petrel aluminum sailboat

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Petrel 12' Aluminum Sailboat - Anyone familiar with this?

• Thread starter Toller
• Start date Jun 1, 2014
• Jun 1, 2014

I bought one of these yesterday. It hasn't been in the water in 30 years and needs alot of work, but all the major components are sound. Does anyone know this boat that could possibly give me some help? If not, is there another website that might? I would dearly love a manual, but I know that is too much to expect. Thanks.  

Lieutenant Commander

• Aug 17, 2014

katiekatsails

• Sep 6, 2023

Hi Scoutabout. I have a Petrel dinghy sailboat with the fair lead plastic completely worn away. I have been looking for how to replace it and your post gave me some hope. Where did you purchase your replacement piece? MODERATOR EDIT: Please review the forum rule about old threads.  

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Alcan Springbock Petrel 12

• Add to quote

Has any one owned one? Designed by Phil Rhodes around 1966. All aluminum, 12 feet long, about 225 pounds maximum payload 630 pounds. Foam between sole and hull gives some ballast and supposedly reduces risk of turtling in a capsize. Aluminum centreboard and rudder (I think). About 100 square feet of sail area. Self bailing cockpit. Nice little storage cubby under spray deck self bailing cockpit, fractional sloop.  

I video'd a walk around of the boat. The only thing she was missing was the cockpit self draining plugs, so I fashioned some out of laundry detergent lids, shock cord and butyl tape. All loaded up with beach towels and an over flowing picnic basket. Going to take her for a rip with the kids down the river to the next village. Btw, found her Portsmouth rating. She rates about the same as a Mirror or Oday Wigeon, so might be able to do some Portsmouth racing with her next season with my 6 yo.  

Attachments

All you need now is the mast & sails from a Lightning...  

Took her out for a spin today from my town boat launch. Wind was weird. 10 gusting to 20. River is only 300 feet across so no sea state. Wanted to test out how she sailed reefed down. Went with single reefed main and working jib. Was too little sail for the conditions and I found my self kind of squatting centre line a lot. Only my 3rd day owning the boat, so need to work on technique etc, but she sailed pretty well in spite of my rusty ways. .  

Thanks for the quick reply! You are likely correct on the floor as the previous owner said it weighed a ton when he got it. He did replace the orignal foam with about 40 pool noodles which is likely a decent replacement. I'm a building contractor and what I know about spray foam, should I go that way, I would have to use commercially applied 2lb foam as store bought foam is not closed cell. I like your rubber ball nail system. From what I read somewhere that the orignal system was a baffle with shock cords, but haven't found any actual details on it.  

Well we took thw Petrel out for a sail on Sunday and was really impressed! Didn't have a lot of wind most of the day, but still managed to get some distance covered. Did get about 20 min of decent wind so got the wife counter-balancing so that was fun! Wondering though what you are using for a trolley for the main sail over the tiller? I thought I had the dual-roller trolley that goes on the rope over the tiller but for the life of me I cannot find it.  

The bridle for the traveller is just rope, maybe 3 feet long 1/4 or 3/8 3 strand. The main sheet attaches to the bridle with a Pelican type hook.  

Arcb said: @Offshore Dreamer Hi, yes, I still have the Alcan Petrel. Great little boat. I have a couple of bigger boats that are more work to launch. This boat is super easy to launch, practical layout for a picnic boat and good camping boat for father and son/daughter. It also doubles as our fishing boat at times. No doubt they removed the cockpit sole to replace the 50 year old foam flotation. It can get heavy when waterlogged. So you will want to put something in there for flotation so you don't sink in a capsize. The self bailing system is simple, but effective. Mine came with the original rubber plugs, but they were dry and cracked, so I replaced mine with 2 indian rubber balls and a length of shock cord to keep them in place. When the boat is floating normally, water pressure, along with the shock cords hold the plugs in place. According to the owners manual, in the event of a capsize, you release the shock cord while righting the boat to let the water drain, then tension the shock cord before climbing back into the now dry boat. The only disadvantage I have seen with this system, is when there is a lot of weight in the boat, some water does invariably leak in through the plugs. Aside from wet feet, this isn't a problem. I took a couple of pics of my rubber ball plugs. The boat isn't cleaned up for the season because our trailer where we intend to keep it is still closed because of you know what. View attachment 139272 View attachment 139273 Click to expand...

