Scuttlebutt News: The Landing School in Arundel, Maine

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A less traditional education

The Landing School in Arundel, Maine, is making preparations to begin building two new Steve Dalzell-designed, 30-foot performance daysailers, tentatively called LS-30s, which will launch in June 2009. The modern, carbon-rigged, bulb-keel boats will go under construction this fall as part of the curriculum for The School’s 10-month-long Boatbuilding Program.

The LS-30 is an avant-garde boat for the curriculum of the 30-year-old school which historically has built traditional-style wooden daysailers and powerboats. The accredited, post-secondary school’s mission is to train people to be knowledgeable and practical yacht designers, boatbuilders and marine systems technicians who work professionally on today’s vessels using modern methods and materials. By incorporating more performance-oriented designs into the Boatbuilding program of study, The Landing School is enriching its teachings with the most contemporary ideas about yacht construction.

The LS-30 design is being finalized now. The boat is a performance club-racer that easily doubles as a family daysailer. The two-ton, epoxy composite LS-30 carries 1,825 pounds of ballast in a 6'-deep lead bulb keel complemented by a forged-steel fin. The narrow 7' 6'' beam and 25' waterline work with the ballast to maintain great stability, which allows the boat’s crew to sit comfortably in the cockpit rather than on the rail. The efficient arrangement of sheets, halyards and the comprehensive rig controls on the deck leads all lines to two winches mounted on the coach roof and a two-speed mainsheet system in the cockpit, which makes single-handed sailing easy.

The LS-30’s sail plan includes 506' of sail split between a fully battened, fat-headed main and a 100% jib, plus an asymmetric spinnaker. The skiff-style carbon rig is self-tending and has 30-degree swept spreaders. The jib is equipped with below-deck roller furling.

The Landing School will submit the final LS-30 design for PHRF and IRC ratings later this summer after the faculty has selected all the materials, rigging and hardware to be used in the boats’ construction.

The Landing School will begin construction of the first two LS-30s in September by two teams of six students as part of the Cruising Boats Course. All of the 80 students who attend The Landing School annually are enrolled in one of five 10-month programs: Boatbuilding/Cruising Boats, Boatbuilding/Small Boats, Composites, Yacht Design, and Marine Systems. Each program is full-time—encompassing a minimum of 40 hours per week for the students—and culminates with a diploma upon successful completion by a student. This year students studying boatbuilding at The Landing School are producing four peapod dories, three Haven Class 12 1/2s, one F-82R trimaran, and two Arundel 27 weekender powerboats. The LS-30s will be built in lieu of the Arundel 27s during the 2008/09 school year. All the boats are sold annually to support the nonprofit school.

There is more information about the LS-30 and The Landing School online at www.landingschool.edu.