richard woods catamarans

Sailing Meadowhawk

Living the warm months aboard a self built richard woods designed sailing catamaran, building richard woods romany catamaran.

Just the facts: I received the first shipment of materials August 2007 and launched September 3, 2014. I worked on the boat about 2/3 of the year when the weather was warm enough. During that time I also had a full time job, a son who aged from 6-13, and a wife who supported my crazy dreams. I estimate that I averaged 30+ hours per week building during those months of the year. I built the hulls inside my Uncle’s shop in Finland, MN and the rest of the smaller parts in my garage in Minneapolis. Fully assembled, the boat is 20’ wide and difficult to trailer on the roads, so in September of 2011, I moved the hulls, cabin, and lots of other bits to Watergate Marina in St. Paul (5 miles from my Minneapolis home) to put it all together where Meadowhawk was ultimately launched in the Mississippi river.

I’m writing this after some time has passed and I’ve lived aboard 5 months over 2 seasons and I’m pretty sure building was a good experience. I joke that it was a terrible idea and in some ways it probably was, but those wonderful 5 months have softened my attitude. The two things I walked away with: The boat is more than I ever hoped for and while I still have much to learn, I have developed more skills and knowledge than I hoped for.

Maybe this is true of all boats, but it seems home built boats are never “done”. I have many ideas to improve the space, sail handling, and just finish little things left undone, but this spring (2016) will be the shortest project list I’ve ever dealt with, so that’s a good thing. More sailing and less not sailing.

Building Stages

Core cell catamaran hulls September 01, 2007 Building the hulls wasn’t that hard, but I did have to learn a lot about large scale laminating

Back yard building...literally September 01, 2009 If it’s small enough to be built in my garage or yard it was. Here’s the story of a back yard boat shop.

Final Assembly September 01, 2011 At a finish size of 34’ long and 20’ wide, the final assembly is best done near the water. I never thought it would be a river.

launch day September 03, 2014 Ready or not it’s time to launch

getting the mast up July 01, 2015 it was one of the more stressful projects, but I finally became a sailboat.

Spring Projects May 13, 2016 A little maintenance with a bunch of improvements

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Strider by Woods Designs

The "classic" trailable catamaran.

URL: http://sailingcatamarans.com/index.php/designs/2-catamarans-under-25ft/165-strider

Description:

STRIDER is the most popular of our trailable catamarans as it offers a good compromise between speed, accommodation and low cost.

Striders are very good sea boats and have competed successfully in tough offshore races. A racing version, the Turbo , with wider beam, increased rig size, rotating mast etc. is available for those who's aim is to race at the highest level or who sail in a very light wind area.

The 4 berth interior layout is as on the Shadow .

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1987 Richard Woods 35' Flica Sailing Catamaran

• Description

Seller's Description

Currently located in Grenada, West Indies, Snowflake is a 1987 35 foot Richard Woods Flica F3 catamaran, production boat built by Palamos Boatbuild Ltd in Cornwall, England. A 1988 South West Export Award Winner, the Flica was designed and built for comfort and crossing oceans.

Snowflake is fitted out for long distance cruising, has sailed across the Atlantic multiple times, most recently with the current owner in December 2017. (EU VAT has been paid)

Many upgrades and extras have been added from 2014 through 2019, including watermaker, 885 watts of solar, replacement of windows and hatches, updated standing and running rigging, whisker pole, ground tackle and windlass, etc. See inventory list for full details.

*The Yanmar 2gm20 raw/saltwater cooled engine in starboard hull will need to be replaced. (Yanmar 2gm20fc fresh water cooled engine in port hull is in very good condition.)

*The needed replacement of the starboard engine is reflected in the asking price.

Word from the owner: “I purchased Snowflake because I was looking for a comfortable vessel that could take me far and keep me safe. After looking at several other makes of catamarans, it was obvious that Snowflake was the boat I was looking for. Sailing her in the Mediterranean, through heavy storms in the Gulf de Lyon, across the Atlantic Ocean, and through dark squalls in the Eastern Caribbean, she never let me down. Snowflake has been my home for 6 years. She’s great fun to sail and extremely comfortable at sea and at anchor. The designer, Richard Woods has always been very responsive to my emails whenever I had questions when refitting the boat. It’s been a hard decision, but I’m deciding to sell her so I can follow my dreams and do a different type of sailing in higher latitudes.”