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The Pearson Petrel : 1962

12-foot sailing dinghy.

Old New England Cat Goes Modern

The Petrel has many desirable new features to complement her traditional beauty with just enough rich wood inside trim to make this modern counterpart of the old New England cat-rigged centerboard dinghy a distinguished modern sailboat.

This unique, salty 12-footer retains all the traditional beauty of line and sail rig of the old New England cat-rigged centerboard dinghy... but with one big difference! That difference... the ingenuity used by Pearson in mastercrafting the Petrel in beautiful, low-maintenance fiberglass. The Petrel has many new features to complement her traditional beauty... blends rich wood inside trim with today's materials. If you desire outstanding performance, enjoy the pleasing appearance of the craft of yesteryear, but want you pleasure to last, this distinguished, modern sailboat is for you! Easily cartopped or trailed... rigged with ease in minutes! Can be converted quickly to 12 foot rowing dinghy... will take small outboard..

Grumman Boats 1962

Specifications

Standard equipment.

• Hinged mast partner with step guide for easy mast stepping and lowering
• Rotating aluminum mast and aluminum boom
• 85 sq. ft. loose-footed dacron sail
• One-piece fiberglass sole with watertight centerboard trunk
• Full flotation
• Completely self bailing
• Stainless standing rigging
• Nylon running rigging
• Nylon rope rubrail
• Friction level-operated fiberglass centerboard
• Tilt-up fiberglass rudder
• Marine bronze hardware

Easily cartopped or trailered, rigged with ease in minutes!

Pete's Place of Projects & Ponderings

Random Ramblings on Scattered Subjects at Irregular Intervals.

Alcan Petrel 951 Sailing Dinghy

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A Skipper’s Dream Outlives His Beloved Yacht

By Jess Bidgood

• Nov. 11, 2011

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — When a wooden yacht called the Petrel was recently demolished on Martha’s Vineyard, two generations of sailors and boat enthusiasts blanched — including some on another island, Manhattan, where the yacht’s former owner used to offer $3.75 rides in New York Harbor.

That was Nick van Nes, a former Navy man with bright blue eyes who hoped in 1972 that his new company, Bring Sailing Back Inc., could introduce sailing to city dwellers who were not part of the upper-class set usually associated with yachting.

Mr. van Nes left Manhattan for Martha’s Vineyard in 2000, and several years later took the Petrel out of the water, leaving it at the top of a railway in an industrial part of Vineyard Haven, forlorn but still regal. “She was this incredibly massive, pretty object that appeared there one day,” said Ross Gannon, who builds and restores wooden boats in Vineyard Haven.

Legend has it that President John F. Kennedy once sailed the boat, which was built in 1938 by the famed naval architects Sparkman & Stephens , and even considered it for special use by the White House.

Last year, Mr. van Nes sold the Petrel to a German man, Olaf Kunkut, but the new owner found it would cost more to restore the aging boat than it would to simply rebuild it. So workers began harvesting parts to use in a new boat that will be built with the Petrel’s original plans.

Mr. Gannon joined a small group that watched mournfully last month when a demolition crew came to break the rest of the Petrel apart. “So much skill and craft went to fashioning it, and then just watching it rolled on its side and broken up and hauled away in two hours’ time,” Mr. Gannon said. “It was just, sort of, a death.”

But the legacy of the storied vessel may live on in the boats it forced to life.

There is the Shearwater and the City Clipper of Manhattan by Sail , a company founded by Tom Berton when he learned that Mr. van Nes had lost the franchise to his business and would not be coming back to Manhattan. Mr. Berton had spent years as a volunteer crew member on the Petrel with Mr. van Nes.

“I’d never done anything like that,” Mr. Berton said. Since founding Manhattan by Sail, he has been working with New York City officials to bring more sailing to the harbor — work he said was directly inspired by the Petrel and Mr. van Nes. “He’s a cowboy, a pioneer,” Mr. Berton said.

And there is another boat, the Mass Transit 105, where the cowboy himself, Captain van Nes, could be found eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a recent Thursday afternoon, in the unfinished cabin below decks.

The destruction of the Petrel was, Mr. van Nes said, “emotionally confusing,” but part of the reason he sold it was to finance the construction of this boat, temporarily anchored here in Portsmouth. He had always wanted to build a boat himself and set out to do so, in 1983 in Battery Park. Nearly 30 years later, he is still at it.

