My comments on Carl Alberg's designs.. Actually there were many designers with this style of hull in the 50s and 60s. These designers included Alvin Mason, Edward Brewer, A. E. Luders, Norman Owens and many more. Remember, wood was the primary boat building material. Wood cannot be bent and formed as easily as fiberglass and steel.

Pictured here is an Alberg 30. The first production fiberglass hulls were patterned from the wood hulls of the era. The building advantages of production fiberglass hulls would not be realized for several years. A wooden hull was probably used to make the first fiberglass hull molds for Pearson Yachts. The non-rotting, easily maintained fiberglass was what the people wanted, not radical design changes.

I've said many times, every sailboat design is a compromise. Here are my comments about Alberg's designs. The narrow beam and slack turn at the bilges created an easily driven boat but these two features also caused the boat to be tender and have limited cabin space. The long overhangs make a pretty hull and give an easy ride in a chop but the loss of waterline length slows the hull speed. My biggest problem with this design is the angle of the rudderpost. The rudderpost is raked foward at a high angle. When the rudder is turned it becomes a diving fin, trying to force the stern down. This creates a brake as well as a rudder. I prefer a near vertical rudderpost and a harder turn at the bilges. Hindsight is easier than foresight so it's easy for me to sit here and criticize Alberg's 30 year old designs. He was a great designer and many of his ideas are still being used by yacht designers of today. Alberg designs have sailed every ocean in the world.

Carl Alberg became the #1 designer in the 1960's due to the adaptation of his designs to fiberglass. He designed sailboats for many different companies and also did custom designing. The Pearson Triton, designed by Alberg, was the first production fiberglass sailboat in the world. Building these fiberglass hulls pulled Pearson Yachts from a major boatbuilding slump and made them the #1 yacht builder in the country. Alberg's designs were used well into the 1980s by Pearson, then by Cape Dory Yachts. To this day, Carl Alberg has a great following and thousands of hulls were built to his designs.

Carl Alberg retired from Pearson Yachts in the 70's and Bill Shaw became the chief designer. Mr. Shaw designed a fin keel, spade rudder type of boat. Shaw took better advantage of the versatility of fiberglass and designed hulls that were beamier and had a much harder turn at the bilges, adding interior room. The Pearson 26, below is a good example of Bill Shaw's work. The rudderposts were not angled as much. I'm a Bill Shaw fan. A Shaw designed Pearson 30 is no slouch, even at today's standards. Pearson Yachts has had many designers since Bill Shaw retired but they retain the fin keel, spade rudder aspect to this day.

Bill Tripp, a designer in the same time era, designed a sailboat more to my liking. Mr.Tripp designed (among others) the Hinkley Bermuda 40 and the Block Island 40. These designs had the same long overhangs but Tripp used a nearly vertical rudderpost on his designs. Tripp also used a retractable centerboard in many of his designs. I can live with the long overhangs, they provide a nice ride and make a pretty hull. Adding the retractable centerboard and the vertical rudderpost makes the Hinkley Bermuda 40 a popular boat to this day.