The Gougeon 32 is an American trailerable

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-sta ...

that was designed by Jan Gougeon and first built in 1990.Sherwood, Richard M.: ''A Field Guide to Sailboats of North America, Second Edition'', pages 244-245. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Production

The design was built by Gougeon Brothers in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Met ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The company completed 14 examples of the type between 1990 and 1992, but it is now out of production.

Development

Gougeon Brothers is a composite manufacturing company, that has built many products from

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

and also developed their own materials and processes. By 1990 the company had built many custom-built racing sailboats, but had never embarked on a mass-market production boat design before. The Gougeon 32 was a project that the company embarked upon as a complementary effort while their

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

blade manufacturing was ramping up after three years out of production, following the wind turbine market's 1986 crash. The sailboat design was commenced in 1990 as an intended production commercial product that would also be used to development new

s and techniques. The boat's design goals were, "a lightweight, trailerable catamaran that was fast, fun to sail, had weekend accommodations for 2 or 3 and was priced below $35,000." The design was intended to reach a

break-even point The break-even point (BEP) in economics, business—and specifically cost accounting—is the point at which total cost and total revenue are equal, i.e. "even". There is no net loss or gain, and one has "broken even", though opportunity costs h ...

at a production rate of two boats per week and would be profitable at three boats per week. The design challenge was to build a boat of this size that could be transported on a trailer behind a mid-sized car, a requirement that restricted the design to a towed weight of a maximum of . The design used a new manufacturing technique: single vacuum bag moulded epoxy resin laminate construction, conventional polyester

gelcoat Gelcoat, also called Gel Coat, is a material used to provide a high-quality finish on the visible surface of a fibre-reinforced composite. The most common gelcoats are thermosetting polymers based on epoxy or unsaturated polyester resin chemistry. ...

and reinforcing fibers fully wetted-out mechanically on a rolling machine. It used low-temperature cured epoxy resin with long cure times to achieve the desired finished physical properties. This process became the company's Pro-Set process, which has been commercially successful. In 1992 the company sold its wind turbine blade manufacturing business and terminated the catamaran production at the same time, having produced only 14 boats and never achieved full series production.

Design

The Gougeon 32 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 cl ...

with

balsa ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...

and foam cores, 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. 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 with a fully battened

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot i ...

, a jib and provisions for a light wind drifter sail. The two hulls have

plumb 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, vertical 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 air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

s controlled by a central

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

daggerboard A daggerboard is a retractable centreboard used by various sailing craft. While other types of centreboard may pivot to retract, a daggerboard slides in a casing. The shape of the daggerboard converts the forward motion into a windward lift, co ...

in each hull. It displaces and carries of

flooding water ballast A trailer sailer is a type of sailboat that has been designed to be easily transported using a boat trailer towed by an automobile. They are generally larger than a sailing dinghy.Royce, Patrick M.: ''Royces Sailing Illustrated'', pages 52-57. Del ...

, in each hull. The ballast is drained for road transport. The boat has a draft of with the daggerboards extended, allowing beaching or ground transportation on a trailer with the boards retracted. 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 fuel tank holds . The design has sleeping accommodation for two adults and two children. The cabin floor is padded and can be used for additional sleeping space, as can the open cockpit. The interior seating is made from fiberglass. The

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be u ...

includes a small sink and a single-burner

propane Propane () is a three-carbon alkane with the molecular formula . It is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, but compressible to a transportable liquid. A by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining, it is commonly used as ...

stove for cooking. The

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals ...

is a portable type. A bow trampoline provides space and also deflects spray when sailing. The mast is a rotating design, hinged for ground transport, folding forward over the towing vehicle. The mast is supported by a single set of shrouds and

running backstay Running backstays support the headstay in a fractionally rigged boat. A masthead rig has the advantage of not needing them. A running backstay runs from each lateral corner of the stern to the mast at the level where the forestay begins in the fr ...

s. The mainsail may be reefed by rolling around the rotating boom, while the jib has

roller furling Roller furling is a method of furling (i.e. reefing) a yacht's staysail by rolling the sail around a stay. Roller furling is typically used for foresails such as jibs or genoas. A mainsail may also be furled by a similar system, whereby the ...

. There is a full-width

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 ...

and the

mainsheet In sailing, a sheet is a line (rope, cable or chain) used to control the movable corner(s) ( clews) of a sail. Terminology In nautical usage the term "sheet" is applied to a line or chain attached to the lower corners of a sail for the purpos ...

itself has an 8:1 mechanical advantage.

Operational history

The 14 boats in service have won numerous races. In the 2017 Race to Alaska, Russell Brown skippered his Gougeon 32, ''Incognito'', to first place in the solo class. In a review Richard Sherwood described the design, "the Gougeon 32 is a big, fast, stable catamaran that can be sailed by one or two and will sleep two adults and two children. In addition, you can camp out in the cockpit. Six hundred pounds of water ballast may be placed in each hull for stability, but may be drained for trailering.

References

{{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Catamarans 1990s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Jan Gougeon Sailboat types built by Gougeon Brothers

Production

Development

Design

Operational history

See also

References