Word from the Designer: “FLICA is the most comfortable boat we have ever sailed and feels very secure and stable, even in strong winds — in fact, neither of us would have any hesitation about sailing FLICA single-handed round the world.”

• Builder: Palamos Boatbuild LTD; Cornwall, England;
• Designer: Richard Woods, Woods Designs;
• Year: 1987;
• Model: Flica F3.
• LOA: 35’4”;
• LWL: 32’6”;
• Beam: 19’4”;
• Draft: 3’0”;
• Displacement (empty): 4T;
• Headroom (minimum): 6’2”;
• Sail Area: 597 ft sq.

Engines & Transmission

• 1 Yanmar 2GM20 raw/saltwater cooled (replacement required);
• 1 Yanmar 2GM20FC fresh water cooled (in very good condition);
• 2 Yanmar SD20 Saildrives (seals replaced in July 2018);
• Engine type: Inboard;
• Engine / fuel Type: Diesel;
• Engine Hours: unknown;
• Drive Type: Sail drives;
• Engine Power: 18 HP;
• 2 Maxprop feathering props;
• Cruising Speed under engine: 4 knots;
• Variety of spares included for engines.
• Fuel: 100 liters;
• Fresh Water: 200 liters.
• Double stainless steel sink (new 2017);
• Waeco 12 volt refrigerator with small freezer (new 2013);
• Eno 2 burner stove and oven (new 2018);
• One 10# composite propane tank (new 2019);
• One 17# composite propane tank (new 2019);
• Xintex solenoid and gas detector (new 2018);
• Whale foot pump (fresh water) (rebuilt 2017);
• Thruhull in place for saltwater pump;
• Pots, pans, dishes, utensils, etc.

Navigation and Communication

• Garmin map 182C;
• Standard Horizon VHF GX1700 with DSC (new 2014);
• Autohelm ST3000 autopilot (Variety of spares included);
• AdvanSea S400 wind unit (new 2014);
• Windex (new 2014);
• Nasa RadioTelex Weatherman;
• Nasa Depth Instrument.
• Genoa (new 2017);
• Spare Genoa (requires re-stitching);
• Main (new 2017);
• Stack Pack for mainsail with lazy jacks (new 2014).
• Sloop rig with furling genoa;
• All running rigging replaced 2015;
• All standing rigging replaced 2015 (inspected by certified rigger 2019);
• Whisker pole (new 2015);
• All lines lead to cockpit;
• Furlex furler (new 2014);
• Stainless Lifelines (new 2014);
• Barton traveler system for main (new 2017);
• Bosun’s seat.
• 1 Harken self-tailing winch, #40 (new 2018);
• 1 Lewmar self-tailing winch #43 ;
• 1 Lewmar self-tailing #30;
• 1 Lewmar self-tailing #44;
• 4 Lewmar winches #16.

Deck and Hull

• Construction is reported as 600/300 GRP fiberglass, woven rovings and chopped strand matt over 12mm Divincell foam. Bridge deck and cabin top are of GRP and over laminated plywood. Hull is given additional strength by overlaid plywood floors and part/full bulkheads;
• Low aspect ratio keels protect semi-balanced rudders and sail drive units;
• Non-skid pattern across all deck surfaces, including coachroof. (Will require painting, paint has already been purchased and is included with sale.);
• Teak steering wheel with Edson steering system;
• Aluminum rub rail (new 2017);
• Stainless steel stern ladder with wooden steps (new 2018);
• Seven stainless steel cleats;
• Stainless steel framed bimini with sunbrella;
• Trampoline (new 2014);
• 2 Comfort Seat cushions;
• Bench helm seat (new 2014);
• 5 Lewmar low profile hatches installed (2014 - 2017);
• 8 Fixed windows replaced (2014);
• All portlights re-bedded and seals replaced (2017);
• Most deck hardware re-bedded (2017).

Ground tackle

• Primary anchor Mantus 55lb (new 2017) with Mantus swivel (new 2017) and bridle hook (new 2017);
• 35 foot long nylon bridle, adjustable according to anchoring depth (new 2017);
• 190 feet 3/8” High Test Galvanized Chain (new 2019) plus 40 feet of rode;
• Lofrans X3 Project 1500 watts 12 volt anchor windlass (new 2019) with 1/0 wiring (new 2019), plus 100 amp breaker (new 2019);
• Secondary anchor CQR 35lb with 30 feet of chain and 100 feet of rode;
• Stern anchor roller mounted on aft port side.

