About The Boat
The Concept
When Charlie decided to compete in the 2009 Woodvale TransAtlantic Rowing Race, he quickly realised that the modern high-performance racing yachts he was used to sailing had many features which might lend themselves to increasing the performance of an ocean rowing boat. He turned to the highly experienced naval architect Phil Morrison, who is world-renowned for his work on sailboats as well as ocean rowing boats. This turned out to be a perfect match and it was clear from even the early designs that JJ (InsureandGo) would be revolutionary.
The Build
By November 2008 the design was ready for production and Charlie turned to Jamie Fabrizio and Emily Adkin of Global Boat Works for the build of JJ (InsureandGo). They had an established working relationship with Phil and a proven track record for this kind of job. The construction of the boat was finished in April 2009 and took 1,150 hours - around 5 months solid work, 7 days a week!
The hull and cabins are made from 10mm close cell foam core, sheathed on the outside in a carbon/kelvar hybrid cloth, and fibre glass on the inside using aircraft grade epoxy resin. The two main bulk heads are made from 9mm marine grade ply and all the decking and compartments are made from 6mm marine grade ply. The whole structure is painted with an epoxy two part paint system. This makes the boat extremely light while still being strong enough to cope with the worst weather the world's oceans can throw at it.
The Design
The most instantly obvious aspect of JJ (InsureandGo) is the reversal of the fore and aft cabins from a traditional design. The larger fore cabin has several advantages including slightly increased windage (the other boats create both windage and suction over their larger aft cabins), some shade later in the day and better down-wind stability and tracking. In addition, this arrangement allows a daggerboard in the fore cabin and an under-hung rudder mounted under the aft-cabin.
This is however just one small part of the design. JJ (InsureandGo) is much smaller and lighter than other competing boats at just 340kg unladen. Her bottom is shallow and rounded, and it is this plus the daggerboard / under-hung rudder combination which give her excellent speed and manoeuvrability, reducing the time a rower might have to spend rowing with one arm to bring her back on course.
As with most designs, there is a trade off. The small aft cabin gives little protection from stern waves. In high seas and following winds, she needs enough weight in the aft cabin to prevent pitch-polling (rolling over her own nose). She can be harder to row in unfavourable winds, especially cross winds. She requires a skilled rower to get the best out of her and trim her correctly, carefully moving ballast and the daggerboard to provide the best balance and speed.
| Boat Design | Length | Beam (width) | Height | Draft | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insure and Go (JJ) | 5.59m | 1.53m | 1.48m | 0.24m | 340kg |
| RA mk4 | 7.32m | 1.84m | 1.42m | 0.39m | 560kg |
The Equipment
As mentioned in his blog, Charlie is required to carry 150kg of water ballast and 90 days worth of 6,000 calories of food. The food is freeze dried and weighs about as much as 6 small children! Normal 'wet' food would weigh about three times as much. JJ carries lots of other equipment including:
- A water maker capable of making 25 litres of drinkable water per minute, plus a backup hand water maker.
- A para-anchor. An underwater parachute which is deployed in unfavourable conditions to minimise drifting backwards.
- Two sets of oars.
- Two solar panels.
- Small camping-gas burner.
- A laptop and sat-phone, VHF radio, GPS, AIS collision alarm etc.
- Not enough loo roll!
Much of this was kindly supplied by sponsors.
The Engine
Weighing approximately 95kg (when fitted at the start line), and operating for 16 hours per day at 0.3hp, the Pitcher Engine (although built 47 years ago) has proven to be an excellent and reliable choice.
Fuel efficiency is calculated to be approximately 265 miles to the gallon!
(these calculations were just made for fun from figures found on the internet which vary wildly? Feel free to send us your calculations and how you worked them out!)
