Wilderness Boat Works (also known as Wilderness Yachts) was an American boat manufacturing company in
Santa Cruz, California producing 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 cloth ...
monohull
masthead sloops
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 ...
. They produced three boat designs, the 21 foot, 30 foot, and 40 foot Wilderness.
Run by Lynn Daugherty and John Josephs, the shop opened in the 1970s, first producing the Wilderness 21. Wilderness Boat Works closed their doors in the late 1980s. Their facilities were located at 2473 Mission Street in Santa Cruz
[Burns, Chuck]
Wilderness 21 Brochure
Retrieved 2023-07-24
Boat Designs
Wilderness 21
The Wilderness 21 (W21) was manufactured as a one piece hand laminated fiberglass hull, that was offered in 16 colors, with a one piece,
balsa core, sandwich laminated deck, interior
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 (panicl ...
floors and
African brunzeel mahogany bulkhead.
Wilderness Boat Works first made the Wilderness 21 in 1978.
[W:21 Sailboat Dat]
sailboatdata.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
The Wilderness 21, later remanufactured as the Burns 21,
was designed by
Chuck Burns and first produced by shipbuilder Lynn Daugherty and John Josephs of Wilderness Boat Works of Santa Cruz, in California. There were about eighty made. The W21 was billed as a lightweight boat with a fine entry and high prismatic coefficient for speed and easy surfing in swell.
Burns recalls "2 W-21s sailed in the single-handed race from San Francisco to Kauai and the most notorious W-21 was Little Rascal sailed by Amy Boyer to victory in the women's division of the Mini-Transat race from Penzance England to Tenerife (Canary Islands) and thence to Antigua, West Indies."
In 1978, various Wilderness won races, including:
* 1st overall in the L.A. Midwinters
* 1st overall in the Huston Y.C. Series
* 2nd overall, 1st in class with the Galvaston Bay Cruising Association
* 1st overall in the Southern California Yachting Association (PHRF)
* 1st overall in the Trans Tahoe California
The Wilderness 21 was produced into 1987.
Boat Specs
* LOA: 20'6"
* DWL: 17'9"
* BEAM: 7'3"
* Draft: 4'
* Displacement: 1870 LBS.
* Ballast: 1070 LBS.
* Displacement Ratio 56%
* Sail Area: 208 SQ. FT.
*
I: 25
*
J: 8.70
*
P: 25.00
*
E: 8.00
* WL: 17.75
* CBDR: N/A
* PROP: OB/N/A
[W:21 SailPlan Dat]
Sailritesails.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
[US Sailing PHRF Ratin]
USSailing.org
Retrieved 2013-01-24
Wilderness 30
The Wilderness 30' was designed by
Chuck Burns and first manufactured in 1979.
[Perry, Robert H. "The Drafting Table by Robert H. Perry the Wilderness 30SX Designed by Chuck Burns", ''SAIL Magazine''] The 30 had several
sail-plan
A sail plan is a description of the specific ways that a sailing craft is rigged. Also, the term "sail plan" is a graphic depiction of the arrangement of the sails for a given sailing craft.>
In the English language, ships were usually describe ...
configurations, the 30, 30 IB, 30 SX, and 30 SX FR.
[W:30 Sail-Plan]
L-36.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
Boat Specs
=Wilderness 30
=
* Hull Type: Fin w/ Spade Rudder
* LOA: 30.00' (9.14m)
* LWL: 27.75' (8.46m)
* Beam: 8.80' (2.68m)
* Draft (max): 5.50' (1.68m)
* Displacement: 5500 lbs (2495 kg)
* Sail Area: 472 sq. ft (43.85 sq. m)
* I: 39.0' (11.89m)
* J: 14.10' (4.30m)
* P: 34.30' (10.45m)
* E: 11.50' (3.51m)
[W:30 Sailboat Dat]
sailboatdata.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
[Sailboat W:30 SailPlan Dat]
Sailrightsails.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
=Wilderness 30 IB
=
* I: 39'
* J: 14.1'
* P: 34.2'
* E: 11.5'
=Wilderness 30 SX
=
* I: 34.1'
* J: 11.8'
* P: 34.3'
* E: 11.5'
=Wilderness 30 SX FR
=
* I: 34.1'
* J: 11.8'
* P: 34.3'
* E: 11.5'
Wilderness 40
The Wilderness 40' was designed by
Gary Mull
Gary Mull (September 27, 1937 – July 14, 1993) was an American yacht designer who created many popular fiberglass sailboats.
Early life and education
Gary Mull began his college career with a year at Pomona College as an English major, th ...
and first Produced in 1980 and was the only boat manufactured by Wilderness Boat Works to include an onboard engine, originally a Yanmar diesel.
[W:40 Sailboat Dat]
Sailboatdata.com
Retrieved 2013-01-24
Boat Specs
* Hull Type: Fin w/ Spade Rudder
* LOA: 38.4'
* LWL: 32.0' (9.75m)
* Beam: 12.0' (3.66m)
* Draft (max): 6.50' (1.98m)
* Displacement: 9000 lbs (4082 kg)
* Sail Area: 597 sq. ft. (55.46 sq.m)
* Ballast: 3969 lbs (1800 kg),
Lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
* I: 47.' (14.33m)
* J: 15.0' (4.57m)
* P: 41.5' (12.65m)
* E: 11.8' (3.6m)
References
{{reflist
Companies based in Santa Cruz, California
Boat builders
1970s establishments in California
1980s disestablishments in California