by Charles Cox
Rebel, an eighteen-foot centerboarder, is just about the best all-around size for a small boat. She is small enough to be easily and cheaply serviced and yet large enough to carry a party of four comfortably. Although designed primarily for one-design racing, she still possesses all of those excellent qualities which make a successful day-sailer. Rebel is 18 feet 4 inches overall, 14 feet 8 inches on the waterline, and 6 feet in breadth. With her centerboard raised, she will draw only 754 inches of water and, with it lowered, will draw 3 feet 6 inches. Much time and thought were given to her construction, which is healthy but not excessive. The centerboard well in particular was carefully designed because it can be the main source of trouble in this type boat. Rebel’s rig is a simple, but effective, modern sloop rig, designed with enough sail to make her fast, yet still suitable for open water and rough weather. The rig allows for a combination of mainsail and Genoa jib or mainsail and working jib, this being done to make her a good all-around boat, suitable to localities where the weather permits sailing not only with the light winds of summer, but also with the heavy breezes of fall, such as on Chesapeake Bay. The area of her mainsail is 100 square feet, Genoa, 66 square feet, and working jib 48 square feet. Although Rebel is a chine boat, her appearance is most trim and pleasing, and the chine construction simplifies the building considerably and is not detrimental to speed. Rebel’s construction is simplified further by the fact that none of her planks have such severe twists as to require steaming.
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