The Silhouette also called the Silhouette 17, is a British trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

that was designed by Robert Tucker as a

pocket cruiser A pocket cruiser is a sailboat designed for recreational cruising and club racing, under in length. Like the similar and usually smaller trailer sailer they have design features to make it possible to tow them with passenger vehicles, such as ...

and first built in 1954.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page XX.

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, 2010. The basic Silhouette 17 design was developed through five marks and produced for more than 30 years.

Production

Originally made available as a kit for amateur construction from plywood, later kits and finished boats were supplied by Hurley Marine in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

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and later by Varne Marine, among other builders. Production ran between 1954 and 1986, with about 3,000 boats of all marks completed. After drawings were published in ''The Rudder'' magazine in April 1955, some readers noted the boat's outline shape or silhouette and the boat got its name.

Design

The Silhouette 17 is a recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

, with the early models built predominantly of plywood and later ones from

glassfibre Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

, with wood trim. Boats built up until 1960 had a fractional

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

and after that, during Mk II production, switched to a

masthead sloop A masthead rig on a sailing vessel consists of a forestay and backstay both attached at the top of the mast. The Bermuda rig can be split into two groups: the masthead rig and the fractional rig. The masthead rig has larger and more headsails, a ...

rig. The hull has a spooned,

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

; a raised counter, angled

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

; an internally mounted spade-type

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw a ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder ...

and twin

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in B ...

s or a single fixed fin keel. All versions had complex sheer lines, producing a distinctive appearance. The displacement and ballast vary by model. The boat is normally fitted with a small

outboard motor An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom. They are the most common motorised method o ...

for docking and manoeuvring, although a few models were offered with

inboard engine Marine propulsion is the mechanism or system used to generate thrust to move a watercraft through water. While paddles and sails are still used on some smaller boats, most modern ships are propelled by mechanical systems consisting of an electri ...

s. The design has sleeping accommodation for two, or four people starting with the Mk IV. Cabin headroom is . The design has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-t ...

of .

Variants

;Silhouette 17 Mark I :This kit-boat model was introduced in 1954 in plywood initially and built until 1986 with a choice of a fractional

Gunter rig Gunter rig is a configuration of sail and spars used in sailing. It is a fore and aft sail set abaft (behind) the mast. The lower half of the luff (front) of the sail is attached to the mast, and the upper half is fastened to a spar which is ...

with a sail area of or a fractional

Bermuda rig A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the term ''Marconi' ...

with of sail. It has a length overall of and a waterline length of . The boat has a draft of with the standard twin keels. ;Silhouette 17 Mark II :This model was introduced in 1958 and built from plywood until 1963, when glassfibre construction was introduced. On 1960 the previously-employed fractional rig was changed to a masthead rig. Production ran until 1966 with 1,830 boats completed. It has a hard

chine A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is still in use in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isl ...

hull, with a length overall of , a waterline length of , displaces and carries of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...

ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard twin keels and with the optional single fin keel. ;Silhouette 17 Mark III :This model was introduced in 1967 and was a major redesign for glassfibre construction by Hurley Marine, including a rounded hull design, a 40% increase in sail area and an optional

. It has a length overall of , a waterline length of , displaces and carries of cast iron ballast. The boat has a draft of with the standard twin glassfibre keels and with the optional single fin keel. ;Silhouette 17 Mark IV :This model was based on the Mk III, introduced in 1974 and built until 1974, with only about 25 completed. It introduced a four berth layout. ;Silhouette 17 Mark V :This model was introduced in 1974 and built by Varne Marine after Hurley went out of business and the moulds were sold.

Operational history

The boat is supported by an active class club, the ''Silhouette Owners International Association''. In a 2010 review Steve Henkel wrote, "best features: She probably would be among the least expensive sailboats to buy on the used market, if you could find one in reasonable condition. Worst features: Her shallow keel relatively high wetted surface keep her from being fast or weatherly ... She has the shortest waterline (slow under power), the smallest cockpit, least space below among her comp

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. Her old-fashioned hard-chine, tortured hull shape, originally dictated by the fact that she was to be built of flat sheets of plywood, give her a strange look that some would call ugly."

References

External links