Fall 2001

Flicka’s origin dates back to the late 1950’s when I was serving Navy duty in Rhode Island. I had built an 8’ sailing dinghy, and every Saturday morning I’d go off to explore the harbors and backwaters of Narragenssett Bay. One of these jaunts took me up a river just south of Wickford where I found two derelict wooden sailboats. I made some quick sketches and was able to walk off some rough dimensions. I later learned they were Newport boats, and most of them measured between 22’ and 28’. These boats had large working cockpits with small cuddy cabins forward. There was enough left of them to show that at one time they had a single forward bunk and a small galley, but only crouching headroom. They appeared to have been catketch or cat-schooner rigged.

The weather on block Island Sound during any season (except for late the summer months) is noted for going from flat calms to raging gales, with every little in between. Yet the lobstermen had to work yearround to make a living. The Newport boats were built to serve their openwater needs. The Newport boat and the Cape Cod cat seemed to have developed during the same period for the same type of work. On the surface, many similarities are apparent - the plumb or tumble-home bow, the kicky sheer, the dinghy steer and large outboard rudder. The Cape Cod cat, however, never had to sail the long distances required of the Newport boats. More often than not. the fishermen of the Newport boasts spent days on end at sea.

The character and ruggedness of these boats appealed to me so much that I started playing with the lines while I was still in the Navy. I was able to find line drawings in Howard Bruce Bingham sailing s/v SABRINA Chapelle’s classic on small My curiosity was aroused. on a Quarter broad reach. American sailing craft. But my Farther up the river, I was © Bruce P. Bingham 2001 Navy time ended and the lucky enough to find a couple sketches lay dormant for some of old lobstermen who could ten years, not reemerging until 1971, shortly after I opened tell me more about my discovery. They said the boats were my San Francisco design office. Once again my enthusiasm all that were left of a fleet of over 100 that had sailed out of for the Newport boat’s potential was rekindled. I had in mind Wickford, Jamestown, Point Judith and Newport around the applying the Newport hull to an enclosed small cruising turn of the century. Newport boats were used primarily to boat. tend lobster pots on Block Island Sound. A few had been fitted with engines and were still operating during the 1930’s. Continued on Page 4

Thanks to Bruce P. Bingham for permission to republish this article. It originally appeared in the September 1980 issue of Small Boat Journal. Continued from Page 1 I wanted to keep the new design within the minimum budget of amateur builders, so the hull length was reduced to 20’. I thought from the first sketches that full headroom might be possible. The solution was to locate the cabin sole directly on the top of the inboard ballast and to employ a high main deck crown as well as an extremely high deck crown. The latter two elements helped keep the appearance of the cabin side height to a minimum. In practice, we've found both the deck and cabin top quite comfortable to walk around on, particularly when the boat is heeled.

s/v SABRINA on a beam reach with a Trinka dinghy. © Bruce P. Bingham 2001

Preliminary drawings were submitted to all of the boating magazines in late 1971 as a design for amateur construction. The Flicka was an instant success, so much so that “Rudder” ran a seven-part, how-to-build series. Over a five year period, more than 400 Flicka plan packages were sold, the majority going to Australia and New Zealand, Sweden and the state of California.

s/v SABRINA on a broad reach with a Trinka dinghy in tow. © Bruce P. Bingham 2001

While I personally favored the cat-ketch or cat-schooner rig, I felt it would be too difficult to sell to the general public, so I opted for a tall 7/8 sloop rig with a short bowsprit. I’ve since altered that to a more modern masthead rig, giving the boat larger heads’ls that she is able to handle easily. Flicka was chosen as the design’s name, because it seemed to reflect the personality of the boat. The word is Swedish; it translates as a happy, vivacious little girl.

