Reader Boat: Balboa 20

And a letter from designer Lyle Hess

Article by Stu Whitcomb

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Nearly thirty years ago, I discovered Aisling, a Balboa 20, in the foothills of the Cascades. I had been looking at these boats for several months, but most had little additional equipment or were in rough shape. Here Aisling was, blanketed with snow, but from under her winter covers she proved to be better than advertised.

I had focused my search on the Balboa 20, more because of hearsay than any knowledge on my part. As I looked at these boats, and compared them to many other vessels of their size and price range, a sense of pedigree came through. There was something attractively different about their graceful hull lines, which caused me to inquire further into their background.

Lyle C. Hess, a prolific designer of traditional styled ocean yachts, was approached by Arthur Marine, of Costa Mesa, California, to design his first small fiberglass production sailboat. When Hess began his work, he was asked to meet the Midget Ocean Racing Club (MORC) stability and self-rescuing specifications. The Balboa 20 was to follow xtwo basic design criteria, if capsized:

1. With a full suit of sails, tied to the masthead, she must recover from a 90 degree knock down.

2. If all ports and hatches were closed, she could not swamp in that position. It appears that Lyle did his homework, but I have never had the nerve to test these criteria myself.

The Balboa 20 is available with a fixed fin-keel and matching tall rig for ocean sailing and for trailersailors, a ballasted swing keel with a shorter rig. For less style, but more room below, a raised deck version called the Ensenada 20 was built. All of these designs have the touch of the master in them. The hull lines have a subtle, yet traditional, flow from the fine entry, to a powerful fullness in the beam for stability, and then terminating at the stern with a little tumblehome for good measure.

Form follows function, they say. With the Balboa 20 it’s true.

Performance

As with any small boat, the Balboa 20’s performance is affected by trim ballast, as in crew. To begin with, a crew of two or if necessary three, works well when strategically placed. The object is to get the bow down and the transom out of the water, like a dinghy. This achieves the least turbulence, improves pointing to windward and keeps the third crewmember out of the cockpit and spotting the genoa. The added weight forward also reduces momentum-robbing pounding as well.

Sail balance is just as important. The rudder correction, caused by weather helm, increases turbulence and speed loss. Tuning the rig, as well as correctly selecting and adjusting the sails, has a profound effect on how these boats sail.

Lyle Hess must have designed in a default weather helm, I assume, because the standard Balboa 20 can have plenty of it on windy days, as a sort of survival instinct. To reduce weather helm while pointing to windward, Hess recommends the traditional solutions: Reduce mast rake, flatten and ease pressure on the mainsail and trim the jib tight to the shrouds. The tendency by many skippers is to slack off or drop the jib, thus creating even more weather helm.

On Aisling, we are lucky to have a good inventory of headsails. In winds of 5-10 knots, we fly a 120% genoa. We will carry that sail, but add the first reef to the main at 12-15 knots. Blowing harder than that, the genoa comes down and the lapper jib replaces it, while the main keeps its first reef. The next step is to tuck in the secon reef while flying the lapper. Finally, when the conditions start getting crazy, we break out the storm jib. At this point, we realize that everyone is headed in the other direction and we have the water to ourselves!

So, with Balboa 20s, the drill is to control weather helm by reducing the power of the mainsail, but always keeping a jib up for pointing, speed and steering control. If these boats are moving, they absorb gusts more easily and don’t get driven over as much. Although you can drive them over, even putting their windows in the water, Balboa 20s perform at their best more vertically.

Big Water Safety

Lyle Hess designed the Balboa 20s with a healthy margin of safety, but they are small boats so discretion is advised. To maintain buoyancy and to control flooding the interior, he intentionally kept the cockpits smaller than other boats their size, and raised the threshold of the companionway above the cockpit seats. We always close all hatches and ports securely before venturing out into exposed conditions. A plastic tub, with a snap on lid, sits on the cockpit floor under the tiller. Inside are a hot beverage in a thermos, some food, and extra clothing at our fingertips.In addition to lifelines, with bow and stern pulpits, a line tied around the base of the mast, and hanked on to a safety harness provides the ultimate in assurance that we will stay with the boat when leaving the cockpit. Finally, a dual battery installation gives a comforting backup for navigation lights, depth sounder and radio contact.

Creature Features

The Balboa 20 offers spartan living accommodations at best. To meet the marketing hype, she sleeps four, has a dinette, head and galley. All of this with full sitting headroom. If we want to play house with our grandchildren, it is a great place to do it! Everything is sized perfectly for them.

