CAD program for redesign of existing keel design

I've read it "Common Sense". The writing he did was Common Sense and other works. His private letters to various people, collected over many years, are on the Mystic Museum site.

At no stage did I find any reference to a "major" cruise, even by the comparatively modest standards of the time. I think he may have sailed to Maine and back. At other times, he finds a trip to Martha's Vineyard or somewhere similar to be worth a fairly detailed description. It wasn't as if he was an Alain Gerbault, Maurice Griffiths, etc style of dedicated and highly experienced cruiser.

Similarly, I can find no record of him having a really high-level racing career. I think he spent a season on Avenger, which was top of its class around LIS. He didn't, for example, win a Transatlantic, Bermuda or America's Cup like Rod Stephens or John Alden, or cruise to Norway, sail the Atlantic and win lots of dinghy and class races like Uffa Fox.

The point is that while he was a very interesting man, he doesn't seem to have had as much actual time on the water racing or cruising as many of his modern readers, or most of his rival designers. Since he didn't have a vast amount of experience like, for example, Rod Stephens did, a significant number of his beliefs are open to question.

I, for one, find a vast difference between a boat in which one can stand up down below, even if only in a small area, and one with only sitting headroom. When Francis makes his blanket statements he doesn't allow for the different tastes of others, even those with far more experience in some areas than he had.

Oh, and given the insults that LFH threw around so readily in his private and published work, it's perfectly reasonable to express reservations about what he wrote himself.

 

I think it would be fairly safe to scale everything up by 7 percent, but that means quite a bit more lead and other materials.

If it was my project, I think I'd look to see if someone else made a shallower Rozinante that worked out well. I'd also look to see if there was another well-regarded LFH design that was slightly larger but had the same draft. I think the H-28 would suit, except that it's not nearly as pretty. It looks to have more headroom, though. OTOH, if you had LESS headroom, you'd probably be less likely to hit your head, because you'd automatically be crawling.

Maybe you could use some other material or construction technique allowing you to thin or eliminate those deck beams*, though of course it wouldn't exactly be a Rosinante any more. Or maybe you could make it cold molded and thin or eliminate some of the frames? Not that I've ever done any cold molding myself. I understand it drives some people nuts.

* I think there's some other word when they're in the raised part of the cabin, but my vocabulary about wood boat structures is fading. Maybe it's time to review that chapter of Calahan's. I suppose a carbon fiber roof would be out of character.