Kudos to Cutters
Sailboat design is endlessly inventive. It’s a best attempt to produce a highly dynamic machine that will be efficient and reliable, sometimes in a narrow range of conditions. They are purpose-built: a sailboat that’s perfectly suited to gunkholing would be a sketchy vessel for a transatlantic crossing.
A few rigs and hull types have become the dominant choices for the demands of offshore cruising, remote from land and subject to powerful weather. Preferences and opinions vary, perhaps strongly. This month, through the 40-year catalog of Maynard’s photography, we take a hard look at the cutter, a common and solid choice for blue water sailing.
The mast on a cutter is pulled back farther than on a typical sloop, creating a larger area (foretriangle) between the mast and the forestay. A second forestay and the large foretriangle allow two foresails (the sails forward of the mast) instead of a large single jib or genoa. These smaller sails create a lot of options for adjusting the sail plan to deal with varying wind conditions. The intrusion of the mast in the cabin area is a design challenge, but for many, the stability of the rig makes it worth the sacrifice.
Says one Falmouth cutter owner we spoke to:
“As mostly a single-hander I find the cutter rig to be a versatile and powerful and easily managed arrangement. The smaller main and two headsails mean there are many combinations of smaller more easily handled sails to help balance the rig and keep me on my way in all conditions. The two headsails help to create a powerful slot effect that help keep the boat driving forward in all kinds of sea conditions. And besides, it looks just awesome.”
The cutter Northern Crown has her main deeply reefed for the breezy northwest wind on the return to Brooklin from Camden, Maine. August 1981
The 33' cutter Jarge's Pride displays her full complement of sail passing through Eggemoggin Reach near Deer Isle, Maine. Her designer, Sam Crocker, specialized in cruising cutters like these. You could depend on their being solid, handsome, all-round boats. August 1983
Buck & Becky Smith’s Atkin-designed ferro-cement cutter God’s Bread under sail, possibly on Eggemoggin Reach. July 1988
Alex Spear idly steers his double-ended cutter Vito Dumas while motoring on a still morning near Port Townsend, Washington. October 1988
John Osgood makes solid headway near Vinalhaven, Maine, in his 34’ cutter Eve, even without her staysail raised. Eve is a Winthrop Warner design built by Gordon Swift in Kensington, NH. July 1989
The Nova Scotia-built 44’ cutter Christmas skims along the course at the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta near Deer Isle, Maine. She was designed by W. Starling Burgess and built in 1931. August 1989
Northern Crown flies her asymmetric spinnaker to make the most of a run at Maine’s 1991 Eggemoggin Reach Regatta near Little Deer Isle, Maine. August 1991
A Crocker-designed Amantha cutter speeds downwind with her spinnaker flying near Brooklin, Maine. August 1991
Maynard Bray and Ben Mendlowitz encountered the impressive Edwardian yacht Anne Marie II while scouting for images for the Calendar of Wooden Boats and got themselves invited aboard for a cruise. September 1993
Ben Mendlowitz (L) and Maynard Bray (R) recline against the deckhouse of the cutter Anne Marie II, sipping beer on a cruise to Port Townsend, Washington. The owner, Robert Lawson, lounges in the foreground. September 1993
Skip Green’s cutter Baccarat in Eggemoggin Reach, Maine. She was designed and built by Russell Pouliot of Detroit, where the boat was launched in 1933. In 1934, she won her class (class B) in the Bermuda Race. Skip Greene owned and sailed her from 1975 until he died in 2013. She was featured on the last page of WoodenBoat magazine #336 as a "Save a Classic." September 1981
Skip Green prepares to head off for a cruise to Nova Scotia aboard his Belfast-based cutter Baccarat, moored here off the WoodenBoat waterfront in Brooklin, Maine. 1985
The cutter-rigged pinky sloop Topaz idles in light air during a New York Yacht Cruise in Fishers Island Sound. 1958
Giffy and Charlotte Full catch a westerly aboard their cutter Full Moon en route to Greens Island, Maine, to visit Maynard and Anne Bray. Their Jack Russell terrier Puffin can be seen walking the deck. 1980
Bill Ray Simms has grounded out his 32' 6" LOA x 9' 8" beam cutter Masuyo, designed and built by David Howarth, for an inspection on the Babson Island beach, Brooklin, Maine, opposite the WoodenBoat shorefront. It's a two-tide operation; getting access to this boat's starboard underbody will require floating, then letting her tip the other way.