Left: the very IOR big boat lines of Alan Andrews’ Details design, fast on Long Island Sound but not your first choice for a Transpac. Centre/top: the very modern-looking Wolfpack was designed by Jim Donovan some 35 years ago – hard to believe when you see her on the water looking every inch the modern pocket-racer. Wolfpack was very lightly built by 505 and foils maestro Larry Tuttle but she is still in excellent structural shape. In 2013 she was loaned to Larry Ellison’s former racing managers Bill and Melinda Erkelens, who gave the boat a comprehensive refit before racing her to Hawaii together in the 2014 Pacific Cup. The MORC story was in part inspired by the UK success of the Junior Offshore Group, itself born on the back of WWII hero Patrick Ellam’s oceanic adventures onboard his 19ft 6in Sopranino (right). The lines to build a new Sopranino can still be purchased from Laurent Giles Naval Architects
Even in the later years of the class there
was enough demand for custom designs to keep several custom builders active: besides Choate, Westerly and others in So Cal, there were others in the Great Lakes region including Scorpio, Wiggers and Star Marine in Canada that built no fewer than seven MORC racers. Andrews reckons MORC was a good
rule for its time: ‘It inspired dozens of pro- duction and custom designs that have the right mix of sail area, length and weight to be still actively raced today, with some even being tweaked and retrofitted for performance improvement.’ He said it was also a time when custom and production boats were about the same cost, so there was better value in the investment. This re-purposing includes even his
own successful MORC champion Details, which had its cockpit modified to be lighter and internal ballast removed. Based in eastern Long Island Sound,
current
owner John Fries says, ‘Our goals were to have a solid dual-purpose boat with week- end cruise-ability as well as capable racing performance in our local fleet. ‘After thinking long and hard and
considering our budget (and with two small children to factor in) my wife and I decided the 30ft range was a good fit. Our
46 SEAHORSE
search led us to boats designed to the MORC rule due to their good perfor- mance in our local conditions plus genuine dual-purpose nature. But now we had to search to find a boat… ‘Sylvain Barrielle is a good friend and
fellow team-mate from the 2007 China Team America’s Cup programme, and he knew that the Andrews 1982 MORC champion Detailswas still kicking around. The only issue with this was the boat was located in California and we live in Con- necticut. But after negotiating shipping across the country we started on a top-to- bottom restoration of the boat in 2015. ‘We grew pretty fond of our “mini
Admiral’s Cup” yacht and so in the autumn of 2020 my father and I took on a second large refit of Details, this time replacing the entire cockpit plus the rudder. Alan was a huge help designing the new rudder and providing guidance for building the new cockpit. The refit was literally an in-house project, as we built the cockpit mould in my father’s garage, while installing the new part took place on my driveway as did the final re-spray! ‘We hope to see more interest in restoring
these designs, much like the resurgence in classic IOR boats. These little boats offer a great fit for many people and provide a
good balance of attributes at a reasonable price, something not easy to find these days. ‘We have certainly admired the Quarter
Ton revival from afar, but anecdotally we know that our route is a heck of a lot cheaper… and also offers a degree of dual usage not possible in those designs.’ John also comments on racing on handi-
cap in the local fleets: ‘On the racing side ORC is an excellent rule for these boats, just as we know the IRC rule has been for the modern Quarter Ton class. With the wide range of configurations they sailed under in their MORC lives and then later on, it can be difficult to keep track of what trim the boats are actually in now. Also, many of the boats were custom; for example, Andrews 30s were built from 1982 to ’94 to different designs and specifications, and this is similar to many of the other custom MORC boats, such as the Nelson-Marek 30s and so on. So we do need something more than PHRF if the racing is going to be close. ‘Without a measured rule system it
becomes extremely difficult to differentiate between the various designs and rate them equitably. Fundamentally these boats are inexpensive, fairly easy to modify and when measured and rated in ORC rather than PHRF they are fun to sail and race. Call them our little well-kept secret…’ q
ERIK SIMONSON
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