The Phoenix 18 is an American

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

sailing dinghy that was designed by

Dick Gibbs Richard Horace Maconochie Gibbs (4 February 1893 – 19 July 1916), a medical student and an Australian rules footballer, played with the Melbourne University Football Club in the Victorian Football League. When the University team withdrew ...

and

Rod Macalpine-Downie James Roderick Macalpine-Downie (9 May 1934 – 9 January 1986), known as Rod Macalpine-Downie, was an English multihull sailboat designer and sailor. Son of Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald James Macalpine-Downie (died 1958), M.B.E., Royal Tank Regi ...

and first built in 1964. The boat is a smaller variant of the Shark 20 and a development of the Thai Mark IV. The boat was named after the mythical bird as it was the first design built by the Gibbs Boat Company after its factory burned down.

Production

The design was built by the Gibbs Boat Company starting in 1964, as well as the MFG Boat Company in the United States, and

Skene Boats Skene Boats was a Canadian boat builder based in Gloucester, Ontario, now part of the city of Ottawa. The company specialized in the manufacture of fibreglass sailboats. It was founded in 1968 and went out business in 1992. History The com ...

in Canada. The design is now out of production.

Design

The Phoenix 18 is a recreational

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

, built predominantly of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

and wood. It has a fractional

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

rig. The twin hulls both have

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

s, plumb transoms, transom-hung

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

s controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

and a retractable

centerboard A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...

s. It displaces . The boat has a draft of with a centerboard extended and with both retracted, allowing operation in shallow water, beaching or ground transportation on a trailer.

References

{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs Dinghies 1960s sailboat type designs Sailboat type designs by Rod Macalpine-Downie Sailboat type designs by Dick Gibbs Sailboat types built by Gibbs Boat Company Sailboat types built by MFG Boat Company Sailboat types built by Skene Boats

Production

Design

See also

References