 At
almost £17,000 with the trailer this day-boat is pricey, but she's certainly
popular. Over 200 have now been sold. David Parker went along to find our more
about this unsinkable, sea-going trailer sailer.
The Hawk 20 may, on first view, seem an
expensive day-boat, but take a closer look and you see a one-design with some
unique features. She's self-righting, unsinkable and very quick. The first
time we sailed one of these she had no problem overtaking 25ft and 30ft
cruisers but, with her medium displacement and 48 percent ballast ratio, she's
also very stable. And she's still light enough to plane - owners report
reaching speeds of up to 12 knots.
A purpose-built trailer makes launching
simple. |
Your reaction to the price may well be:
"But I could buy an offshore cruiser for that." And so you could,
but part of the ethos of her design is that a large proportion of cruisers are
used as day-boats. They are much more expensive to maintain and berth than the
Hawk 20 - and a lot less fun to sail. The Hawk is also built to a very high
quality. Avoiding gear failures has been a prime consideration of the design
team.
The concept behind the boat first saw the light
of day as an 11ft dinghy designed by ex-MP Chris Hawkins. A heavily ballasted
dinghy was too heavy to be practical but potential was spotted in extending
his design. It took two years for the designer, in partnership with the Reid
family, to get the Hawk right by the time she was launched at the Southampton
Boat Show in 1993. Originally the plan was to sell six Hawks to cover the cost
of the moulds - but there are now 200 Hawk owners, and these boats have been
exported all over the world. As Mike Reid pointes out: "We sell them
faster than we can build them."
The Reids are a sailing family based in
Christchurch, and their main business is steel fabrication. Test sails usually
take place from their own private slip at the bottom of the garden of their
elegant home on the edge of Christchurch Harbour. That's where we met up with
Mike's son, Peter, for our test sail.
Easily trailed and sailed
 Weighing
816 the Hawk can be towed behind the average family car. From the
purpose-built tilt-back trailer she was straightforward to launch and retrieve
on this gently sloping slip. For retrieval Peter has a trick where he lowers
the centreplate to act as a brake and keep the boat in position while he
winches her up. This centreplate is epoxy-coated aluminium alloy and has a
'secret' aerofoil shape - so it's an expensive stick in the mud, but Peter's
trick works, and the alloy is very tough.
The cockpit's long enough to host a reasonable
game of skittles, but there's no accommodation. There is, however, good
stowage space with port and starboard amidship lockers. These lockers measure
1.23 x 0.5m at the base, with an opening of 0.91m x 0.335m, so are large
enough to stow the short shaft engine. Buoyancy compartments are located fore
and aft of the lockers under the seats, also under the side decks, fore and
aft decks and floor.
The engine sites in an outboard well, sited
forward of the rudder so the prop wash over the blade gives good
manoeuvrability under power. When not in use the engine can be swung clear of
the water, and two closure blocks are used to seal the well, improving hull
shape for sailing and to prevent water sloshing about. The outboard
compartment can then be covered by a hatch.
The cockpit is self-draining and so the Hawk
can be left confidently on a mooring with no cover. The seats have drains and
the sole is above the waterline, so bums and feet keep dry. We should note
that the seats are very comfortable on this boat. They're 2.75m long, 0.46m
wide at the centre tapering to 0.39m aft. With the base of the cockpit
measuring 0.74m there's plenty of knee room. In the right weather, longer
passages wouldn't be a hardship with this spacious cockpit layout.
More stowage space is available in the port and
starboard dry lockers in the sealed bulkhead just aft of the deck-stepped
mast. The steering compass is conveniently positioned just under the mast, and
this bulkhead also offers an ideal position for siting any other
instrumentation, such as the Tackstick Sail Master.
On the foredeck itself is a large stowage
locker which is accessed by a hatch measuring 0.49 x 0.36m. The locker is
0.91m deep and incorporates the spinnaker tube. The spinnaker lives
permanently in the tube and is quickly set and retrieved through the stainless
steel guide ring on the stemhead.
Under sail
Plenty of locker space. |
The Hawk has a seven-eights Bermudan rig with
split backstay tensioners. Winds on the day of our sail were light, varying
between 6 and 10 knots, but we were impressed at her windward and off the wind
performance.
All the deck gear is Harken and has been
thoughtfully positioned. For example it's easy to flip the jib sheet out of
the cam cleat even when sitting on the far side of the cockpit.