“I built a $500,000 mast for $8,000. The downside is it took 10 years of my life to do it,” Mr. van Nes said with a laugh. He found the boat’s sail in the garbage and delights in using discounted, secondhand parts.

But the boat is not limited in size or ambition. It is a 105-foot sloop with racy lines, an aberration in the world of yachting, where racing boats typically top out at 70 feet or 80 feet. Sitting next to several carefully organized coolers, which his wife, Rosie, helped him stock with food for the month and a half that he has been living on the boat, Mr. van Nes says he knows the project has become an obsession.

“I’m really just, really, addicted to this stuff, being on the water, fooling with boats,” he said, “People are amazed that it’s taken me so long. I’m embarrassed about it.” He picks up a dusty, plastic shower drain, shrugging. “I bought the shower from Home Depot about 10 years ago, and I haven’t put it in yet.”

Mr. van Nes has been mostly retired since he left Manhattan, and most of his money — his savings, his retirement — goes into this boat. His work — solitary, and hampered by financial constraints — is slow. “I’m a little lonely with it right now,” he said.

But above decks, he bounds around, pointing out the 105’s sleek lines and high aspect ratio. “Ultimately, it means freedom. I’m awfully proud of the boat, and I’m amazed that I got this far with it,” Mr. van Nes said.

He thinks it’s ready to sail to Florida, where he wants to spend the winter finishing up what he can. He hopes to get the boat certified so he can take large groups on it, making it accessible to the public, as the Petrel once was.

“I’m getting more and more excited, and this trip is part of that,” Mr. van Nes said. “We’re doing something.”

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• Sailboat Guide

Pearson Petrel 12

Pearson Petrel 12 is a 12 ′ 0 ″ / 3.7 m monohull sailboat designed by William "Bill" Tritt and built by Pearson Yachts starting in 1964.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

Thanks to Matt Tritt, son of the designer, for providing corrections and additional information.

This PETREL should not be confused with another PETREL dinghy, built of aluminum (1966) in Canada and designed by Rhodes. (We probably helped to promote this error for a number of years.)

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Petrel AeroCraft 12 ft aluminum sailboat

• Thread starter Sailing down the river
• Start date Aug 13, 2017
• Forums for All Owners
• Ask All Sailors

Sailing down the river

I just got a SB-12 Petrel sailboat and in the back are 2 big holes about 2 inches across. The guy said that they are to have plugs in them And that they are for draining the sailboat. He could not find replacement plugs. Are they necessary, could i have them closed in. I know in my motor boat I have them but they Are only one inch across and you have to be going quite fast when you pull them out to drain. So where could i buy the big plugs, if that is what is supose to be there or can i fill them in. Also i have no idea how to set everything up, the ropes the mast, actually, he just gave it all to me and i have to figure it out. Is there a sight i can go to see how to rig it all up. The serial no says. SB-12. 121. But the sail says. Sb 350. Pls can someone help me.  

waterpirate

Not familiar with the hull, but a hole is a hole. I would caution against anything permanent till you get more info. I would suggest 2" test plugs commonly available at lowes and home depot. Insert them in the holes and turn the thumb screw and they expand until a rubber gasket seals the hole. Eric  

Tennis Balls Run a bungee cord through the tennis ball then pull it through the drain hole, now secure the bungee so that there is just enough tension to hold the ball over the hole and your all set.  

Captn Scotty

That vessel might sail dry with the holes open, it may be a type of self bailing system, have you tried floating it yet?  

No i have not put it in the water, the holes are only an inch from the bottom, so once i get in it the water will come in  

The holes are to drain the boat after capsize. You sail with plugs in.  

JohnShannon

used to call this transom flaps. So you had a piece of plexiglass hinged at the top of the hole, pulled to seal by a bit of bungy cord fastened somewhere in the boat. So normally sealed. Post capsize the boat has water in it, loose the bunny cord as you start sailing again all the water rushes to the back of the boat and out the transom flaps, dry in no time.  

Actually strike that, the Petrel used funnels to plug those holes. Find a funnel bigger than the hole, bungy cord with a knot in the middle fasten the bungy on the inside of the boat, it is water tight. Post capsize once you are righted release the bungy.  

Marc the army sailor

Squash balls, rubber balls etc, and yes remove them after capsize to drain boat  

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• What’s inside a boat plan ?