Mechanical and Electrical

• House Bank: Four 12 volt 110 amp hour Victron AGM batteries - total 440 amp hours (new 2015);
• Starter Batteries: Two 12 volt 70 amp hour West Marine batteries (new 2018);
• Victron BMV-712 smart battery bank monitor, with bluetooth (new 2018);
• Morning Star MPPT 60 solar charger with Tri-Star TS-RM-2 remote meter (new 2016);
• 2 Victron Cyrix-ct 12/24-120 intelligent battery combiner (new 2018);
• One 55 amp alternator (new 2017);
• One 50 amp alternator;
• Three 295 watt Canadian CS6K-295MS solar panels (total 885 watts) (new 2018);;
• All sail drive seals and rubber boots replaced (2018);
• Complete engine maintenance March 2019;
• 1 Sirocco II 12 volt fan (new 2018);
• 1 Caframo Bora 12 volt fan (new 2018);
• Aquagiv 45 liter 12 volt DC water maker (new 2015) with 12 volt fresh water pump (new 2015) with test nozzle at galley sink (new 2015). Carbon filter installed for fresh water flush;
• 12 volt deck shower pump (new 2017) with new hose and nozzle added in 2018;
• All lights converted to LED (2018);
• New deck light (2018);
• Tank Tender monitoring system, 9 station, plumbed to water and fuel tanks;
• Eberspächer diesel central heating system;
• DC operated bilge alarms, total 4 (new 2017);
• 2 manual bilge pumps;
• 2 electric bilge pumps;
• One portable 12 volt emergency bilge pump;
• Inverter 2000 watts (EU/220);
• Shore power plug-in is EU/220.
• Wet head with shower sump pump;
• C-Head compost toilet (new 2017);
• Whale foot pump (fresh water) (rebuilt 2019).
• Zodiac 8’ inflatable dinghy with fiberglass bottom;
• Yamaha outboard, 2stroke 5 HP, with 3 gallon external tank;
• Small spare folding dinghy.

Safety Gear

• Kannad Marine safe link, sports pro + GPS EPIRB (new 2017);
• Plastimo TransOcean 4 ISO 9650 4 person life raft (new 2017);
• LifeSling with rode;
• Horseshoe lifesaver;
• 2 PFD’s with harness attachments;
• Jacklines and harnesses;
• 3 fire extinguishers, with 2 additional: 1 in each engine compartment.
• Freshly painted 2018;
• Freshly varnished 2018 - 2019.

Miscellaneous

• 3 diesel jerry cans;
• 1 gasoline jerry can;
• 8 total fenders;
• 1 boat hook;
• Docking lines.

*Personal property will remain with the owner.

Rig and Sails

Auxilary power, accomodations, calculations.

The theoretical maximum speed that a displacement hull can move efficiently through the water is determined by it's waterline length and displacement. It may be unable to reach this speed if the boat is underpowered or heavily loaded, though it may exceed this speed given enough power. Read more.

Classic hull speed formula:

Hull Speed = 1.34 x √LWL

Max Speed/Length ratio = 8.26 ÷ Displacement/Length ratio .311 Hull Speed = Max Speed/Length ratio x √LWL

Sail Area / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the power of the sails relative to the weight of the boat. The higher the number, the higher the performance, but the harder the boat will be to handle. This ratio is a "non-dimensional" value that facilitates comparisons between boats of different types and sizes. Read more.

SA/D = SA ÷ (D ÷ 64) 2/3

• SA : Sail area in square feet, derived by adding the mainsail area to 100% of the foretriangle area (the lateral area above the deck between the mast and the forestay).
• D : Displacement in pounds.

Ballast / Displacement Ratio

A measure of the stability of a boat's hull that suggests how well a monohull will stand up to its sails. The ballast displacement ratio indicates how much of the weight of a boat is placed for maximum stability against capsizing and is an indicator of stiffness and resistance to capsize.