We had 5.9 knots reaching in a variable 7 or 8
knots or apparent wind. When the wind dropped to 6 knots our boat speed was
4.8 knots until we hoisted the spinnaker, and she climbed back up to 5.8
knots. Using the spinnaker chute and Spiro self-launching pole, getting the
kite up is remarkably neat and aggravation free. You don't need to leave the
cockpit when setting or recovering the spinnaker. (The spinnaker itself is an
optional extra, but the chute and launching system come with every boat.)
When we put the kite away we were making 4.8
knots boat speed close-hauled in about 10 knots of apparent wind. Then we
furled the fore sail and she made between 3.7 and 4 knots under main alone. A
single-line reefing system is used on the Hawk, with the option of fitting two
reefing lines. Peter tells us you can sail her up to a Force 6 without
reefing. For out rest purposes we tried the first reef in the main and, using
the foresail, achieved approximately the same speeds as sailing close hauled
with just the mainsail. Weather helm is, of course, heavier under main alone,
but there's little loss of her windward performance.
During our test she sailed at 35° to the wind.
Her fine entry, the stiffness of the boat and the aerofoil rudder section
working together to provide excellent close-hauled performance. Hove to she
lies comfortably across the wind making only a half-knot of drift. On all
points of sailing we found her to be well balanced with enough weather helm to
give positive control of the tiller, and if you let everything go she rounds
up without a problem.
Under power
All the deck gear is thoughtfully
positioned. |
Motoring in and out of Christchurch harbour we
found that she comfortably takes the lumpy seas breaking over the bar. The
hull is easily driven under power, and the Yamaha 5 outboard gives maximum
hull speed of 5.5 knots at full throttle, with a more-comfortable and less
noisy 4.8 knots on half throttle.
Locking the engine in position and using the
tiller, we found that the Hawk can comfortably turn in her own length. We also
tried her with a long shaft Mariner 4 and found this engine gives better
'bite' on the water, stopping her quickly when in reverse. However, despite
the increased manoeuvrability, with a lower pitched prop we found we had a
slower maximum speed.
| Verdict |
| A
performance trailer sailer which is self-righting, unsinkable and of
extremely high build quality. |
| Our
Opinion |
Fast
Unsinkable
Self-righting
High-quality deck gear |
What do Hawk owners think?
Bernard Blakely (83) from Chichester
sails his Hawk, with crew Mike Coxon, aged 71. He pays £440 for a mooring,
£100 for his dinghy storage and £25 harbour dues.
"I'd been sailing a cruiser for 40 years
but didn't need a sleep-aboard and wanted a day-boat. We didn't consider any
other boats because the Hawk is non-capsizable and self-bailing. She's fast
in light airs and is responsive. Our only gripe is that the rudder arm is
permanently attached, which can make it fiddly shipping and unshipping the
rudder."
Dr Eva Tonne from North Wales paid
£12,500 for one of her Hawks when it was 18 months old.
"I own two now, one in Conwy and one in
the south of France. To maintain the one in France all I do is have the
sails cleaned and the engine serviced. Overall, I'm very pleased with them -
some might think the Hawk is expensive, but you'd have a struggle to get it
off me."
David Langford (54) from Herts says his
Hawk has given invaluable training to his daughter, Jo, for the BT Global
Challenge.
"It is very forgiving, stable and
behaves very well in bad weather. Insurance costs me about £130, my mooring
at Christchurch is £450. Peter Reid also cleans the boat and shrink-wraps
it for winter for £400. Except for marrying my wife, buying this boat was
the best decision I've ever made."
Roy Broadhead (67) of Chalfont-St-Giles,
Bucks previously owned a Laser 16.
"The problem with the Laser is we found
it a sod to get back up again when it went over. The Hawk is self-righting
and had the feel of a yacht rather than a sailing dinghy. It is also easy to
tow, and we can have it in and out of the water in no time. The only thing
I'd change is to have something slightly bigger - a 'Hawk 22' is there was
such a thing."
David Mellor (64) is from North Wales
and keeps his boat in Conwy Marina.
"I bought boat No 9 in 1995. I don't
want the expense and hassle of cruising, but I don't want to be flung out of
the boat either. The Hawk is stable and thrilling to sail. When I first went
out in a Force 5/6 she had no problems because she's a very good sea boat.
Being shallow draught she can also travel happily around the sand banks of
the Conwy estuary. My wife thinks it's expensive for what it is but when
they make new moulds I am planning to sell this Hawk and buy a new one. Reid
Marine are very good at changing and improving things and the latest boats
have a modified, welded stock. They're also very good at providing spares.
Reproduced from Sailing Today, April 2001.
For more information or to purchase a Hawk 20,
please contact us.
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