Made In Santa Cruz in the era of ULDB

 

I don’t know where I copied this picture from.  I’ve made a couple of trips to Santa Cruz but I haven’t ever seen this plaque in person.   

Here is an article from the author’s website about the 70’s / 80’s era of ULDB in Santa Cruz.   (archived here as well).

Wilderness Yachts was in western Santa Cruz in a building near the Cat & Cloud Coffee Shop of today.  I’d love to hear any info or stories about the Wilderness Yachts shop.  I have not been able to find much at all about them.

My understanding of the definition of a ULDB (Ultra Light Displacement Boat) is a rather narrow beam, light displacement, high ballast to displacement ratio.  The Wilderness 21 has a ballast to displacement ratio of 57%.  That’s very high.  In non-ULDB designs it is considered high to be in the low 40% range.  As a comparison the Santa Cruz 27 is 50% and the Moore 24 is 48%.

My first ocean trip was to return a Santa Cruz 70 (Merlin) from Hawaii to Santa Cruz.  I was completely unaware of how special that boat is.  I do know it could launch into warp speed if you were not careful.  That’s a big problem when heading upwind (almost the whole return from Hawaii is upwind).  Launching off a larger wave in Dukes of Hazzard style is no good for the boat or crew.  We had that a few times and I did take some flying lessons one night in the cabin.  

I’ve become a big fan of the ULDB era boats since then.  I crewed occasionally on a Santa Cruz 27 named Solstice while in Portland in the 90’s.  I love the story behind Santa Cruz Yachts, Bill Lee and the others.   This makes the Wilderness 21 special to me.