I love sincere , honest sailboats; I don’t believe that a sailboat can perform well in family cruising, buoy racing, offshore racing. This was my leading concept when I choose to design Petrel 28 plans: a sturdy, reliable, safe, honest, roomy, mediterranean cruising sailboat suited for homebuilders.

This means that for this sailboat I start to develop coherently a totally new hull, with quite symmetric lines, a decent but not excessive maximum beam, more than an eye to the seakeeping performances, and just a glance at speed performances, somehow a “classical modern hull”, developing hull lines that can be built from plywood panels with “radius chine” system . The three sailboats launched (two by homebuilders), and the thousands miles sailed, confirmed that my goals have been reached: the Petrel performs beautifully in every conditions, from light air to rough seas, has a great amount of stability when heeled, keep a straight line without viciously pointing the bow on the wind under gusts, it’s a very enjoyable sailboat to helm with a fingertip even on strong winds, somehow more similar to classic sailboats than to modern ones. Thanks to a good sailplan (mainsail + jib+ small gennaker) , the pace is quite good in every condition, the sailboat reaches his critical speed, around 6 knots, very easily, accelerating steadily after the tacks even in light winds, although the sailboat is not a featherweight one. Interiors are simply huge for a 8.5 meters sailboat, height is more than 1.75 meters in the whole cabin; a family of four people have a more than a decent accommodations for a medium range cruise. Hatches makes all the cabin very bright. The hull is built in plywood and epoxy, with radius chine solution, which is probably the smartest way to make a round hull without getting in too much troubles for a homebuilder; bulkheads, hull planking, deck and cockpit surfaces are all in marine grade okume or mahogany plywood, while keel , stem, longitudinal stringers and deck and cockpit battens are in solid mahogany wood. All is glued together by epoxy resin and glass tapes reinforcements, to form a very sturdy hull quite fast to build for a homebuilder. In the snapshots on the gallery you can see the 2013 version of plans with a more modern line for the plywood cabin, giving more pleasing lateral line to the sailboat with a minimal loss of internal volume; plans are available both in english and in italian and in imperial units upon request.

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sail boat, 12ft aluminum Petrel, no trailer

1970 petrel aluminum.

• Price: Contact seller
• Condition: Used
• Make: Petrel
• Model: Aluminum
• Location: Morganton, North Carolina, United States

Description

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sail boat, 12ft aluminum Petrel, no trailer

• Price: Contact seller
• Condition: Used
• Make: Petrel
• Model: Aluminum
• Location: Morganton, North Carolina, United States

Description

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AeroCraft Model: Petrel-Sailboat

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STORM PETREL

A new fuel-efficient aluminum boat that’s built to handle heavy loads of scientific equipment is helping researchers understand the future of the world’s oceans.

The 50-foot aluminum catamaran  Storm Petrel  is a platform for studying ocean acidification and other changes on the wild shores of Washington state, a place teeming with whales and other sea life. 

Nic de Waal, managing director of Teknicraft Design in New Zealand, designed  Storm Petrel , and All American Marine in Bellingham, Wash., built the vessel. It was delivered in August to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which operates it from La Push, Wash., on the Olympic Peninsula.

Storm Petrel ’s primary mission is to maintain a series of floating buoys that measure water temperature, acidity and other data. In a typical maintenance mission, researchers haul a buoy onto the boat and download the data. From there, they upload the information to the internet, making it available to researchers around the world.

The new boat is bigger and better than the one it’s replacing, said NOAA’s Kevin Grant, and it helps the agency complete missions in partnership with universities, nonprofits and state, federal and tribal governments.

“We have been working on acquiring a new vessel that would fit our needs for almost a decade,” said Grant, the deputy sanctuary superintendent with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary where the boat is currently operating.

The boat’s lead captain is Marshall Stein, a former U.S. Coast Guard captain who came to Washington in July specifically to pilot this boat, Grant said. The vessel is fitted with twin Cummins QSC8.3 engines driving conventional propellers.

In a typical mission, NOAA needs the boat to cruise at 18 knots. These engines can reach that speed with just 50 percent power, said Ron Wille, president and chief operating officer for All American Marine.

“The engine application was a great fit, and it will last NOAA a very long time,” he said.

Wille also pointed to another important design aspect: the boat’s plumb bow.

“The bow is vertical, straight up and down. And that basically gives the boat some additional length at the waterline, which generates higher hull efficiency at slower speeds,” he said.

