As boat-ownership costs and accessibility continue to stymie the sport, many American sailors and newcomers now depend on yacht clubs, community sailing centers, and sailing schools to get on the water and racing. As a result, institutions that can afford to do so are now looking into club-owned fleets that can be used for adult racing and instruction. Their options are limited, but the founders of Storm Marine, a new company, say that they have the “ideal” offering.

Several East Coast clubs with deeper pockets and team-­racing programs have recently invested in Sonars, the utilitarian design of the late Bruce Kirby, but these boats are now imported from England and are either cost-prohibitive or too large for most organizations. Storm Marine’s offering instead is a utilitarian keelboat that they say is designed to serve and built to last.

“Sailing is in a bit of a decline,” says Karl Ziegler, a world champion of multiple disciplines and co-founder of Storm Marine, “and yacht clubs are struggling to maintain their membership, particularly young members. A lot of the new members are coming from a couple of different demographics who are not in a position to buy boats to sail. They just want to join a club and be able to sail boats at that club.”

What’s now used at most clubs, Ziegler says, are boats that are either outdated in their design and construction, no longer in production, and difficult to maintain and source parts. “That means an increased burden on the maintenance staff, and quite honestly, they don’t provide that ‘wow’ experience for the new member who is sailing for the first time.”

The solution that Ziegler and his cohorts in New England have come up with is called the Storm 18, which will be built by David Clark’s Fulcrum Speedworks, creator of the UFO, a pint-size foiling ­catamaran, and the Rocket, a redo of the Howmar Phantom, a 14-foot dinghy of the 1970s.

One of Ziegler’s ­partners in the venture is William Craine, who’s been in the boatbuilding industry for decades, most recently with LaserPerformance. Craine’s yacht club on Long Island Sound is looking to replace its ancient fleet of Ideal 18s, another Bruce Kirby design. Certain traits of the Ideal 18 and the Sonar are carried into the Storm 18, which is designed by naval architect Bob Ames.

“We looked at a lot of things Bruce did, particularly the cockpit, and then we tried to make it more contemporary,” Craine says. “This is an evolutionary boat. It’s pretty hard not to be these days, unless you’re foiling or doing something crazy. [The Storm 18] is reminiscent of an Ideal 18 on purpose—because it works.”

Craine, Ziegler and Storm’s third co-founder, Chris Daley, did their due diligence before pushing ahead with a new boat, and that included a deep analysis of other designs, canvassing clubs and sailing schools, and picking the brains of experienced program directors and industry experts the likes of Hall of Famer and sailmaker Robbie Doyle. The common demand across all institutions was durability. “That means fewer parts, an infusion build, and a rub rail all the way around,” Craine says. “Clubs that do a lot of team racing and learn-to-sail programs want bow and stern bumpers, so those are standard.”

Stability and safety were next, Ziegler says, so the rudder is oversize. The cockpit is deep and has the option for ­newbies to sit inside the gunwale or racers on the rail. The conceptual sail plan—with a square-top main, a small hanked-on jib, and ­asymmetric spinnaker (symmetric is an option for match- or team-­racing programs)—is designed with light-air venues and ­beginners in mind. “It’s a pretty generic design,” Craine admits, “but all together, it is something different.”

For institutions with limited storage space and infrastructure, there’s a retractable keel, a custom cradle in design, and a swing-up rudder to allow ramp launching where hoists are not available. The target price, Craine says, is $40,000, but larger fleet purchases always garner a better deal.

As of early 2024, tooling was underway at Fulcrum’s facility in East Providence, Rhode Island, and Storm Marine’s plan is to sail the prototype through late spring before stepping off into full production over late summer or early fall, a moment that for Ziegler, can’t come soon enough.

“This entire project has been a labor of love,” he says. “It’s an opportunity to fill a space that we’ve seen open for a number of years. It’s not a sexy space, but it’s a space of utility and a space where we see an opportunity to impact the overall growth of the sport. We’ve all been the beneficiaries of institutional sailboats, and we just wanted to be part of a project where we could give that experience to the next generation of sailors.”

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Bill Crane and Karl Ziegler, co-founders of Storm Marine, explain the philosophy and purpose of their soon-to-be-built Storm 18, targeted for clubs and sailing schools.

The post A Deeper Dive Into the Storm 18 appeared first on Sailing World.

Bill Crane, former chairman of the LaserPerformance Group, and several  influential marine industry experts and professionals recently announced the launch of Storm Marine Group, which aims to “dramatically change the approach to building and maintaining institutional sailboats in the United States.”

In an announcement from the new company, Crane said, “My partners and I have all grown up sailing and racing institutional boats, whether it be Ideal 18s, the Sonar or various other classes, most of our time on the water has been sailing in club-owned fleets. We have a passion for these boats and want to build something that elevates the sport through new institutional boats that are affordable, durable, and easy to maintain.”

Many institutional boats used in the United States, the company says, are designed for private clubs, public sailing centers and schools, and are built to accommodate two to five sailors. In addition, they say,  most of these historically popular classes are either no longer built, hard to replace and find parts for, or manufactured overseas at too high an expense for most US-based sailing organizations.

“We’ve all been the beneficiaries of institutional sailing all of our lives,” says the company’s managing partner, Karl Ziegler, whose background combines a history in business management, international sailing and coaching. “All of us see this as a mission and a passion and have a genuine desire to give back to the sport we love and help literally build its future.”

The venture, they say, has been a long time coming, prompted by a perceived COVID-era participation boom at sailing community establishments, private sailing schools, and yacht clubs around the country. “COVID brought sailing back to Marblehead (Massachusetts) in a big way,” says Robbie Doyle, a National Sailing Hall of Fame inductee. “I told Bill (Crane) about all the calls we were getting from people either interested in learning to sail or getting back into the sport, and they seemed more interested in joining clubs and using boats from house fleets rather than buying their own boat.”

Chris Daley, SMG’s third partner, said, “We’ve spent years talking about what’s wrong with the current equipment, and since all of us have ample experience in business and sailing, we think now is finally the time to do more than talk about it.”

Crane says he and his team are getting calls from all over the country as sailing organizations

struggle with aging fleets and associated replacement costs: “We concluded that there is a fairly immediate need for versatile boats that can serve beginners learning to sail and fleet sailors that race every Wednesday. They need to be relatively inexpensive, simple, stable and easy to sail, but also offer enough performance to surprise and delight the more experienced sailors.”

Crane also noted that boat design in all sizes has traditionally neglected the needs of women and the physically challenged, and that his team is developing ideas that will address those

constituencies as well. The World Sailing Trust recently put forward several recommendations

about meeting the needs of women sailors and is actively working with leaders in the industry to develop best practice guidance for gender equal design, which Crane says SMG will participate in. Crane also says the company is working with officials at US Sailing and other experts on the needs of the adaptive sailing community.

The company plans to formally announce details of its first major project, an 18-foot keelboat, in the coming the weeks.

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