Recalling a trend setting speedster:
the Stiletto 27

By Charles E. Kanter

Out my back door, bobbing gracefully at the dock is Bahama Hunter, a beautifully refurbished Stiletto 27. It recalls memories of a truly innovative boat. The Stiletto was the first truly yacht class multihull made in America. It was a production vessel built with the latest aircraft technology and met every possible criteria for superb workmanship, modern high tech materials, exotic aesthetics and exciting performance. It is one of the vessels that really started the current catamaran revolution.

The Stiletto was built from Nomex prepreg honeycomb with an exterior finish of AwlGrip. It was baked in an autoclave to kick the resin. This construction technique has many advantages, including an ability to produce lighter, stronger and definitely more uniform structures. Eliminating the gelcoat also eliminates the osmotic blistering plague.

The Stiletto has some unique and advanced features such as its rotating mast, a loose-footed main, an exceptional kickup rudder system (which keeps the rudder blades completely clear of the water when raised), a solid bridge deck rather than trampoline for the cockpit area, a center daggerboard (rather than having boards in the hulls), and a host of other equally innovative concepts. The cat slides together on its own extendable trailer, bringing it to the maximum legal trailering width without special permits.

The original Stiletto, though aesthetically pleasing, was strictly a racer/day sailer and had a minimal interior. Demand grew and a "special edition" was built, which provided a custom interior and port lights integrated into extraordinary graphics. Nevertheless, it was still too small for any serious cruising. Some years later, the Stiletto 30 was introduced and added wide bunks on the bridge deck, trimaran style. The concept never caught on.

The Stiletto is a handy boat to manage. It has broad flat decks and even wide flat deck areas in the stern, making it simple to dock or raft up. With the mast and all controls in the solid cockpit area, it is a dry catamaran to sail. The intriguing flip forward fighter pilot hoods give good access to the hulls and also make a quick solution to the "open hatch in-the-way problem." Cleats at the ends of the bows eliminate the need for chocks.

The Stiletto marketers at the time put much emphasis upon the performance aspects of the boat and not enough emphasis upon its other superb qualities. Thus they lost a terrific market and eventually went out of business, but not before they sold several hundred boats.

I used a Stiletto 27 for the Multihull Sailing School, which at the time was operated by Denis Blaise and myself. I took out boatloads of students from Yachthaven on Spa Creek at Annapolis, MD. We sailed out into the Chesapeake Bay, then into Back Creek and proceeded to short tack all the way up that very narrow and congested waterway. A good deal of the time, we would do it under mainsail alone.

Onlookers were incredulous. They would just stare at this catamaran, zooming in at the docks at high speed and at the last possible moment, deftly tacking away without a murmur. In other words, we were doing what multihulls were allegedly unable to do. If there ever was a sweetheart of a boat to sail, this is it. We sailed both into and out of our slip each time.

Jim Butterworth, then with Annapolis Sailing School, was so completely taken with his demo ride on the boat that he convinced the school to buy one for his St. Croix, USVI, operation. They did, and he proceeded to win the Around St. Croix Race the following year sailing the Stiletto.

I also sailed in the 1979 Stiletto Nationals held at Pier 1, Kent Island, MD. With Charlie Reddick's Charlie, Tod Knowles and myself finished in a respectable fifth place.

I have surveyed ten similar Stilettos, including one severely damaged by capsize. There are a couple of improvements I would like to see made to the existing boats as they upgrade or transfer to new owners. Most important is the addition of watertight flotation compartments fore and aft. While the Stiletto will not sink, it does not float high enough to prevent capsizing if flooded nor to allow people inside the hull while flooded. It really helps if there is enough buoyancy in a flooded hull for a person with a bucket to stand inside and bail. If you climb inside a flooded hull, your weight may be sufficient to force the hull below the level of the coamings, and more water will pour in. The boat should have enough encapsulated flotation to prevent that from happening.

The second item is a relocation of the outboard fuel tank. The original design has the hose crossing the traveler, and the tank itself is loose in the cockpit. I had once suggested incorporating the tank into the motor mount as a solution.

Are there faster boats? Sure there are. Are there more weatherly boats? Sure there are. But none of those "miracle" boats quickly telescoped onto a specially designed trailer and ramp launch. None that I know of are as easily sailed in and out of an ordinary boat slip. Few boats are as handsome or of such superb quality. And most important of all, none ever made it with the public. That is a lesson for speedophiles.