Ballast / Displacement * 100

Displacement / Length Ratio

A measure of the weight of the boat relative to it's length at the waterline. The higher a boat’s D/L ratio, the more easily it will carry a load and the more comfortable its motion will be. The lower a boat's ratio is, the less power it takes to drive the boat to its nominal hull speed or beyond. Read more.

D/L = (D ÷ 2240) ÷ (0.01 x LWL)³

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds.
• LWL: Waterline length in feet

Comfort Ratio

This ratio assess how quickly and abruptly a boat’s hull reacts to waves in a significant seaway, these being the elements of a boat’s motion most likely to cause seasickness. Read more.

Comfort ratio = D ÷ (.65 x (.7 LWL + .3 LOA) x Beam 1.33 )

• D: Displacement of the boat in pounds
• LOA: Length overall in feet
• Beam: Width of boat at the widest point in feet

Capsize Screening Formula

This formula attempts to indicate whether a given boat might be too wide and light to readily right itself after being overturned in extreme conditions. Read more.

CSV = Beam ÷ ³√(D / 64)

This listing is presented by Sailboat-Cruising.com . Visit their website for more information or to contact the seller.

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Who was Sergei Korolev?

A biography of Sergei Korolev, the Russian rocket scientist who masterminded some of the Soviet Union's most successful missions during the Space Race.

Piers Bizony

Sergei Korolev (or Korolyov) was a Russian rocket scientist regarded as the father of the USSR's early human spaceflight ambitions, and an architect of the successes enjoyed by the Soviet Union in the Space Race against NASA and the USA.

He was instrumental in the launch of the Sputnik satellite - the first artificial satellite launched from Earth into space - and in the flight that made Yuri Gagarin the first human being in space.

Korolev had a chequered career by any standards. He was both persecuted and highly prized by his own government but, despite his achievements, couldn’t enjoy wider acclaim in his lifetime due to the USSR’s secretive nature.

• How long does it take to get to space?

Seregei Korolev was born on 30 December 1906 in what is now Zhytomyr, Ukraine., the child of an unhappy marriage; his parents soon separated, and the boy was told that his father, Pavel Korolev, had died – actually he lived until 1929, but had no further contact with his son.

His mother Maria married again, much more happily, and the family moved to Odessa, where Sergei studied carpentry at the Building Trades School. His imagination soared higher, though.

He joined the Society of Aviation and Aerial Navigation of Ukraine and the Crimea, where he obtained his pilot’s licence.

His passion well and truly ignited by flying, he founded GIRD with Friedrikh Tsander and others. GIRD was the first serious society to investigate jet propulsion in what had become the USSR. He became the group’s chief designer, but the worst period of his life lay ahead.

Without warning he was arrested by the secret police, accused of subversion and thrown into one of Stalin’s gulags, or forced labour camps, in Siberia.

He was beaten and tortured, all his teeth were knocked out, his knee was badly damaged and his heart was affected.

Somehow he survived, and when he was moved to a less brutal camp in Russia proper he was even allowed to carry out research.

He was eventually released in 1944. His conviction was overturned, though he did not receive a full pardon until years later.

Once free, his career advanced rapidly. He became the chief figure in Soviet rocketry and he masterminded the first Earth satellite (Sputnik 1), whose radio transmissions from orbit shocked America.

He masterminded successful unmanned lunar probes and demonstrated that animals could survive the rigours of spaceflight by sending dogs into suborbital space and then into orbit around Earth.

For more on Sergei Korolev's successes and accomplishments, read our history of the Space Race .

How did Sergei Korolev die?

After the triumphant spaceflights of Yuri Gagarin and other early cosmonauts, he switched focus to the Moon but his life was cut short.

From 1961 his health deteriorated quickly, his body battered from his time in Stalin’s death camps and his heavy workload.

Sergei Korolev was diagnosed with cancer and underwent colon surgery, but died on the operating table on 14 January 1966.

Without him, the Russian space programme floundered, and all immediate plans for reaching the Moon had to be given up. Had Korolev lived longer, the story might have been very different.

He was twice married, and was survived by his daughter Natasha and second wife, Nina. During his lifetime he was not widely known outside his own country but received many honours, including the Order of Lenin from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

His name lives on – it’s been given to a crater on Mars, a crater on the far side of the Moon , and an asteroid.