Most of the backyard Flickas were of fiberglass construction, although quite a number of photographs arrived in my office depicting Flickas a strip-planked and carvel-planked wood. They ranged from absolute sparseness to the utmost elegance. Some were even built with sprungplank teak decks. As Flickas were finished and commissioned, I began receiving letters from owners describing remarkable passages of thousands of miles. Four of these owners started out on round-the-world cruises. I assume that some of them have completed their circumnavigations by now. The last letter I received before closing my California office was from a couple who had reached the west coast of Africa and reported they were having a great time and still loved their Flicka. Both Kate and I had always wanted a Flicka of our own, and decided to build one in 1974. We constructed a superb hull in fiberglass. I spent many hours on just the carving of the bow and quarter scroll work. Kate drew up an authentic planking plan, including butt and end seams. Business boat, we managed to pull off an astonishing fourth in cruising class on the 200 mile “Round Long Island Race.” We were still attaching hardware and tuning the rig on the starting line. After 125 miles, we were sailing neck and neck with such reputable boats as a Cal 25, a Seafarer 33, and a Tanzer 22, among others. We were the smallest boat in the race, and we were doing what was mathematically impossible. Even I could not understand why. She just seemed to do everything I asked and to do it extremely well. Her light air performance is truly phenomenal. She’s able to out ghost boats as much as 15’ longer. What she seemed to like best, though, is the really heavy stuff. With a doublereefed main and a jib or storm stays’l, she is an absolute thrill to sail. When the going really gets tough, and the other boats are running for shelter, the Flicka seems to be in her element. She’s not a particularly dry boat when going to weather in these conditions, but she’s weatherly, responsive and surprisingly comfortable. Our first opportunity to really put the Flicka to a test was on a trip between the Stamford and Newport boats shows. A distance of 108 miles. We left Stamford on the leading edge of a cold front with a steady 20 knot breeze and higher gusts. We ticked off the miles in 19 hours - a 5.68 average. s/v SABRINA sailing beam to weather. © Bruce P. Bingham 2001

pressures kept us from finishing the work, however, so the plug was sold to a group of builders in Santa Barbara, CA. Unfortunately for the Flicka, they were bankrupt within a year. Bill Luther,who had worked for me as a freelance draftsman and was a longtime admirer of the Flicka, was convinced of her potential on the market. On his own volition, he set out to find a company willing to purchase the existing mold. The young Pacific Seacraft Corporation not only took a chance on the Flicka but on Bill Luther as well. He’s still with the company, in charge of Flick production and promotion. In 1978, our longtime dream of having our own Flicka came true. I became the proud owner of Pacific Seacraft’s hull number 25 - the SABRINA. The Flicka was never intended to be a high performance boat; the prime criteria were seaworthiness and a comfortable, livable interior for long distance coastal and offshore cruising. Even though I had heard some pretty remarkable stories of better than 5 knot averages, it was only when I began to sail the SABRINA that I became a true believer. Within four days of her delivery in Oyster Bay, New York, with an unfamiliar crew and an unfamiliar

Twenty larger boats left Stamford at the same time, yet the SABRINA was the first to arrive in Brenton Cove at Newport (and she was towing an 8’ dinghy and loaded down for cruising). Allowing for favorable currents, that’s a 1.33 speed/length ration - equal to that of most racing machines. Five and one-quarter knot passages have become almost routine over the last 6,000 miles aboard the SABRINA. Although I have posed the question of her incredible speed potential to members of the design staffs of both McCudry and Rhodes and Sparkman and Stevens, even they have been unable to come up with a plausible explanation. One of the more interesting theories, suggested by Philip Rhodes, Jr., was that her long waterline and abrupt ends “fooled” the water into thinking she was a larger boat, hence her hull speed increase accordingly. at 5 1/2 knots, the quarter wave is fully 5’ or 6’ aft of the transom, yet the boat never seems to have a tendency to squat. Whatever the reason, she is extremely fast. The design stood the test of time, and it has surpassed my highest expectations. Of all my designs, the Flicka remains as my greatest source of pride, and the SABRINA my greatest joy. Thanks again to Bruce P. Bingham for permission to republish this article. © Bruce P. Bingham 2001 Please add my name to the Flicka Friends and those who are interested in the Bruce P. Bingham design - Flicka. Your name will not be given to any other publication at any time. This publication is not for profit. Currently, Flicka Friends is posted to the Yahoo Flicka20 Group web page in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. You can go to this web page and download the newsletters for free. You can also obtain the Acrobat Reader for free on the internet. For more information, go to the Flicka Friends Home Page or the Flicka Home Page. Thank you very much. NAME

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