Perry Design Review: Alden 38 Seaflower

This Alden design was prepared for an owner who wanted a yacht in the style of the Danish double-ender with the performance advantages of a modern design. As you might guess, this type is dear to my own heart and was, in fact, the inspiration for the Valiant series. I think that with little effort you can see traces of this style carried throughout several lines of production yachts. Unfortunately, some of these designs exaggerated the style to the extent that they appear to me to be caricatures of the parent type. I think Phil Bolger and Bill Garden can get away with cartoon types, but it takes a deft hand and a wonderful eye.

The Alden 38 has classic double-ender looks with good, old-fashioned Alden charm.

My exposure to the Danish-style double-ender was through the work of the late K. Aage Nielson. Nielson's eye was as good as you will ever find and no better demonstrated than in his Holger Dansk design. Holger Dansk is a stout double-ender that used to moor in Marblehead harbor. A masterpiece from any angle, Holger Dansk inspired scores of similar styled designs, so many that it would be easy to understand Nielson's disdain for this.

The designers at Alden have brought this style to life again with the Alden 38 Seaflower, designed for an owner who wanted a stiff boat free of mechanical and electrical complexity. The sailplan shows a short rig capable of driving the boat comfortably in up to 20 knots of true wind speed without requiring a reef. The SA/D ratio is 16.4. I like the fact that they avoided a bowsprit and cutter rig. Note the single spreaders and the fore and aft lowers. This is a very simple rig that I do not think you can improve on. To minimize crew effort, the designers have specified a Hood Stoway spar.

The hull lines show a boat with moderate deadrise and lots of flam to the topsides (Flam is the opposite of flare). This results in a full bow as indicated by the strong spoon bow profile. For the lack of a handy term, I have always called this type of stern a "tumblehome canoe stern." This tumblehome is gently introduced at about station 8.5. The sheerline will roll over into a subtle "powderhorn" curve and is an excellent example of a case where a "planar sheer" (a sheer all in one plane) will not work at all, unless you want your stern to look like a duck's tail.

Seaflower is not nearly as full forward as the parent type, but this is a concession to performance. The underwater profile shows a fin keel with skeg hung rudder. Draft is moderate at 5'9". The D/L ratio of this design is 273. The keel is well aft on the canoe body and connected to the skeg with a deadwood area to keep the prop shaft protected.

There is little to say about this interior layout. It is pure basic "A," if you go back a few years to a time when cruising yachts had pilotberths. Pilotberths are great places to sleep, kids love them and they are also great places to stow sea bags so they are accessible during the day. Most modern production versions of this type would eliminate the pilotberths in favor of drawers for doilies and louvered lockers for crystal wine goblet storage. Don't forget the little shelf with the dried plant stuck in a macramed whisky bottle — on a doily. There is not a single area I would alter on this layout. Simplicity is wonderful.

Seaflower is being built in Humlebaek, Denmark, by the Hinrichsen family yard. The hull is fiberglass with a Divinycell H.80 core. The decks are plywood with teak overlay and the cabintrunk is teak. This style of building will produce a very traditional looking yacht. The interior is finished in white pine with team trim and white formica overhead between exposed beams. There are 85 gallons of fuel and 175 gallons of water.

Let's get some cans of Dinty Moore and go cruising.

Boat Specifications

LOA	38'4"
LWL	32'6"
Beam	11'10"
Draft	5'9"
Displacement	21000 lbs.
Ballast	8500 lbs.
Sail Area	782 sq. ft.
SA/D	16.43
D/L	273
Auxiliary	Yanmar 4JH-TE
Fuel	85 gals.
Water	175 gals.