Wilderness 21 photos from the past

 I’ve found several photos of other Wilderness 21’s online.  Many of them from when the boats were new.

That last bit of marketing makes me wonder a little bit.  I don’t understand how a fine entry and a high prismatic coefficient go together.  I thought those were kinda opposite.  The boat does do well in light wind so I think the boat has a low prismatic coefficient and sacrifices some at the high end of speed.  Isn’t the “easy surfer” part due to the quick acceleration (low prismatic coefficient) and light weight?  It is fun to try to understand these things.

“She has a fine entry and a high

prismatic coefficient to make

her fast in a blow and an easy

surfer.”

This is one of my favorite of the old pics.  It looks like the Santa Cruz yacht club small boat hoist area.  Would be in the late 70’s or early 80’s.  

This is Leslie King in the single handed Transpac in 1990.  https://www.sfbaysss.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/SHTP-Results-1978-2021C.pdf.   I want to find more about his trip to Hawaii in the Wilderness 21.  Unfortunately it looks like he died in 2010 at age of 56.  I see that he later owned a Wilderness 40 and took it to Hawaii and Thailand at least.  If anyone knows more about his sailing on Wilderness boats please get in touch with me.

From an online boat sale ad

From an online boat sale ad

From an online boat sale ad