Sergei Korolev's timeline

1907 Born 12 January in Zhytomyr, Ukraine

1917 Moves to Odessa and begins study at Building Trades School

1923 Joins Society of Aviation in Odessa and starts flying

1924 Designs his first glider

1930 Obtains his pilot’s licence

1931 With F Tsander and others, he forms the Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD)

1933 GIRD merges with another lab to become the Jet Propulsion Research Institute (RNII)

1934 Publishes his book Rocket Flight in the Stratosphere

1935 Appointed chief of the RNII

1938 Arrested by the Soviet police, and sent to a gulag (prison camp)

1942 Moved to a ‘sharashka’ (prison camp for intellectuals)

1944 Released from prison; previous convictions dismissed

1945 Awarded the Badge of Honour, and sent to Germany to study rocketry

1947 Appointed Chief Designer of the Soviet rocket programme

1952 Joins the Communist Party

1953 Proposes a plan for launching an Earth satellite

1957 First flight test of new R-7 rocket on 15 May – it crashes but flies successfully later that year

1957 Organises the launch of the first satellite Sputnik 1 on 4 October

1957 Sends the first animal (the dog Laika) into space on 3 November

1959 Organises the unmanned Luna 1 probe to the Moon

1959 Begins the development of N1, an ill-fated rocket designed to fly men to the Moon

1961 Yuri Gagarin makes the first orbital flight on 12 April

1965 The first spacewalk, by Alexei Leonov, on 18 March

1966 Dies on 14 January in Moscow

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Brand: Woods

These models are designed by renown British naval architect Richard Woods, the maestro of catamaran designs. Richard Woods, not only designs catamarans, he sails them across oceans…. repeatedly. He has a lot to say on the subject of catamaran hull design and you can find more about him from our special interview series with him .

There are no catamarans currently for sale by owner of this brand.

Please see our catamarans for sale by owner page for a full listing of other currently available models.

Sergei Korolev: Architect of Soviet Space Program

Sergei Korolev is credited as being the founder of the Soviet Union's space program. During his tenure, the Soviet Union saw many space firsts. This included the first satellite, Sputnik (1957); the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin (1961); and Luna 9, the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the moon (1966).

While his name is well-known today, during his lifetime Korolev's identity was kept a secret (as were many activities of the Soviet space program.) This was in contrast to NASA and the United States, which publicly broadcast its successes and failures to the world.

Korolev was born on Jan. 12, 1907, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine — just a few years after the first airplane flights took place. Many astronauts and spacecraft engineers of the 1950s and 1960s were born around the turn of the century, when spaceflight was often considered an impossible dream.

Korolev didn't waste any time in pursuing his passion for aviation. At 17, he created his first glider,  according to the European Space Agency . He was educated at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and the University of Moscow, where he began working on rocket propulsion (which was still a theoretical subject).

His work continued in 1931 when he created the Group for Investigation of Reactive Motion (GIRD), which created liquid-fueled rockets, ESA added. Liquid rockets have more flexibility than solid rockets because they can be turned on and off. Just two years after founding the group, the Soviet military took it over and renamed it RNII.

Then Korolev ran into bad times. The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, began persecuting his opponents under a program known as the Great Purge. A colleague of Korolev was arrested in March 1938, ESA said. The colleague, Valentin Glushko, mentioned Korolev's name to try to reduce his own charges. This led to Korolev's arrest in June, and he spent two years in various Soviet jails.

Starting the space program

Stalin, however, was in need of aeronautical engineers as World War II began. Korolev and other people like him were allowed to work from jail,  according to NASA ; Korolev was identified by Sergei Tupolev (a famous aircraft designer who was jailed himself), who asked for Korolev's help on his projects.

While still a political prisoner, Korolev was sent to Germany to inspect what was left of the Nazi regime's missile operations (after the United States had taken most of the best elements). Once Korolev was freed from jail after the war's end in 1945, he was put in charge of designing a Soviet equivalent of the V2 rocket. The result was the first intercontinental ballistic missile, known as the R7. Korolev's other work was put into a design bureau, the first of many that worked on Korolev's technology once he had developed it, according to NASA.

While few people remember the R7 today, everyone in the space world knows of Sputnik 1, which launched on Oct. 4, 1957, aboard an R7. This was the first human-made satellite, and it took the world by surprise because the Soviet Union was still considered by some to be technologically inferior. 

