Extraordinary boats: The Cayman 28 ‘a gentleman’s skiff’

The Cayman 28 Rooster is a ‘gentleman’s skiff’, a 28ft sportsboat with racks, originally designed for the shallow waters of the Inner Sound in the Cayman Islands. Andi Robertson reports

Zipping through the herd of mainly production family cruisers enjoying the sunshine on a picture postcard Sound of Mull at Scotland’s ever popular West Highland Week, the Cayman 28 Rooster is instantly recognisable as a wolf in, well, wolf’s clothing.

The low freeboard, slender hulled Mills-designed all-carbon sportsboat with its big bowsprit, powerful rig, large A-sail and crew on racks slides effortlessly past Duart Castle – ancient home of the marauding Maclean clan – on a passage race to Tobermory where a night in the infamous Mishnish bar awaits.

Cayman Islands-based Canadian businessman, Alex Laing. and his long-time crew of sailing mates might not be winning races on handicap but their huge smiles tell all you need to know about the Cayman 28 which he and Mark Mills brought to life.

Built by Code Yachts in Hungary, the boat was launched over a year ago. Designed specifically for what the Americans euphemistically call ‘skinny’ waters, particularly the shallow Inner Sound where Laing and his crew live and daysail in the Caymans, Rooster has yet to ruffle the locals’ feathers among the native fleet of J/22s which, let’s just say, Laing has grown out of.

So far Rooster has been raising eyebrows and bucket loads of interest at an eclectic itinerary of major races and events, which have taken the fancy of the Rooster team.

A bit like the boat itself, the itinerary to date owes more to fun and indulgence than hard logic. Hence Oban, Tobermory and West Highland Week, where the magical scenery is the best cure for the hangover, in late July this year was the latest date on a tour which started after launching at Lake Balaton’s 155-mile 680-boat Blue Ribbon (which celebrates July’s full moon) and has taken in Lake Garda’s Centomiglia and Florida’s races between Miami and Key Largo.

A decision was still being mulled over as to whether to return Rooster back to Miami for this winter or to finally head to Grand Cayman and the Inner Sound.

No rules

A lifetime sailor who grew up on the Canadian lakes, Laing is in the construction business. He took many years away from sailing to grow his business and enjoy his family’s formative years, but is now making up for what some might call ‘lost time’. He also has an Ice 52 called Goose and a share in the famous successful RP Maxi Capricorno, which he will race at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup this year. Then there are whispers of a bigger project with Mills, who he says he loved working with.

“The mandate was to sail in the Inner Sound of the Cayman Islands which has 5ft 6in controlling draught. And as the only boat going to be there it was not built to suit any rules. We wanted an easy boat to sail, off the dock, quick to go sailing. No hiking – such as you do in the main fleet in the Cayman Islands which are J/22s, and I just don’t enjoy sailing that boat.

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We did not want any runners or backstay, just easy easy. Typically we get 12-14 knots of wind and the boat really shifts in that breeze,” says a smiling Laing as he embraced the Highland hospitality.

Of choosing Mark Mills he says: “I knew of him. We’d never done this before and we asked around. We liked the Cape 31 and, I suppose, thought of a smaller, shoal draught Cape 31, or a shorter draught Melges. But we’ve always had the problem with a shoal version of something existing in that they don’t generally work.

“It was a really fun process. I am a contractor and build things, but I had never built a boat. This was very much an ‘eyes open’ way to build with a meeting every week to discuss everything. But don’t get me wrong – I have always thought there is no boat out there like this, because if there was I would have just bought that.”

Light loads, big speeds

The boat is all carbon including a pre-preg carbon keel fin and the transom-hung rudder which drops into a cassette. It all fits neatly and quickly into a 40ft container including the one-piece mast.

The rig by Axxon Composites owes more to a 49er, with no backstay and no runners. Primary adjustment is the forestay while the shrouds are on racks and pins with turnbuckles for easy fine adjustment.

All halyards are on locks which had to be custom made. The cockpit is super clean with no clutter. The original scheme had no sheet winches as the loads are generally light, but the little Karver snubber winches really make life easier. They’re mounted at the crew position on the racks, where bracing the legs against the gunwale gives considerable leverage.

The boat is very stiff. Laing wanted to be able to daysail with family and friends for fun. Mills says there is righting moment to spare and a future boat could shed a little weight from the bulb. But the crew weight – in the case of the Rooster crew of four or five probably close to 400kg – adds considerable righting moment while the racks are very comfortable. You’re sailing high above the water and even in waves and chop it is dry and safe.

The cockpit floor rises slightly into the bow leaving a safe, protected working space which is good for sail handling. A retrieval line may be spec’d in the future but so far this is not a buoy racer so super-rapid drops are not a major priority. All the sails are by Doyle, chosen especially for their structured luff jib designs and supplied through Doyle Italy.

Downwind boat speeds are usually around 16-18 knots, the maximum record so far is 26 knots and the 28-footer will comfortably sit at over 20 knots for sustained periods in strong wind.

Out of the box

From opening the container doors to sailing is reckoned to be about 10 hours with occasional help from one or two people. The 1.4m racks slide in and out simply; dinghy-style. The boat drops onto the keel which is easily secured by a couple of big bolts. And rather than messing about with an outboard there is a small Lombardini inboard, a pragmatic choice for safety and simplicity.

The Cayman 28 price is marketed at around €165,000, which may sound a lot but Mills and Laing both point to the new Juan K ClubSwan 28 which is selling at around €200,000 all in and is built in reinforced glassfibre not all-carbon.

A second Cayman 28 is built and racing out of New Orleans by an owner who had a Cape 31 but found his sailing options inhibited by its draught. In contrast to the one-design Cape 31 or ClubSwan 28, the idea was never to go into full scale production with the Cayman 28. That said, it’s easy to imagine more Cayman Islanders might follow suit and a fleet might grow, but equally it would turn heads at the likes of the New York Yacht Club or Porto Cervo…

Cayman 28 specifications

LOA: 8.52m / 28ft 0in
LWL: 8.37m / 27ft 6in
Beam: 2.53-3.90m / 8ft 4in-12ft 10in
Displacement: 1100kg / 2,425lb
Draught: 1.67-1.92m / 3ft 7in-6ft 4in
Sail Area Main: 27m2 / 290ft2
Sail Area Jib: 19.46m2 / 210ft2
Sail Area Spinnaker: 84m2 / 904ft2

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