Feb29
Sven Yrvind collaborates with Matt Layden
Sven Yrvind’s new boat, designed in collaboration with Matt Layden
Legendary Swedish small boat voyager Sven Yrvind has designed a new boat in collaboration with Matt Layden, who is equally well known for his adventuring in small self-built sharpies fitted with chine runners.
Yrvind’s new boat has a Layden-style form, with a deep and heavy sharpie hull that allows the runners along the chine to work like a keel – holding the boat up to the wind without the draft a conventional keel would require.
Far from being the sort of wildmen who compete to cross oceans in progressively smaller boats shorter than themselves, these gentlemen have impressive track records in small boat cruising and some useful ideas about how these kinds of boats should be built. Yrvind’s latest boat is interesting, as it seems to complete a circle: for while it’s possible to see Yrvind’s influence in several of Layden’s earlier designs, the American designer’s influence on the Swedish sailor’s new boat could not be more obvious.
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3 Comments »Boat plans and books of plans, Boatbuilders and restorers, Cruising yachts, Culture: songs, stories, photography and art, Events, Sailing ships, Small boats, Techniques
Brandon McClintock Mar 10th 2008 at 05:31 am 1
Just wondering if, at some point, plans for Sven’s / Matt’s collaboration might become available. The concept and design are incredibly intriguing and I would welcome the opportunity to acquire plans if / when available.
Gavin Atkin Mar 10th 2008 at 07:38 am 2
That’s an interesting question. Layden is quite cagey about his designs, I gather because he worries that people won’t understand them and the importance of each of their details, and so will change them and perhaps get into trouble as a result. I have to say that’s a worry for boat designers everythwere.
I’d also say that the Layden-Bris style boat wouldn’t be for me – I’m not really an adventurous type, and in any case I like to feel the wind in my hair, secure in the knowledge that the door to my cabin is firmly closed and will keep the green stuff out if a big lump of it arrives in my cockpit!
Gavin
Jeff UK Jan 5th 2009 at 10:56 am 3
Hi Brandon and Gavin. Sorry.
I have just found this site.
This new project of Sven and Matt’s I find most interesting.
I can undestand that Matt will be reluctant to release his designs into the public domain when someone posts that he would fit an outboard motor in a box if he was to build an ENIGMA.
This latest boat of Svens is extremely complex a build for anyone less that an expert which Sven has a few.
The costs would also be astranomical for the size of boat we have here. It would be cheaper to commission Matt to design a more conventional PARADOX/ENIGMA type based on this design, to be built in plywood.
It might even be of some use to set up a new group to draw in members that want a boat of this size that could sign up to share in the design costs. This would also be a way of having an input into how the final design works out.
Jeff UK