The United States, which was already working on a satellite on its own for the International Geophysical Year, attempted to speed up its attempts to launch something into space. The first U.S. satellite, however, did not fly until January 1958.

The Space Race

Throughout the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in space, with the Soviet Union at first taking a strong lead in terms of racking up space firsts. Yuri Gagarin was the first human to fly in space on April 12, 1961, while the United States launched its first astronaut, Alan Shepard, in early May.

The Soviet Union also accomplished the first spacewalk (by Alexei Leonov). Under Korolev, the country also did surveillance of the moon with Lunas 1, 2 and 3. This was important because both the United States and the Soviet Union were thinking about landing humans there as an ultimate proclamation of who was superior in space.

While the United States worked on its famed Saturn V rocket that eventually hefted Apollo 11 and its crew into Earth orbit in 1969 — on the way to landing on the moon – Korolev's team worked on the N-1 launch vehicle starting in 1962. The heavy-lift rocket stayed in development for a decade, but never had a successful flight; its launch attempts included a huge explosion in 1969.

Korolev himself, however, did not live to see humans land on the moon. In 1965 he was diagnosed with cancer, and he died on Jan. 14, 1966, during surgery on his colon. Two weeks later, Luna 9 landed on the moon.

Additional resource

• ESA: Sergei Korolev: Father of the Soviet Union’s success in space

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, " Why Am I Taller ?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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Click here for Power Catamarans (8 designs)

In September 2010 we were very pleased to announce the launch of our first powercat design, the trailable Skoota 20. It was a very successful boat which we cruised for two seasons in British Columbia. Seven more powercat designs are now available. In addition to the Skoota 20 there is a centre cockpit, trailable Skoota 24. Next, the Skoota 28 is a transportable coastal cruiser, and was the Woods Designs floating office/cruising home for 7 happy and successful years.

Also in the portfolio are the Jazz 30, designed for fishing, day charter work or coastal cruising  The Skoota 32 which is available as a production boat or for home builders in flat panel foam sandwich. The Skoota 36, a really comfortable fast cruiser (available in two options) or, slightly modified, for use as a passenger ferry. All are semi displacement designs, so not designed for high speeds but rather for good fuel economy and a comfortable ride in any seastate. Finally there are the newest designs, the Skoota 18 which is based on the Chat 18 sailing catamaran. And the Aegean 30 which is a development of the Skoota 28

See this article for the reasons why we chose a Skoota 28 as our newest cruising boat

You can download a basic studyplan pack HERE

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev – the Father of Practical Astronautics

Sergei Korolev (1907 – 1966), Soviet Union 1969 CPA 3731 stamp

On January 12, 1907, lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race Sergei Korolev was born. Korolev is regarded by many as the “father of practical astronautics “. He was involved in the development of the R-7 Rocket , Sputnik 1 ,[ 1 ] launching Laika , Belka and Strelka  and the first human being, Yuri Gagarin ,[ 2 ] into space.

“Today we are witnesses to the fulfillment of the dream that occupied some outstanding people, among them Tsiolkovsky. He had prophesied that mankind will not stay on Earth forever. Sputnik is the first confirmation of his predictions. The opening up of space has begun.” – Sergei Korolev, on the night of October 5, 1957, after the successful launch of Sputnik 1.[8]

Sergei Korolev – Youth and Education

Korolev was born in Zhytomyr , the capital of Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire. His parents, Russian teachers Maria Nikolaevna Balanina (née Moskalenko),  from a wealthy merchant family with Greek and Cossack roots, and Pavel Yakovlevich Korolev, who was  of Belarusian origin, separated just three years after his birth. Korolev grew up with his grandparents in Neshin . When he was ten years old, the family moved to Odessa . There he completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and roofer. Korolev showed an early interest in aviation and, in addition to his job, worked at the local glider club, constructing his first glider K-5 at the age of 17. In 1925, Korolev began studying at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute . When the Kiev faculty was closed, he transferred to Moscow Technical University (MWTU) in 1926 and graduated. Before that, he completed an internship at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (ZAGI), where he came into contact with the design of powered aircraft. In 1929, together with S. N. Lyushin, Korolev developed and built the Koktebel glider. In the same year, under the guidance of Andrei Tupolev, Korolev created his first powered aircraft SK-4 as his diploma thesis.

