Frequently Asked Questions

How do you achieve a 13" draft?
What is the draft with the centerboard down?
Do you have a true centerboard, a swing keel, a lifting keel or a daggerboard? How much does the centerboard weigh?
How much ballast does the boat have?
How stable is the boat? Where does the stability come from?
Why does the Presto 30 have two masts?
Why are the masts unstayed?
What is the boom called? Why do you use the wishbone?
How much do the masts weigh?
How do you step the masts?
How fast is the Presto 30?
How high can you point?
What does the trailer weigh?
What is the tow weight? What kind of vehicle do you need for towing the Presto?
What are the auxiliary power options?

How do you achieve a 13" draft?
The Presto 30 has a centerboard that fully retracts into the hull and a kick-up rudder. The picture below shows the boat with the centerboard and rudder up.

What is the draft with the centerboard down?
With the centerboard and rudder both fully deployed the draft is 5' 6". The picture below shows the boat with the centerboard and rudder down.This boat has twin electric motors and those are also deployed in this picture just ahead of the rudder.

Do you have a true centerboard, a swing keel, a lifting keel or a daggerboard? How much does the centerboard weigh?
The centerboard is a true centerboard. It rotates around a pin and swings up into a trunk in the cabin. The centerboard weighs 200 pounds, enough to make it stay down while under way.

How much ballast does the boat have?
The boat has 1000 pounds of internal lead ballast. The ballast is located under the cabin sole and is fully encapsulated.

How stable is the boat? Where does the stability come from?
The Presto's limit of positive stability is 145 degrees. The 1000 pounds of internal ballast, the hull form, the deck house, and the sealed spars are all contributors to the stability. The centerboard has very little effect on stability and is primarily used for leeward resistance. Click here for the stability graph. Note how the spars provide a dramatic increase in stability once they touch the water.

Why does the Presto 30 have two masts?
The Presto has two masts for multiple reasons:

Because the stability is primarily provided by the hull form it is important to keep the center of effort low which means a shorter mast. In order to still provide the appropriate sail area that means two masts.
Two masts are more stable and maneuverable than a sloop rig.
The two masts are each 30' long so they fit on top of the boat for trailering.
Keeping the masts shorter also means they are lighter and easier to step.
Dividing the sail area among two masts means the sails are smaller and easier to handle.

Why are the masts unstayed?
The masts are unstayed for multiple reasons:

Unstayed masts are easier to step.
The carbon fiber spars are engineered to bend and spill off the wind in puffs or higher wind speeds allowing you to keep full sail up longer.
The spars rotate for better air attachment.
Without stays you can have flat-head sails, a much more efficient sail plan.
You can sail well by the lee for a more stable downwind run.
Unplanned gybes are much gentler because there are no stays to hit and the mast will rotate with the sails.
Click here for a great article by Eric Sponberg on freestanding rigs.

What is the boom called? Why do you use the wishbone?
The boom is called a wishbone boom. It has a few advantages over a conventional boom:

The wishbone controls the twist from the flat head sails very well.
They are self-tending and self-vanging.
They do not impinge on the cockpit when sailing so you won't get hit by the boom when it comes across.
The choker control pulls the clew-end of the wishbone down and back so you can flatten the sail in heavy air (and provide a backstay effect at the same time) or ease it for a nice curve to the sail in light air.
They are not connected to the mast by hard connections so they lessen the load on the mast. The soft connection also lessens the effect of an accidental gybe.

How much do the masts weigh?
The masts weigh about 62 pounds each completely rigged.

How do you step the masts?
You have two options.

Option 1: Find four tall, strong, calm friends and step the mast by hand. Definitely the fastest technique although a little hair-raising as well as mast-raising.
Option 2: Use the gin pole with its worm-drive winch. The gin pole is stepped into a deck tube next to the mast tube. The mast is then hooked on to the gin pole's line and slowly cranked up. Because the winch is a worm-drive it will not free-wheel so you can let go of the winch handle at any time. This takes an extra 15 minutes but is devoid of drama.

How fast is the Presto 30?
The Presto has been carefully designed to strike a balance between safe, simple sailing and knock-your-socks off speed. She will sail upwind at 6-7 knots and has exceeded 13.8 knots surfing down a wave (with both sails reefed!). She regularly sails at 7-8 knots in 15 knots of wind. The VPP is posted below (click for a larger image).

How high can you point?
The Presto will reliably tack through 100 degrees in most conditions. In flat water she will tighten up to 90-95 degrees.

What does the trailer weigh?
The galvanized steel trailer from Triad Trailers weighs 1,600 pounds.

What is the tow weight? What kind of vehicle do you need for towing the Presto?
The Presto will probably weigh about 5,000 pounds by the time you stow all your gear and get her packed up for traveling. The trailer weighs 1,600 pounds for a total tow weight of 6,600 pounds. We tow with a 1/2 ton truck (Ford F-150) but you could also use a full-size SUV with a towing package like the Nissan Armada, Dodge Durango, GMC Yukon, etc.

What are the auxiliary power options?
There are a few different options for auxiliary power: transom-mounted outboard; retracting outboard; inboard diesel with folding prop; and electric propulsion.

Outboard motor mounted on the transom. A 9.9hp four-stroke will drive the hull at 6-7 knots depending on conditions.
Outboard motor mounted in an engine well at the cabin back. The retractable motor has a plate mounted to the skeg to close off the bottom of the hull when the engine is not in use.

The engine well.

View of the Yamaha 9.9 deployed.

View of the hull bottom with the engine retracted

Small diesel with a folding prop mounted under the cockpit sole. The drawing shows a Westerbeke 12c but there are Yanmar and Volvo options also available.

Electric motor. The options encompassed under the simple heading of electric power are limited only by your vision (and pocketbook!). We recently finished an install with twin retracting Torqeedo Cruise 4.0R (you could get by with one) and a Fischer-Panda 6kW DC generator. This customer has the quiet advantage of electric power with range limited only by their diesel supply.
The Torqeedo outboards weigh only 38 pounds so they would also be a good transom-mounted option that can be removed while sailing (the heavy batteries go in the cabin where they are kept low and replace some of the ballast).
Mastervolt also sells many different e-propulsion options. The 4.2 kW PodMaster would be an appropriate solution for the Presto and could be made into a retracting system.
The major disadvantage of an electrical propulsion system is the need to recharge your batteries. If you wanted auxiliary power just for getting away from the dock and back again you could install an electric motor with just a battery bank for power. When your batteries need re-charging you plug in at the dock. For longer distance cruising needs you need an on-board generator for charging your batteries quickly.