The US Yachts US 22 is an American trailerable

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 terminolo ...

, that was designed by Gary Mull and first built in 1979.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 209. International Marine/

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...

, 2010. The US 22 is a development of the 1977 Ranger 22 and the Buccaneer 220 of 1978, both Mull designs. The US 22 design was later developed into the Triton 22 and built by

Pearson Yachts Pearson Yachts was a sailboat manufacturer founded by Everett Pearson and Clinton Pearson in 1956. One of the first fiberglass sailboat manufacturers, they grew rapidly during the 60s and 70s, while also developing and designing new boats. Howe ...

starting in 1985.

Production

The boat was built by US Yachts, a division of Bayliner, which is itself a division of the

Brunswick Boat Group The Brunswick Boat Group, headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is the largest maker of pleasure boats in the world. The company's net sales were US$1.7 billion in 2008, and US$1.0 billion in 2012. The Boat Group makes Sea Ray, Ba ...

, which is in turn owned by the

Brunswick Corporation Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...

. The design was constructed starting in 1979, but it is now out of production.

Design

The US 22 is a small recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, built predominantly of hand-laid

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 clo ...

, with

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

wood trim. It has a fractional sloop rig with

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

spars, a

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 ...

and

reverse transom A transom is the vertical reinforcement which strengthens the stern of a boat. This flat termination of the stern is typically above the waterline. The term was used as far back as Middle English in the 1300s, having come from Latin ''transvers ...

, a transom-hung rudder 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. ...

. US Yachts: ''US 22 sales brochure'', 1979. It displaces and carries of ballast. The boat was factory-built with three different types of fin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

s: a conventional fixed keel, a fixed shoal-draft keel and a retractable swing keel. US Yachts: ''US 25, US 22 & US 18 sales brochure'', 1979. The boat has a draft of with the standard keel and with the optional shoal draft keel. The swing keel model has a draft of with the keel down and with it up, allowing beaching or ground transportation on a trailer. The boat is normally fitted with a small

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method ...

for docking and maneuvering. The design has sleeping accommodation for five people, with a double "V"-berth in the bow, a drop-down dinette table on the port side that forms a double berth and a single quarter berth on the starboard side that extends under the cockpit. The galley is located on the starboard side just forward of the

companionway In the architecture of a ship, a companion or companionway is a raised and windowed hatchway in the ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins. A companionway may be secured by doors or, commonly in ...

steps. The galley is equipped with an optional two-burner alcohol-fired stove, a single sink with hand-pumped water supply and a portable

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrige ...

. The optional head is located in the bow cabin on the port side under the forward section of the "V" berth and consists of a portable toilet. The cabin sole is teak and

holly ''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...

. Ventilation is provided by a hatch over the bow cabin. Below decks headroom is . For sailing the boat is equipped with a

mainsheet traveler A traveller is a part of the rigging of a boat or ship that provides a moving attachment point for a rope, sail or yard to a fixed part of the vessel. It may take the form of anything from a simple ring on a metal bar or a spar to, especially in a ...

mounted on the bridge deck,

genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

tracks, an internally-mounted

outhaul An outhaul is a control line found on a sailboat. It is an element of the running rigging, used to attach the mainsail clew to the boom and tensions the foot of the sail. It commonly uses a block at the boom end and a cleat on the boom, closer ...

topping lift The topping lift (more rarely known as an uphaul) is a line which applies upward force on a boom on a sailboat. Part of the running rigging, topping lifts are primarily used to hold a boom up when the sail is lowered. This line would run from nea ...

and

reefing Reefing reduces the area of a sail, usually by folding or rolling one edge of the canvas in on itself and attaching the unused portion to a spar or a stay, as the primary measure to preserve a sailing vessel's stability in strong winds. Restoring ...

system. There are two cockpit winches for the

jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...

. The boat may be fitted with a spinnaker for downwind sailing. All versions of the US 22 have

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

s of .

Variants

;US 22 :This model was introduced in 1979 with a full fin keel and a draft of . It has a

PHRF Performance Handicap Racing Fleet (PHRF) is a handicapping system used for yacht racing in North America. It allows dissimilar classes of sailboats to be raced against each other. The aim is to cancel out the inherent advantages and disadvantages ...

racing average handicap of 282. ;US 22 SD :This model was introduced in 1979 with a shoal draft keel and a draft of . The boat has a PHRF racing average handicap of 264. ;US 22 Swing Keel :This model was introduced in 1979 with a swing keel and a draft of with the keel down and with it retracted.

Operational history

In a 2010 review Steve Henkel noted the wide four seat dinette table, which can be converted into a double berth. He listed the full keel version's worst features, in comparison to its competition, as, "the draft is a little high, the ballast a little low, and the headroom low, too."

References

External links