First Experiments with Rockets

In the 1930s, Korolev began building rockets as part of MosGIRD, a group founded in 1931 to research recoil propulsion systems. There he received essential impulses for his later work from Friedrich Zander . Together with Zander, whom he considered a mentor, he was involved in the design and construction of the first Soviet hybrid rockets GIRD-09 and GIRD-X , among others. In 1933, he moved to the Rocket Research Institute (RNII) and became head of the Rocket Missile Department in 1934. In the same year, his scientific treatise The Rocket Flight into the Stratosphere was published.

The Great Terror

While working on the RP-318-I rocket-powered glider, Korolyev was arrested by the NKVD’s secret political police during the Great Terror on June 27, 1938. After two days of torture and threats against his family, he signed a confession in which he was forced to identify himself as a member of a counterrevolutionary Trotskyist conspiracy and a participant in acts of sabotage to obstruct development work. He had been denounced under duress by Valentin Glushko ,[ 3 ] who had been arrested three months earlier and who himself spent the period until 1944 in prison. Although innocent, Korolev was sentenced without formal trial on to ten years of hard labor in the gulag and five years of loss of civil rights. After spending time in several prisons and prolonged transportation, he arrived at the notorious Maldyak labor camp in 1939, where he nearly starved to death and became so ill with scurvy that his lower jaw was severely damaged and he lost many teeth.

In the First Circle of Hell

Through interventions of his mother with the support of the well-known pilots Mikhail Gromov and Valentina Grisodubova, the USSR Supreme Court overturned the previous sentence and Korolev was recalled from Maldyak only in November 1939. After renewed interventions by his mother and Gromov with NKVD People’s Commissar Lavrenti Beria , he was sent to the special design office of aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev , who had already supervised Korolyov’s thesis and was also imprisoned. The ZKB-29 special camp for scientists and engineers was under the control of the NKVD and was described from personal experience by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the novel The First Circle of Hell . The ZKB-29 developed the Tupolev Tu-2 dive bomber in Omsk in September 1942.

Petlyakov Pe-2, co-developed by Sergei Korolev

Korolev applied for a job at an aircraft engine plant in Kazan , where Glushko headed the OKB-16 special design bureau for rocket engines under Sharashka conditions. Korolev participated in the development of the Petlyakov Pe-2 multirole aircraft to improve takeoff performance and climb performance with a switchable rocket engine. In 1944, Korolyov and Glushko were paroled from prison early and continued their work on rocket developments as employed engineers of OKB-16. However, Korolev was not officially rehabilitated until April 18, 1957. Korolev’s six-year imprisonment in the Gulag was erased from Communist accounts of the history of technology.

Becoming Chief Designer

After World War II, Korolev rose to become the chief designer of the initially military-only Soviet missile program within the NII (Scientific Research Institute). Korolev’s identity was kept secret during his lifetime, and in public he was referred to only anonymously as the “chief designer.” Korolev’s goal was to develop a civilian rocket program. In 1945, now holding the rank of colonel in the Red Army, he was ordered to Soviet headquarters in Berlin with other engineers and technicians. He was given the task of studying the German rocket program and locating associates of rocket engineer Wernher von Braun who remained in Germany.

The first A4 rocket (from German stocks) is transported to the launch site on a truck trailer. It was launched on 18 October 1947 from the Kapustin Yar test site, Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, CC-BY-4.0

The Soviets placed a priority on reproducing lost documentation on the A4 rocket, and studying the various parts and captured manufacturing facilities. That work continued in East Germany until late 1946, when 2,000+ German scientists and engineers were sent to the USSR through Operation Osoaviakhim . Most of the German experts, Helmut Gröttrup being an exception, were engineers and technicians involved in wartime mass-production of A4, and they had not worked directly with Wernher von Braun. Korolev returned to the Soviet Union in 1946 with plans of German designs and German rocket designers. Among others, Wernher von Braun’s assistant Helmut Gröttrup and aerodynamicist Werner Albring worked on rocket technology development under Korolev’s direction in Kaliningrad (in Moscow oblast) and on Gorodomlya Island (now Solnetchny settlement) in Lake Seliger during this period. The first design resulting from this cooperation was the R-1 rocket of 1948, a copy of the German A4 based on materials available in the Soviet Union. Unlike the U.S., which brought German scientists to the U.S. with its Operation Overcast and ensured their naturalization and retention in the U.S. as early as 1946 with Operation Paperclip, the Soviet Union merely siphoned off their knowledge and used it in the crucial steps for spaceflight.

