Dibley 23: Trailerable Racer

Designed for production by Watershed Sailboats in Colorado, USA, the Dibley 23 is the first yacht into the USA for Dibley Marine -Yacht Designers. Dibley Marine has worked closely with Watershed Sailboats founder, Tim Reiter, over the design and recently finalised the design parameters and specifications. Production to begin later in the year once tooling has been completed.

The critical design parameters were the overall length of 23', a maximum beam of 8'-2" and the sail area of 368 sq ft. With a target of maximising the sail area: displacement ratio, Dibley paid special attention to the deck layout and crew positions to ensure that both the fixed ballast and crew weight is concentrated around the boat's centre of buoyancy. This minimises pitching. Total sailing displacement is only 750kg. This includes an allowance for four crew and 200kg in the bulb keel. The final sail area: displacement ratio is 42.

The other major design consideration was the hull shape. Here Dibley used the resources of the VPP computer modelling package to determine the ideal maximum waterline beam, with the right shape to mould into the maximum trailerable width wings which utilise the righting effect of that crew weight. The hull shape is also slightly hollow in the entry to reduce drag and minimise the bow wave. The shape then fairs into a flat run aft for planing performance.

The layout and set up is very simple. No winches, just double purchase on the headsail halyard and sheets, with two ratchet blocks each side to take the gennaker loads.
The hull laminate will be a combination of Kevlar, Double Bias and Carbon around a 20mm foam core; the deck has a similar laminate.

The rig utilises a carbon fibre mast designed by Chris Mitchell of Applied Engineering. The lightweight rig has a lower centre of gravity than alloy resulting in less pitching and a reduction in the associated drag. The resulting rig is light and flexible with the top section almost self de-powering in gusty conditions.

Specifications and Principal Dimensions