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Aleta
The Valiant is a wonderful boat with a storied history. It was designed by Bob Perry back in the 1970s with the help of some friends. In many ways the original Valiant 40 was probably one of his greatest achievements. All artists have their favorites and they don’t always agree with their customers on what their best work is, after all it’s all in the eye of the beholder, right?
The first Valiants were built by Uniflite in Bellingham, Washington. The boat became an instant hit. At 40’ in length with enough room for a cruising couple, her fin keel and skeg hung rudder meant that she would be both nimble in the short game and capable of long offshore passages. Unfortunately, a misguided use of new fire retardant resins resulted in disaster. Valiants built between 1976 and 1981 are prone to osmotic blisters (water seepage into the fabric of the fiberglass). A class-action lawsuit followed and eventually bankrupted Uniflite. The fiasco almost wrecked the Valiant brand.
Texas
In 1984 manufacturing moved to Texas and in 1992. Second generation Valiant 42s were launched soon after and gained a stellar reputation for quality and strength. This is a boat that is designed to sail the world’s oceans. Balanced and sea kindly, it rolls with its environment. They make 50 knot open ocean gales seem like a day on the bay. Or so we’re told.
Aleta is one of the very last Valiants to roll off the production line. When the financial markets crashed in 2008 most of the air went out of the luxury sailboat business. Production finally ceased in 2011. I can only surmise that the company was left with a set of orders on its hands and a big hole in its cash flow. Rumor is that they will still build you a boat, provided you put cash on the barrel and are willing to wait at least six months for delivery.
Tickling
Her specs may seem average by modern standards, but were high-end at the time she was drawn up. Aleta is 42’ overall. Her hull is based on the original 40’ form, but with an added bowsprit that helps reduce lee helm). She draws 6’ and her mast height is a hair under 58’, not including antennae, wind vanes or lights. With those extras she might tickle a 62’ bridge’s underbelly.
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is nominally dredged to a minimum depth of 12’. Well, that might have been true once, but, like so many public goods, the ICW has fallen foul of fiscal neglect for at least a decade. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining the ICW, but in recent years has taken to surveying and reporting shallow spots rather than dredging them out. The Coast Guard is responsible for buoyage along the route and does a reasonable job marking trouble spots based on the Corp’s surveys. Still, it’s often not enough to prevent groundings. Many shallower stretches shoal up to 4′ or 5’ at high water!
Lofty Heights
Then there are the bridges. The regulation height is 65’ but, like the depths, clearances are variable. Sometimes this is due to higher tides, sometimes because the bridge has settled on its foundations, and sometimes because the bridge was built too damn low to begin with. The final straw is that the ‘ditch’ is around 100’ wide and requires mechanical, not wind, power. Graceful sailboats are turned into vile stink-pots.
Based on all this, even the most landed lubber can see it is simply as unnatural for Aleta to be navigating the ICW as a gazelle would be tag-teaming in a hog wrestling match. In the final analysis, Aleta is completely ill-suited to traveling the ICW. I mean completely!
For more than 300 miles Aleta’s wings have been clipped. Blue water beckoned just beyond the breakwaters and still she was forced to kick up the mud in the silty backwaters of the Carolinas. But not for much longer. Thanks to the years of neglect mentioned earlier we can’t go past Charleston on the ICW and will have to go down the coast. We are looking forward to unfurling her new mainsail in anticipation of warmer, fairer winds!
For more on the Valiant‘s origin story click here: Birth of the Valiant
Great blog.