The Soviet Space Programme

Among Korolyov’s greatest achievements were the construction of the R-7 – the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile – and the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957,[ 1 ] but most importantly, the first space flight by a human, Yuri Gagarin , in 1961.[ 2 ] The R-7  was a two-stage rocket with a maximum payload of 5.4 tons, sufficient to carry the Soviets’ bulky  nuclear bomb  an impressive distance of 7,000 kilometres. However, despite the Soviet R-7 initial success, it experienced later failures as it was not intended to be a practical weapon. Sputnik 1 was designed and constructed in less than a month with Korolev personally managing the assembly at a hectic pace. The satellite was a simple polished metal sphere no bigger than a beach ball, containing batteries that powered a transmitter using 4 external communication antennas. Sputnik 1 was successfully completed and launched into space on 4 October 1957 using a rocket that had successfully launched only once before. After gaining approval from the government, a modified version of Korolev’s R-7 was used to launch Yuri Gagarin into orbit on 12 April 1961, which was before the United States was able to put Alan Shepard into space.

Variants of the R-7 Rocket, (NASA)

Korolev’s group was also working on ambitious programs for missions to Mars and Venus , putting a man in orbit, launching communication, spy and weather satellites, and making a soft-landing on the Moon.

Health Problems and Early Death

In December 1960, Korolev suffered a heart attack, which was followed by others. His cardiac arrhythmias were joined by internal bleeding and intestinal problems. Korolyev was admitted to a Moscow hospital. Doctors were going to remove painful hemorrhoids in a routine operation in January 1966, but in the meantime they discovered a large tumor in his colon and put him under general anesthesia. Tracheal intubation, necessary due to circulatory weakness, failed due to scurvy-related jaw abnormality as a late consequence of Gulag imprisonment; this caused his death on January 14, 1966. The Soviet government honored him by burying his urn in the Kremlin wall. In 1996, the city of Kaliningrad in Moscow Oblast, where he headed the experimental design bureau OKB-1 as chief designer from 1950, was renamed after him.

Losing the Race to the Moon

With Korolev’s death, the Soviet space and lunar programs suffered a bitter loss. Although work on the N1 lunar rocket was continued by his collaborator Vasily Mishin , it was discontinued in 1974 after several launch failures.[ 4 ] The identity of the chief designer remained a state secret in the Soviet Union during his lifetime. While in the U.S. his adversary Wernher von Braun made a high-profile appearance in the press and on television, Korolev was not known even in his own country. When, after the successful launch of Sputnik 1, the Nobel Prize Committee asked Nikita Khrushchev for the name of the chief designer, he replied that it had been the work of the entire Soviet people and that they had thus deserved the award. Only on the occasion of the state funeral in Moscow was this secret revealed.

References and Further Reading:

• [1]  The Sputnik Shock and the Start of the Space Race , SciHi Blog
• [2]  Yuri Gagarin – the first Man in Space , SciHi Blog
• [3]  Valentin Glushko and the Space Race , SciHi Blog
• [4]  The Russian Dream to Land a Man on the Moon , SciHi Blog
• [5]  “Sergei Korolev: Father of the Soviet Union’s success in space” .  www.esa.int .
• [6]  West, John B. (1 October 2001).  “Historical aspects of the early Soviet/ Russian crewed space program” .  Journal of Applied Physiology .  91  (4): 1501–1511.
• [7]    “Sputnik Biographies–Sergei P. Korolev (1906-1966)” .   history.nasa.gov .
• [8]  Joachim Kutzner, Kurt Kobler:  Der Sputnikschock.  4. April 2004
• [9]  The 2021 John J. Rhodes Lecture: Expanded Space Exploration , A Discussion with NASA Astronaut, Dr. Shannon Walker & Ambassador Barbara Barrett, Barrett Honors College @ youtube
• [10] Sergei Korolev at Wikidata
• [11] Timeline for Sergei Korolev , via Wikidata

Harald Sack

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