My first concepts of Big 1 began to form soon after arriving back in Kerrera from our Sail Greenland 2001 Expedition. By chance Janice my partner and I had been asked to Skipper a delivery of Gyda, a new 15m yacht from Oban to Falmouth. She was on her way to the Antarctic via the Caribbean and Cuba. She was quite special. Built to a custom design she was built in reinforced aluminium for pushing ice, had a lifting centreboard so that she could enter shallow rivers and had twin engines for reliability and manoeuvrability. The delivery went without incident but the 600 miles gave me plenty of time to think about my own ideas.

Initially I thought along the lines of buying a second hand boat. The problem, as previous experience had shown was that you can spend 50% of the value again just to replace all the equipment that is not suitable for your needs or is worn beyond service. Then once I had concluded that our primary needs were thus:-

There are many aluminium yachts for sale. Aluminium was my preferred choice, I do not want to spend the rest of my time chasing rust streaks, from a steel hull. Sailing performance on the Vancouver in light winds was its downfall. My conclusion was that to sail well upwind and in light airs we needed a fin keel yacht with a large sail plan. We soon concluded that fin keel therefore meant lifting keel. For sailing motion and comfort we would have to look at the heavy displacement category. Size was a problem; with all the equipment required for a climbing expedition and a world cruiser we felt that 48 feet was the minimum, 55 to 60 ideal. We started in earnest to study the prices of yachts of this calibre. We also obtained some quotes for sails and rigs for these boats. Over 50 feet the price doubled. We revised our plan, 48 feet would allow guests their own cabin, whilst it was still feasible to sail short-handed.

I had been looking for a suitable second hand boat. However, the problem was that our specification was too specialised. An option was to buy an existing boat, then gut it and install a lift keel and re-work the interior. The sums did not add up. Van de Stadt had been in my mind for some time as a company with a good reputation for solid cruising yachts with a semi-custom design facility. They also supplied kits for shipyards and home builders. And so we discovered the Samoa design. It fitted all our criteria bar the lifting keel, but that was solved when the company offered to design one for us. Tentatively we bought the initial plans and met with the designer. After the summer of 2002 in which we sold our trusty Vancouver Samen and having climbed our hearts out in Europe, we placed the order for the design stage of the keel and the design rights to build a Samoa - Hull number 46. Project Big 1 was conceived.

The following winter was a frenetic rush of work abroad in Germany and budget planning for the new yacht. Money was always going to be a key factor, finding half a million pounds and have a yard build the boat was never an option. I listed every item that I thought we would need to build an expedition yacht and priced it. I looked at the budget. If I built the hull with my free time in the summers then we could do it; just. Spread over four or five years, the money coming from the winter work it could work.

Summer 2003 three tons of aluminium were delivered to our workshop, a significant sum of money had been spent on buying the kit already cut and bent to shape. It reduced the amount of equipment needed to the bare minimum and at the same time ensures a good fit of the parts. Of course it also saves me about one summers work on a band saw! The kit was delivered in the middle of July together with the 3.1 ton lead keel and the first Rib had been fabricated by the beginning of September. By the end of September I had completed 22 of the 34 ribs.

The kit has now been put away for the winter while we concentrate on earning a little money. Next summer I hope to complete the remaining ribs and then weld them to the deck and start the process of plating the hull before the summer is out.

Van de Stadt Samoa 47

Length Overall 47 feet

Length on waterline 40 feet

Draft 4.5 to 9 feet

Beam 15 feet

Displacement (light) 16 tons

Ballast 6 tons

Sail area Jib 50 sq.m

Sail area main 70 sq,m

Genaker 92 sq.m

Rig Fractional 7/8ths

Mast Headroom 71 feet

Engine 115 Hp Perkins

Fuel 1000 litres

Water 600 litres

Accommodation 6 persons in 3 cabins

Watertight compartments 5

Virtually all of the 45 hulls built to date since 1988 in various materials ie. aluminium, steel and wood epoxy, have circumnavigated, one on its third trip.

Andrew White

2^nd November 2003