While ready to flog off the family silver when it comes to C-Class development, there is a second strong theme flowing through the Clark family bloodline… making the sport accessible. The commercial success of the popular Vanguard 15 (right) helped to fund a lot of that other rather higher-end development, while their little vinylester mass-manufacture UFO foiling pocket-cat (left) was jointly developed by Steve with son David to offer proper foiled sailing at a more realistic price point. Dave Clark also sells an excellent low cost way into the IC10 canoe class – his competitive hard-chine Machete design is sold in CNC-cut plywood kit form for $2,000 for a hull kit including carbon seat tracks; a complete kit with carbon spars, seat kit, seat carriage and foils will set you back about $5,000
Red Herring One significant piece of family history that is no longer part of Steve’s fleet is Red Herring, a boat his father ‘caused to be created’. Designed by Dave Hubbard and built in 1980 by Eric Goetz, ‘she was the first canting-keel boat that actually worked. The good news was: she worked. The bad news was: she didn’t work anywhere near well enough.’ The 55-footer’s keel could be lifted and
canted, though not at the same time. ‘My father described her as a rather large and non-negotiable asset.’ In 2012 Steve wrote about this unique
vessel. ‘When I was a kid Dad and I talked boats all the time. He drew on the back of paper place mats at Howard Johnson’s when we were stopping for a hot dog. As often as not it was something that would eventually turn into Red Herring. When I brought home my first International Canoe he went for a short sail and said, “That’s it. I’m building the skinny boat.”’ Sadly his father died only three years
later. Over the next few decades Steve experimented with various rigs, sailplans and underbodies. By the time he sold the boat, ‘I’d changed everything.’ But the new owner is ‘treating her like the trophy wife she ought to be. She’s at the Royal Cana- dian Yacht Club, the most interesting thing there; fxx!ing magical, with about an 8ft bowsprit and twin asymmetrical spin- nakers. She’s optimised for Lake Ontario and she doesn’t get beaten very often.’
What he’s doing now After surviving a heart attack a few years ago Steve started a new project: ‘a sailing canoe I can still sail. I’ve designed a geezer boat that has more stability than the current fast canoe. Same hull shape underwater,
but it’s got flare on the topsides which is pretty cool. The boat is absolutely the same beast, but I’m not that guy any more. Now I’m trying not to fall off the perch.’ He’s also deeply involved in the 110
Class, a classic hard-chine design he calls ‘old school in a lot of ways’, but also ‘a pretty happy little boat. I don’t think I can ever get old enough that I can’t sail a 110.’ He still has dozens of opinions about
what’s wrong with the sport, he adds. ‘One of which is I think all the adventure’s gone out of it. Going to a weekend regatta just sucks, and it doesn’t fit in with two- income families. And the sailboat race, as practised at a regatta, is not a lot of fun.’ I want to remind him that he said the same thing about the brand-new hot Laser, but instead we digress again to discuss wing- foiling, which Steve hasn’t (yet) tried. ‘There’s a lot of people playing with
wind and water,’ he points out, wondering out loud if the sport is actually healthier than it seems. ‘It’s like if you thought ski- ing was dying because all these people are on snowboards; there’s a lot of ways to interact with snow and gravity, and the parking lot’s full either way, right? So is the sport really dying, when you don’t see 30 Snipes out but there are 25 wings over there that didn’t used to be there?’
Still sailing too It’s long past time to wrap up, but I can’t resist asking what boat he actually sails the most nowadays. I’m thinking he might wax poetic on taking his young grand- daughter out for a harbour tour, but ‘sail- ing’ clearly means ‘racing’ to him. ‘Last summer I sailed the 110 a lot,’ he replies, adding that the 24-footer can be raced one-design or PHRF for longer local races. A friend hangs on the trapeze for him;
‘You get to go spend a couple hours together, and what’s wrong with that?’ On our freezing tour of his property
he’d pointed out several 110s in need of love; now he repeats his wish that other sailors will take them away. ‘I was trying not to restore them, but…’ After another shrug the next observa-
tion reminds me of his childhood role as Mom’s muscular shadow: ‘I’m one of the few people who can, or one of the few peo- ple who will’ rebuild old boats. ‘I wish that wasn’t the case, but what am I supposed to do? I have a hard time just doing enough; it’s like, how can I make this really cool?’ He does admit to one change of heart.
‘Having done all the attempts to be the next boat for junior sailing, I’m now think- ing that the next boat really ought to look a lot more like a 110 – so it actually has the capacity to do more things.’ Of course Steve has built a brand-new
110, the first wood boat the class has seen in something like 60 years. ‘Just because,’ he says, before quoting himself from a pre- vious article about why he builds boats: ‘Why do dogs lick their balls, right?’ When I suggest that it’s because he’s
good at it, he shakes his head. ‘I don’t know whether I’m good at it or not. I’m just the only one doing it.’ I finally manage to tear myself away,
though long after the drive home my head remains full of an eclectic mix: slightly out- there theories about a very wide range of topics, plus all the practical perspective earned over decades of tweaking and modernising whatever boats come his way. Obviously he’s also still thinking about
our conversation; a few days later Steve writes what he calls ‘A more accurate answer to “Why do you do this?” Because no one’s asked me to do something else.’ q
SEAHORSE 45
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