to accommodations.
Mine was the flush decked version, so you could only sit. Standing erect meant being outside, and in
Maine in the summer that pretty much means out in the cold foggy drippy gloomy murk. So there
we were, three young adults hunched next to the “Tiny Tot” charcoal stove and the dog whose stink
we were attempting to mitigate by placing him closest the stove, when we heard the rattle of anchor
chain being paid out alongside. Curious, I popped up to see who our new neighbor might be, and
there emerged from the gloom the most lovely old wooden cruiser I had ever laid eyes on. She was a
little longer than FRANCES and clearly much heavier, a true seagoing vessel if ever there was one.
Like us she sported a smokestack which soon was belching the black smoke and sweet smell of a
real coal fire, and the glow from her little oval ports revealed her solo occupant, a fellow named Jim
as we were later to learn. In time Jim rowed over to inquire just what sort of vessel we were. As we
did of his, and that is how I became enthralled with the Winslow Four-Sum.
Here’s Jim aboard OCCASION, the Winslow Four-Sum that got Chuck drawing the first ANNIE.
I designed ANNIE a couple of years later. She was based very closely on the 28-foot Winslow FourSum, but a foot longer and built of fiberglass rather than wood, though cold molded wood might be
a better choice today. The idea was first of all to retain the many virtues of the Four-Sum. ANNIE
was heavy, extremely stable, had a long keel, some hollow to the bow, an outboard rudder which
made the fitting of a self steerer that much easier, and decks with very little camber so they were
easy to walk on. The house had vertical sides making the fitting of opening ports appropriate, and
even the cabin front was vertical and dead flat so you could fit one facing forward. With a lot of
stability, a large and powerful rig made sense. The cockpit had unusually high seatbacks (a failing of
my FRANCES), and it was low to the water so you always felt as if you were going fast with the
water rushing past
Too much sail, but look at her go!
The quarter berth was the nicest one in Chuck’s boat.
The life raft stowed atop the companionway hatch garage between the teak slats.
Chuck’s ANNIE had a seatback that hinged up to form an upper berth when needed.
This gave a total of six places where one could sleep.
Was the original ANNIE perfect? No. Her flaw was that she developed a lot of weather helm when
it blew hard. All long keelers do this, but if I had it to do over again I would cut away more of the
leading edge of the keel, and I’d fit a fully balanced rudder- an idea I dreamed up fifteen years after I
drew ANNIE’s lines. The redrawn plans now incorporate these improvements.
Like so many wonderful yachts her small size and the rush to larger (and less easily usable) yachts
made her uneconomical to build some years ago and she is no longer available out of fiberglass
molds. Boats, being immersed in a corrosive element, depreciate rapidly- even well built ones. And
the Morris built ANNIEs were superbly well built. You can probably buy a ten year old ANNIE
today for no more than it would cost to buy the engine, ballast and rig for a new one- never mind
the hull, deck and interior. But the day is just around the corner when we’ll admit, those old ones are
way past their prime. When that day comes ChuckPaine.com will gladly enable you to build a brand
new and perfected ANNIE.
Stowage tubs beneath the sole.
You could remove the tubs to
check the bilge.
She was amazingly fast in light airs.
The head on Chuck’s ANNIE. The
flooring was Congoleum.
Before retiring I made many small improvements to the original design- mostly a complete redesign
of the keel and rudder to reduce the amount of weather helm generated in heavy airs, and a slight
enlargement in both length and freeboard. Shown below is the hull I’d enable you to build today.
The “mark II” version of ANNIE incorporates two significant improvements. The keel is more cutaway forward
than was the original. And the Paine “full flow aperture” is used, allowing the rudder to be fully balanced for far
better steering than any of the strictly traditional long keel designs.
Chuck’s ANNIE had the most beautiful set of crosscut dacron sails the Hood loft ever produced. With
them he competed in quite a few small time Maine races, never finishing lower than first place. Heavy boats if well
designed can be very fast sailors. The other boat is a cutter rigged FRANCES.
The redrawn profile shows the cutaway leading edge to the keel and the balanced spade-like rudder.
This is the interior Chuck fitted to the ANNIE he built for himself. With the quarter berth option, he wouldn’t
change a thing after twenty years.
The original lines. No cutaway at the front of the keel and a rudder hinged at its forward edge.
The perfected sailplan has a tall sloop rig and no rake at all to the spar to reduce weather helm.