Madrigal
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Building Madrigal took four months, and cost under a thousand pounds (in 1980). Professional yacht delivery skipper John Hawes had just sold his 51 foot cruiser in the Mediterranean and wanted to sail back to Boston (UK) with his wife, "as cheaply, easily, and as safely as possible", and so he set about designing a boat which would be tough and sea-kindly, which offered a good load-carrying capacity, with shoal draft and reasonable accomodation, and above all - a boat which would be easy to build.
The design which emerged had a 22 foot dory-style hull with a shallow full-length keel, leeboards, lifting rudder, raised topsides and a permanent A-frame permitting the mast to be raised or lowered in seconds.
Carrying no additional ballast, and weighing-in at around 2800 pounds Madrigal is eminently trailer-sailable, and equally at home in open water or pottering along inland canals.
Specification
| Length over deck | 22' 0" (6.71m) |
| Length Waterline | 19' 0" (5.80m) |
| Beam | 6' 10" (2.08m) |
| Draught | 1' 6" (0.46m) |
| Displacement | 2800lbs (1273kg) |
| Ballast | none |
| Total Sail Area | 175 sq ft (16.25m2) |
Madrigal has featured in Practical Boat Owner and Ian Oughtred's Wooden Boatbuilding in Britain (1986 edition, p39).
Madrigal's construction technique has been adopted for at least two other craft: a 19 foot version with a pointed bow, and a twin-beam commercial fishing vessel, photographs of which can be seen in the hull variations page.
| Photos | Construction | Plans | FAQs | Hull Variations |