Realistically, four adults make a wonderful crew for a Sunday sail, but if you cherish your friendships, two is great company for a cruise. The dinette collapses into a big single bunk. The quarterberth is a squeeze, but a good sleeping location from which to monitor the boat, while at anchor. Although there is a 15-gallon water tank, four or five one-gallon jugs keep the water tasting fresh and let us know exactly how much we have. Lift off a section of the galley counter top and voila, a two-burner stove to deliver sumptuous meals. The portable ice chest, when not in use, is kept in the V-berth area, along with everything else known to man.

The secret to living in a small area is space control. With two people living aboard for several days, arranging the accommodations to fit the need of the hour is critical. If you are sailing, the only thing that you may need in the cabin is the head, thus every other area is available for stowage. Conversely, when the day is done and we move inside, most items are stored in watertight bins and removed to the cockpit.

For most of the season, our Balboa 20 is daysailed, thus sleeping is not an issue. Deep berths, like the quarter berth, are excellent caverns in which to store equipment. To gain convenient access, a linked train of three tubs slide easily to the foot of the bunk, each in order, with the one most used emerging first. Honestly, the interior usually appears open and organized, but I can fill a sizeable portion of my garage when winter requires I empty the boat.

Personalizing the boat

For better function, or for other personal reasons, all of us tend to implement an ongoing list of “improvements.” There are a few I would recommend for the Balboa 20.

Ventilation is the best solution for preventing condensation and mildew. The standard Balboa 20 has none. With a $25, 110-volt fan exhausting into the cockpit and pulling air through the boat from a foredeck cowl, I have a sweeter smelling, drier boat.

To eliminate a perpetual deck leak, I moved the chainplates to the outside of the hull. Chainplates always wiggle and sealant never seals the gap between fiberglass and stainless steel for more than a year or two. By through bolting them to the outside of the hull, the chainplates no longer affect the watertight integrity of the hull.

Having blown out my bow light with green water coming over the bow, I raised them off the deck to the bow pulpit. The stern light got the same treatment, to elevate it above the motor when in the raised position.

Fumbling around on the foredeck in the dark is no fun. Neither is holding a flashlight in my teeth. My mast-mounted deck light is a wonderful invention for nighttime deck duties.

I sail Aisling singlehanded and have found that leading all sail\ control lines to the cockpit is like having a crewmember at hand. While sitting at the tiller, I can drop the jib quickly or tuck a thirty-second jiffy reef in the mainsail.

Although Aisling is well enough endowed, there is always another little tweak I can make to my Balboa 20! •SCA•

Stu Whitcomb has been messing about in sailboats since he was eight. Sixty years later he still has found no cure. Before retiring, Stu was an industrial designer and a yacht broker; he discovered a way to blend an avocation with a vocation by sailing, designing and selling sailboats for Cascade Yachts, Inc. Aisling, his much loved Balboa 20, has provided him with cruising adventures, daysailing on the Columbia River—and a low impact on his pocketbook—since 1979.

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Sidebar: A Letter From Lyle

What follows is an excerpt from a letter Stu Whitcomb received when he asked designer Lyle Hess about rigging the Balboa 20 for heavy weather. Hess also sketched out a 34.5-inch long, 12-inch deep triangular skeg made of 1.5" oak, thru-bolted at the base of the transom. —Eds

Dear Mr. Whitcomb,

Enclosed here are two prints that may be useful to you ... I have drawn a skeg on the one print, this would make your Balboa 20 more tractable on the helm, and also decrease the weather helm. Be sure and take the rake out of the main, and if your sails are too full, they must have some draft—get them re-cut and sewn by a competent sailmaker. Close on the wind, sheet your jib between the main and lower shrouds. When the sheets are started for a little broader reach, pass them outside of your upper, or main shrouds. Generally speaking, when a little craft is being overburdened, and the helm increases, the tendency is to slack off on the jib, or Jenny, and the proper thing is to make sure that the clew of your jib is up against your shrouds, and slack off the main.

If this is the original rigging, it might pay to have it replaced. It is oversized for a craft this size, but wire and turnbuckles crystallize, and then are apt to fail.

I think the storm trys’l would be redundant—put a third reef in the main, and keep them all rove and ready for use. This little Balboa will heave to by hauling your stays’l to weather and putting your helm down and letting your mainsheet go. Haul down on your reefing pendants and get under way again. If it really pipes up, and you have the sea room, douse everything and hank on the storm stays’l, haul it to weather and lash the helm down. With a little adjustment of the two, your little boat will ride like a duck.

A point of note: with the skeg, your boat will be a little more difficult to launch, but will make a much more fun boat.

Lyle C. Hess

Nov. 14, 1987

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Article first published in issue #46.