This article, edited by Danny Greene, originally appeared in Cruising World, July 1985. Reprinted with permission of Cruising World.
Ted Brewer’s Nimble 30 design is a deceptive one. Her handsome profile, bold sheer, rounded trunk cabin and yawl rig give her the appearance of a traditional cruising yacht, while her underbody configuration and ratios of displacement, length, and sail area indicate performance of the highest order.
Brewer considers this canoe yawl to be about the minimum size for a comfortable live-aboard cruising/voyaging boat and plans to acquire one himself for cruising the Pacific Northwest, perhaps to Alaska and maybe even Hawaii. "At least I know I can sail there if I want to in this boat," he says. He now sails of his 23-foot Rob Roy canoe yawls.
The double-ended hull has a moderate beam carried well into both ends, a long fin keel and a partially balance spade rudder on a vestigial skeg. The canoe stern has less reserve buoyancy than a transom stern and so cannot bear the weight of large amounts of gear or supplies loaded aft. The double-ender can, however, be heavily loaded and still perform reasonably well, while a transom-sterned boat overloaded to the point where the transom is immersed will suffer a greater loss in performance.
Many sailors may question the practicality of the yawl rig on a 30-foot boat and the usefulness of a 45-square-foot mizzen. The maneuverability under sail that this rig allows, combined with the light and responsive hull, should make the Nimble 30 a joy to sail through an anchorage or harbor, and even to anchor or dock under sail. When the weather gets nasty, the mizzen and 60-square-foot storm jib will make her balanced and easily handled.
One drawback to this yawl rig, with the very low mizzen boom, is that it makes the fitting of a self-steering gear impossible. An autopilot would have to be used for long-distance, shorthanded sailing.
Down below there are accommodations for two people, with a double-berth forward and two settees/sea berths in the main cabin. There is a wet locker to port of the companionway and numerous lockers throughout the boat.
Constructions is of foam-cored fiberglass by Nimble Boats of Crystal Beach, Florida, who will offer the boat finished or in kit form. Plans for amateur construction are also available from the designer.
With her displacement/length ratio of 185 and a sail area/displacement ratio of 20.5, the Nimble 30 should give many racing boats a run for their money. Her yawl rig will make her slightly less weatherly in most conditions than a racing sloop, and she will not plane as easily, but when the sheets are cracked off the Nimble 30 will move out. A small mizzen staysail would be fun to fly in reaching conditions.
LOA 30’0" (9.14 m.)
LWL 25’0" (7.62 m.)
Beam 9’4" (2.84 m.)
Draft 4’4" (1.32 m.)
Ballast 2,400 lbs. (1,089 kg.)
Displacement 6,500 lbs. (2,948 kg.)
Sail Area 450 sq. ft. (41.8 sq. m.)
Disp./Length Ratio 185
Sail Area/Disp. Ratio 20.7
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