De Waal, of Teknicraft, provided more details on how the hull design contributes to the boat’s mission.

“NOAA’s mission requirement for the vessel is to be able to operate up to 100 nautical miles off the coast of Washington state,” he wrote in an email. “Within the constraint of a maximum allowable vessel length of 52 feet, we designed the hull to provide the best possible seakeeping in offshore conditions, whilst also having low resistance to ensure long range, and have the stability and course-keeping ability required to accurately and efficiently perform survey work.”

Storm Petrel is also designed for a heavy load. The vessel carries a wide range of scientific equipment and a load of up to 8,000 pounds. As such, de Waal said, “the hull shape was carefully designed to support this displacement whilst still providing speed of up to 25 knots.”

Fuel consumption averages about 1.3 gallons per nautical mile at 20 knots during a typical mission, he said. The vessel also has a wave piercer between the catamaran sponsons to break up wave action and reduce drag.

Storm Petrel  replaces the 41-foot monohull  Tatoosh , which was built in 1994. It is shorter and narrower than  Storm Petrel , Grant said, and it carries fewer people.

The new vessel can carry up to 18 people and is primarily designed for day trips from its home port into the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary — an area of about 3,188 square miles of ocean off the rugged Olympic Peninsula. The sanctuary runs 25 to 50 miles offshore and contains several submarine canyons, Grant said.

“But it’s an extremely important ecosystem in that those canyons during the summertime funnel cooler, deeper waters that are nutrient-rich up onto the continental shelf,” he added. “And that’s why we get plankton blooms, which result in large whale migrations coming through here at certain times.”

“Large seabird populations, numerous different types of whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters” also populate the area, he continued. “It’s quite an astonishing ecosystem.”

As humans burn fossil fuels, the world’s oceans are absorbing increased amounts of carbon dioxide. That, in turn, increases the acidity of the water.

Grant explained how ocean acidification can impact species off the waters of Washington, starting with the tiny creatures called pteropods that feed young salmon that have just reached the ocean. Less than one centimeter long, they look something like a snail with wings; the Monterey Bay Aquarium calls them “swimming snails of the sea .”

“The increasingly acidic water prevents them from forming their shell,” Grant said. “Quite literally, their shell dissolves. And when that happens, the organism dies, there’s less food for salmon, less salmon available for humans, and less for the southern resident killer whales that feed almost exclusively on salmon.”  

“Ocean acidification has traumatic impacts up and down the marine food chain,” he added.

NOAA has said the damage to marine species could harm economies and destroy jobs. Grant considers Washington an important spot to monitor the ocean acidification process.

“Not only is it already happening, but the west coast of Washington is almost the canary in the coal mine.”

To haul buoys and other pieces of scientific equipment on board,  Storm Petrel  is equipped with an A-frame, an InterOcean winch and a Morgan crane. It also has a “pot puller” designed for pulling crab pots from the seafloor. The lifting equipment can also deploy and recover remote-control submarines, Grant said.

The boat’s lifting capacity is far superior to that of its predecessor. While  Tatoosh  could lift 500 pounds, the A-frame on  Storm Petrel  can handle 10 times that much weight.

A flybridge with a bimini top gives researchers a good vantage point for observing wildlife. The vessel also has dive ladders to support underwater operations.

The crew working on the boat have accommodations including a galley and dinette. The vessel is large enough to bring some passengers on board for education and outreach purposes as well.

A university or other partner can bring a specific piece of equipment to the boat deck, fasten it down and connect it to three dry lab computer workstations, Grant said. Computer server racks on the vessel are equipped with backup power in case of a power failure. The vessel also has a wet lab space for examining specimens.

All American’s Wille said the boat’s builders squeezed a lot of features into a relatively small space. Doing so meant using space wisely. The best example is how the team put together the engine room, fitting in the hydraulics, generator power, exhaust systems and the engines themselves.

“It’s a lot of equipment to fit in a small space, but our team did an exemplary job of accomplishing that,” Wille said. “The boat really turned out wonderful. We’re very, very proud of it.”

Grant acknowledged it took the agency a long time to obtain a new boat for this stretch of western Washington.  Storm Petrel  should end up being worth the wait.

“We are thrilled,” he said, “to finally have an on-the-water asset that will allow our research programs to grow and serve as a very sound platform for partners.” •

By Professional Mariner Staff